Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Expanded Third Edition Hardcover – January 1, 2005

Poor Charlie's Almanac has been on my reading list for the last couple of years. It took me a six-month sabbatical (and then some) to get through it. This is a testament to the information, lessons, references and stories from Charlie Munger. Fundamentally, this book is an encyclopedia of information on what it takes to be successful and to achieve greatness in what it is you want to do in life; all from a very successful and extremely well read (and connected) 90-ish year old billionaire!Let's be clear, this is not a book that you can quickly skim through, but rather a book you spend quality time with every day; for a good couple of months. This way you're giving yourself the best change of retaining all of Charlie's tidbits of wisdom. One of the great things about this book is the plethora of quotes from successful entrepreneurs, historians, philosophers alike whose ideas and writings have survived the test of time.Suffice to say, this is one of those books I'm going to re-read, reference and quote for the rest of my life. Well worth a purchase!Three Key Takeaways from the book:1. Charlie knows no wise people who didn't read all the time. It is more than just reading though, one has to grab ideas and do sensible things. Most people do not identify ideas, and if they do, they do not know what to do with them2. Diversification in investing is something that Charlie doesn't believe in. His recommendation is to choose three good company stocks and invest accordingly. Interesting approach given most financial advisors typically recommend the opposite3. Self-pity is always counter-productive, It's the wrong way to think. And when you avoid it you get a great advantage over everybody else or almost everybody else, because self-pity is a standard response. And you can train yourself out of it

First of all, this is my first and last book review. I don't write these ever, and I will never write one again. However, seeing this gem had only 6 reviews and I felt this needed to be said.You can't afford to not read this. Think of it as a gift to humanity from a higher more intelligent species - Its something you don't want to go through life having missed.I spend about 16 hours a day researching financial markets/value investing.I have read over 50 books on related subjects - No book has influenced my thought process more that this one. It is simply amazing.You will not get the value from this book when you close the last page, but when you see the world relate in the ways Munger lays out for you. This is one of the greatest minds and business and he tells you his secrets. The last chapter on the psychology of human misjudgment will live on past Munger's days. It is his greatest work and is invaluable information. The way your brain fires and works will literally physically change over time from the things this book teaches you. Its a mind trainer - it teaches you how to look at problems. It is worth its weight in platinum.I don't care who you are. You need to buy this and pound his ideas in your head. You won't even think its that great as you read it and might even wonder why it is praised so much. Over time, you'll see things how Munger does and start to think like Munger does. Whatever field you are in, this book will help you to look and analyze problems and the world as a whole in a different more intelligent manner. Again, I cannot praise or recommend this book enough. When your done with it and look back years later, this odd review I just wrote will make crystal clear sense to you. Your welcome.

Poor Charlie Almanack is Goldmine. Period

I was turned onto Munger's thinking from mental models and a few business people I respect have said how much he influenced them. Wasn't disappointed.Why is it so helpful? He proves that he and Warren have been successful in large part from avoiding mistakes.More specifically, the human mind has some consistent limitations and it tries its best to function in a complex world, but doesn't do a perfect job. The best antidote we have is a "latticework" of mental models – to use Munger's term. These are like mental checklists that help you self-correct before making misjudgments.The last chapter is one of his popular talks about the Psychology of Human Misjudgment, where he lists out the 25 cognitive biases that we're all susceptible to. He gives a short, pithy definition with examples. Elon Musk also talked about the important of learning these biases in a tweet with "TitleMax" cognitive biases (look it up).As an example (see screenshot to this review), "One corollary of Inconsistency-Avoidance – Tendency is that a person making big sacrifices in the course of assuming a new identity will intensify his devotion to the new identity. After all, it would be quite inconsistent behavior to make a large sacrifice for something that was no good."That's super useful, since you can see that making sacrifices for new identities that you want to adopt is more intense if it has sacrifices associated with it (i.e., fitness, wealth, role as father/mother, leader, etc.) Thanks to Charlie I'm doing all I can to internalize these.IMPORTANT: TO SUPPLEMENT AND APPLY MUNGER'S IDEAS, DON'T IGNORE THIS. This sounds technical, but please don't ignore this. Look up "The Cognitive Bias Codex" – which is a radial dendrogram that shows all the biases and makes it digest-able.