MartinInvest

“Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.” – David McCullough Inspired by the book summaries written by hedge fund manager, Li Lu, this blog will also be an account of any useful information drawn from any books or texts. I believe that the benefits of writing information in your own words will help assimilate and consolidate knowledge that would otherwise be forgotten. In this blog post, I will recap a chapter from Charlie Munger’s book Poor Charlies Almanack (2005) with some additional inserted notations. The section that I have recapped below is a real gem that Munger has so kindly shared. In the book  Poor Charlies Almanack , Munger included a transcript of an informal talk he made called  Practical Thought About Practical Thought? (1996). In this talk, Munger delivered a series of ultrasimple general notions that have helped him solve problems throughout his life. Munger believes that there are five helpful notions. The firs...

“All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.” – Charlie Munger Munger says that you need to “identify the main stupidities that do bright people in and then organize your patterns for thinking and developments, so you don’t stumble into those stupidities . ” Simply put, what not to do is more important than what to do. To come up with the most rational decisions, one must also eliminate their own irrational behaviours and preconceived notions in the light of new information. The mental model that describes Munger’s specific attitude towards investing is via negativa or ‘the negative way . ’ Although the concept references a philosophical approach towards theology, which asserts that the only way to describe God is to state what he is not, its application in investing is nonetheless parallel. As a mental model in investing, it emphasizes the importance of outlining all the things that can go wrong and the probability of those occurrences.     ...

To become a better investor I have set out by starting this blog. Socrates once said "the unexamined life is not worth living."  Socrates' philosophy is highly applicable to the world of investing; one's own psychological behaviors can often hinder logic, discipline and sound decision making. Thoughts that are conducted via deep research and constructed through written arguments can help eliminate any cognitive biases. It is no secret that cognitive biases and human irrationality are the most detrimental to one's clarity of thought. In this blog, this facet will come in the form of stock write-ups.       On this journey I also aim to build upon my value investing philosophy and circle of competence. In addition to the stock write-ups that be produced, dimensions of investment strategy, concepts and self-reflection will also be featured on this blog. I will be using mental models as a vehicle to convey certain ideas and to simplify complexity.   In a sp...