1/ Recent post led to DMs about how a stint as a gatekeeper influenced my investment approach.

Having some of the greatest investors of a generation open their playbooks was an education money can’t buy.

A few observations… ✌️ 2/

This was it.

May 11, 1965.

The New York Times reports the inconspicuous birth of perhaps the greatest wealth creation story of all time. $BRK

1/ Variety of resources on long-duration growth:

Wish I appreciated earlier that a mispriced stock can also be a fantastic business priced like an average (or even above average) business. 2/ Recent interview with the team @IntrinsicInv

intrinsicinvesting.com/2021/06/16/ens…

Re-read “100 Baggers” by @chriswmayer and an early theme is to “buy well”.

Investors emphasize valuation which is part, but not all, that buying well entails.

This is what the world was like during my solid buys; for the best buys multiple factors were in play. 2/ Obvious, but the market was down. As a result headlines were pessimistic and investors were focused on macro issues.

The proverbial baby had been thrown out with the bath water.

1/ There are lots of quality companies, but few are what @nntaleb calls antifragile.

Imagine a box. When shaken the contents are not only protected but grow stronger. Antifragile businesses benefit from volatility.

I want to own these. 2/ What are the characteristics of an anti-fragile business?

1/ Bezos wasn’t speaking of investment managers here but may as well have been. 2/ “Good process serves you so you can serve customers. But if you’re not watchful, the process can become the thing.”

1/ Thoughts on portfolio management from @peterthiel 2/ “...every single company in a good venture portfolio must have the potential to succeed at vast scale”

1/ A thread on Sidecar Investing, or “free riding on the superior capability of others” -Richard Zeckhauser 2/ For passive shareholders, Sidecar Investing has been one of the only strategies that creates the possibility (though far from an assurance) of obtaining fantastic wealth. Not just retiring comfortably, but earning life changing returns.

1/ In the spirit of a remix, I have been meaning to put together a list of the big foundational ideas - the mental tools that have helped me make sense of the investment world.

Which ideas have had the biggest impact on how you invest? 2/ 99% of investment information is a “sugar high”.

This piece by @morganhousel does an excellent job differentiating the 1%.

collaborativefund.com/blog/expiring-…

1/ A favorite non-investment book, with lots of investing lessons. Martin’s toilering, tinkering, borrowing ideas until finding a formula that works, then leveraging success to its fullest, rhymes with the arc of many investment careers.

amazon.com/Born-Standing-… 2/ ”Despite a lack of natural ability, I did have the one element necessary to all early creativity: naïveté...” -Overconfience, and not being constrained by the institutional imperative can be a huge advantage early in one’s career

1/ Been reflecting on 10+ years on the buy side. A few observations.... 2/ Institutional investors spend as much time managing people/the team as they do money. Not surprisingly some of the best all-time track records come from solo investors

“I know a lot of people have strong and definite plans....but we’re subject to a tremendous number of outside influences and the vast majority of them cannot be predicted. So my idea is to stay flexible”

https://twitter.com/ClarkSquareCap/status/1275807021237972996

“My only plan is to keep coming to work every day”

Decentralization was a big theme in the Outsiders and with other companies that have delivered multi-decade success. Rationally it makes sense, but it also requires CEOs to give up control (or perceived control) which is difficult to do.

https://twitter.com/TSOH_Investing/status/1270434948089085952

If it wasn’t so hard it would be more common and less valuable. Threads run through companies like and others

Seems like investors can usually smell when something is wrong but the allure of making money overwhelms their senses. On 4/23/14 three directors simultaneously resigned from Valeant’s Board (voluntarily pulled nominations for being re-elected) due to ‘other business commitments’

1/ Recently a lot has been written about Zeckhauser's "unknown unknowns". This phenomenon may be the most important reason to partner with extraordinary management teams. Not "good management teams" but 10x-type management teams. 2/ The market does a pretty good job pricing a company's current operations. It struggles with future value.
Sometimes the expectations embedded in a stock price assume a rosy future, other times a pedestrian one, which can be an inexpensive call option.

Been reflecting on 10+ years on the buy side. Didn’t/couldn’t recognize it when in the fray, but two things stand out. Most importantly, while I put some weight on it, I should have emphasized more the importance of investing in companies run by people with skin in the game. They will still make mistakes, but it’s a nice hedge against being completely taken to the cleaners.

Been thinking about portfolio management and position sizing. Why do so many public funds maintain a consistent number of holdings (60-80)? Mr Market does not consistently throw the same number of fat pitches.