Fantastic interview (2010) with Alice Schroeder: “He (Warren Buffett) spent a huge amount, I’ve estimated 2,000 hours, of concentrated time with me, and through this direct experience I gleaned impressions of him."
csinvesting.org/wp-content/upl…
Here are my top highlights.
csinvesting.org/wp-content/upl…
Here are my top highlights.
"There’s also some interesting research that shows that people who speak out critically are viewed as smarter than those who give only uncritical applause, even though they are less liked. In the long run, the price of popularity is paid in respect."
"Many exceptionally good business people are charismatic –- but not charming. Charisma is the ability to attract people to you and to convince them you are exceptional, even if you aren’t likable." 
"If you adhere to consensus, it does protect your career. There’s an old saying that no one ever got fired for buying from IBM. Nobody ever got fired for making a wrong estimate that was within sell-side consensus.”
"It was apparent at our first meeting how different he was. I took a list of 60 questions that should have filled several hours of conversation. On his Gulfstream flying to Omaha he sliced through those questions in about 45 minutes in between mouthfuls of potato chips."
“He was able to pull elaborate modules out of his memory bank. He has thought about so many things over the years that there are polished nuggets prepared to respond to almost any question.”
"His way of articulating ideas is very original. He is a great synthesizer and especially strong at pattern recognition. He’s also able to follow what I would call it decision trees and figure out probabilities in his head at an astonishing pace.”
"He uses very short parables, stories, and analogies. He chooses key words that resonate with people —that will stick in their heads...He’s good at conjuring up pictures in people’s minds that trigger archetypal thinking. It enables him to very quickly make a point."
“Some who are loyal to Warren equate loyalty with portraying him as infallible. Those two things are not the same. It’s not necessary at all to pretend that someone is infallible in order to be loyal and admire them.”
"Warren takes being risk-averse to a level that is barely comprehensible. He has boundaries made of steel. If he can’t control something completely he doesn’t want to control it at all.”
“It seems to me that there are 3 qualities of great investors that are rarely discussed:
1) They have a strong memory;
2) They are extremely numerate;
3) They have what Warren calls a 'money mind,' an instinctive commercial sense."
1) They have a strong memory;
2) They are extremely numerate;
3) They have what Warren calls a 'money mind,' an instinctive commercial sense."
"Warren is always thinking what’s the same between this specific situation and every other situation. That is the nature of pattern recognition, asking 'What can I infer about this situation based on similarities to what I already know and trust that I understand?'"
“He recognizes square roots and sometimes cube roots of very large numbers; which is slightly unnerving, especially when he starts telling you the square and cube roots of license plate numbers. It’s something he does as a mild form of entertainment while driving."
“He has internalized so much information over the years and uses so many mental models (to quote a Mungerism) that they have coalesced into an almost visceral reaction to an investing situation. And this is what you strive for.”
"He is great at distilling important concepts into memorable sayings. But these sayings are not a substitute for doing work and analysis and he doesn’t use them that way in practice."
