1/ Charlie Munger yesterday at the DJCO meeting: "You people come from all over the world to this meeting out of some deep hunger. I regard you as nerds because I was once one of you and I know a nerd when I see one."
2/ "The nerds in my generation who were patient and rational and lived within their income and worked at being sensible and when they saw an opportunity, grabbed it pretty fiercely and so forth, eventually did well. I think that'll work for the new nerds of the world." Munger
3/ "The people who get ahead because they're star salesman or charismatic personalities, I'm not one of those, so I don't know how to do that. So if you're not a nerd, I can't help you.” Munger
4/ “Rationality is something you get slowly and it has a variable result, but it's better than not having it. It's not like somebody who tells you: "All you got to do is run down to the front of the revival meeting and shout out and you get a wonderful hereafter." Munger
5/ “A good magician can make you see a lot of things happening that aren't happening and not see a lot things happening that are happening. We're all dealing with various people who through practice evolution, have become good at misleading us. It is very hard to be rational."
6/ "You'll be happier if you reduce your expectations than if you try and satisfy them. It sounds silly, but it's so obvious. Many of us are fairly content with pretty moderate success. That is worth knowing, because that's what most of us are going to get.” Munger
7/ "There's so many of you now who want to be rich by going into finance, and, of course, a multitude is not going to all get rich. And of course 99% will be in the bottom 99%. That's just the way it's going to work." Munger
8/ I'm an accidental guru. I didn't set out to have an audience asking me questions about every damn subject in the world. It happened by accident and I went along with it because I think it did more good than harm. I kind of enjoy it as long as I don't have to do it too often."
9/ "Every great algebraist inverts all the time because the problems are solved easier. Human beings should do the same thing in ordinary walks of life. Just constantly invert. You don't think of what you want. You think what you want to avoid." Charlie Munger
10/ "When I was a meteorologist in World War II, they told me how to draw weather maps and predict the weather. But what I was actually doing is clearing pilots to take flights. I just reversed the problem. I inverted. I said, "Suppose I wanted to kill a lot of pilots." Munger
11/ "I concluded the easy way to do it would be to get the planes into icing the planes couldn't handle or to get the pilot to a place where they'd run out of fuel before they could safely land. I made up my mind to stay miles away from icing or socked-in conditions." Munger
12/ "If somebody hired me to fix India, I would immediately say, "What could I do if I really wanted to hurt India?" And I'd figure out all the things that could most easily hurt India, and then I'd figure out how to avoid them." Munger
13/ "If you have a pharmaceutical company and you're trying to guess what new drug is going to be invented, I've got no advantage. Other people are better at doing that than I am. I don't play in a game where the other people are wise and I am stupid." Munger
14/ "I look for a place where I'm wise and they're stupid. And believe me, it works better."
"You have to know the edge of your own competency. You have to kind of know when it is too tough. I'm very good at knowing when I can't handle something." Munger
"You have to know the edge of your own competency. You have to kind of know when it is too tough. I'm very good at knowing when I can't handle something." Munger
15/ “We all have a lot to be modest about. Lyndon Johnson said that giving a talk was a lot like pissing down your leg. He said it may feel hot to you, but it doesn't influence anybody else very much.” Charlie Munger
