This week I deviate from traditional investing topics, although I personally believe every topic is an investing topic. Today we discuss wisdom.
Charlie Munger, at 99, is perhaps the oldest (at least of the people I follow) who is still “at it”. To me, this is the very definition of contentment. To be able to do what you love as long as you want. What more can a person wish for?
I have been following Buffett and Munger since 2000 when I first chanced upon them through “The Warren Buffet Way”. Now I consider both, but more so Munger, as the grandfather I never had (my paternal grandfather passed away before I was born). A lot of how to live my life is derived from the sayings of both Munger and Buffett, though in recent years I have charted my own course and deviated from their investment philosophy.
When we speak to Munger, wisdom cannot be far away.
In this brilliant article, Paul Graham discusses the difference between intelligence and wisdom.
Some say wisdom and intelligence apply to different types of problems—wisdom to human problems and intelligence to abstract ones. But that isn't true. Some wisdom has nothing to do with people: for example, the wisdom of the engineer who knows certain structures are less prone to failure than others. And certainly smart people can find clever solutions to human problems as well as abstract ones.
So a wise person knows what to do in most situations, while a smart person knows what to do in situations where few others could.
Society seems to have voted for intelligence. We no longer admire the sage—not the way people did two thousand years ago. Now we admire the genius.
For both Confucius and Socrates, wisdom, virtue, and happiness were necessarily related. The wise man was someone who knew what the right choice was and always made it; to be the right choice, it had to be morally right; he was therefore always happy, knowing he'd done the best he could.
The wise are all much alike in their wisdom, but very smart people tend to be smart in distinctive ways.
Lastly, if you have the time, watch the grand old master at work.
Thought of the Week:
But knowledge doesn’t automatically make us wise - the most learned are not the wisest.
Understand, think, reflect and then iterate. Have the ability and humility to accept you could be wrong, learn and improve. That is the way of the wise.
Video of the Week: The Return of Manufacturing to the US
Intelsense Insights
Yesterday we initiated two new stock ideas in our long-term service. Two more are queued up for this month. We usually do not see so many changes in a short time, but times are such.
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