If you don't read poor Charlie's collection, you will lose money.

Some people say that this book is an investment bible, but in my opinion, it is better to say that it is a book of life wisdom. Munger will tell you in his own words: gain universal wisdom and adjust your behavior accordingly. Even if your maverick makes you unpopular in the crowd ... let them go.

Who's Munger?

Behind the brilliant story of Berkshire Hathaway are two financial geniuses: the widely acclaimed Warren Buffett and his "silent partner", Charles Munger who likes to keep a low profile. Charlie is Warren's friend, lawyer, consultant, "sworn enemy" (Warren once called him a hateful "master of saying no") and one of the largest shareholders of the most successful listed companies in the United States. Warren is one of the most respected and well-known business leaders in the United States, while Charlie deliberately avoided the spotlight and chose a relatively silent life. "

So, why should we read this book?

"Charlie can analyze any kind of transaction faster and more accurately than anyone alive. He can find a convincing weakness in 60 seconds. He is a perfect partner. " Why did Buffett give him such a high evaluation? And Peter Kaufman gave Munger the highest praise in this book. Poor Charlie once said, "To a wise man, a word is a secret." It is from this book that we learn Munger's wisdom in life and see through the so-called "secret".

? Is poor Charlie really "poor"?

Poor Charlie is just Franklin's pen name, and poor Charlie's collection is modeled after Benjamin Franklin's poor Charlie yearbook. It is not surprising that Charles Munger regards him as the biggest idol. Like Franklin, Munger himself is a super master who is prepared for a rainy day, patient, strict and fair. He made full use of these characteristics and achieved great success in his personal life and career, especially in the investment field, creating hundreds of billions of assets of Berkshire. At the same time, his spiritual world is also rich. From this book, we can learn about human nature, the present situation of the world, how to think rationally, and most importantly, how to live an upright, happy and kind life by listening to his teachings.

? So, how to make your life happy?

? Only know jealousy, resentment, willfulness, depression, disdain for objectivity, and don't learn from other people's experience, so as to ensure that you can have a miserable life easily. Want happiness? Do the opposite. It can be seen that we should not only know the word jealousy. Munger was angry that the word jealousy was not indexed in psychology textbooks. Even ancient Jews knew jealousy as early as herding sheep. The Ten Commandments talked about jealousy for two or three days, but the psychology professor didn't know anything about it, and psychological research didn't pay enough attention to lollapalooza effect caused by many factors. For example, a rural teacher once simplified pi to 3 for the convenience of teaching, which violated Einstein's teaching. Simply simplifying decimal points and facts will limit our thinking, and psychology lacks masters, which exposes the narrowness of elite education.

For the happiness of an enterprise, the happiest thing is profit. Munger said that there is a lack of interdisciplinary education in various majors, especially the neglect of psychology in academic circles. FedEx provides us with a good example. Its core and soul is to ensure the timely delivery of goods. Its previous delivery system was always wrong, and those employees never finished the task in time. Some people proposed to pay by the class instead of by the hour, and all their problems were solved overnight. It can be seen that enterprises can reasonably formulate some incentive mechanisms, which can bring huge economic benefits to enterprises.

? Everything looks like a nail to the man with a hammer. Munger called it "the tendency of hammer man", which appropriately pointed out the mistakes we often make in understanding and dealing with problems. For example, we are often "single-minded", go to extremes in dealing with problems, "accept death", and so on. So, how can we not be obsessed with "nails"?

Most people try to solve all problems in one way and only miss your truth. Munger focused on the "multiple thinking model" used for business analysis and evaluation, and said that almost every system is affected by many factors, so it is necessary to skillfully use multiple thinking models from different disciplines. Munger said that when several models are combined, you can get the lollapalooza effect, that is, two, three or four forces act in the same direction, and you get more than the sum of several forces. As long as it is correctly collected and organized, our thinking mode can provide a background or framework, which enables us to have extraordinary insight into the nature and goals of life. As john muir said when talking about the phenomenon that everything in nature is interrelated, "If we try to understand a seemingly independent thing, we will find that it is interrelated with everything else in the universe."

Why does the tortoise run faster than the rabbit?

Compared with most people who made achievements in their early years and increasingly rejected new and falsified information, Darwin always devoted himself to finding evidence to deny his existing conclusions, no matter how hard the evidence was, and he especially liked reverse thinking. He showed how the tortoise ran in front of the rabbit with an extremely objective attitude. Munger and Einstein tell us from personal experience that we should always think the other way around. Munger once mentioned in the last dose of "medicine" given to us at the graduation ceremony of Harvard University that please ignore the stories of country people told him when he was a child. Once a countryman said, "If I knew where I would die, I would never go there." Most people laugh at his ignorance and ignore his simple wisdom. Einstein revised Newton's law in the opposite direction to make it conform to Maxwell's law. As a result, he discovered the theory of relativity. At that time, almost everyone was trying to modify Maxwell's electromagnetic laws to conform to Newton's three laws. Because he knows that the essence of things is like this, many problems can only be best solved by reverse thinking, and the tortoise may not beat the rabbit.

Why should we pay attention to reading?

Munger once said, "There is not a smart person I have ever met who doesn't read every day-no, not one." My children all laugh at me. They think I am a book with two legs. "Munger always carries a book with him. Even if he sits in the middle seat of economy class, he will feel at ease as long as he holds the book. I have always thought that reading can let us cross the tunnel of time and space, meet souls we can't meet, see all the flowers bloom and fall, the tides rise and fall, and the world changes, and Mr. Munger probably does the same.

How to catch a "good shot"?

Munger believes that the investment rule is to wait patiently for a good shot, and then you will go all out. For many investors, the problem is that they swing too often. When you find a "good shot", you can't fight back with all your capital. He explained it with a story: I asked him, "God, your hook is green and purple. Will the fish really take the bait? " He said, "sir, I didn't sell it to fish." We must spend a lot of money on what you want to invest. The stock market is a gamble full of nonsense and madness. Occasionally there will be a good opportunity to set the wrong price. After discovering such an opportunity, smart people will try their best to bet and stay put for the rest of the time. It's that simple.

How to deal with ideological problems?

Munger warned us to be wary of serious ideological prejudice, which is one of the factors that can distort human cognition most. Chomsky, a famous linguist, believes that it is inconclusive whether language ability is based on genes. At this point, we all clearly realize that Darwin's natural selection is the instinctive way for human beings to acquire language. Although he is a genius, he is an extreme egalitarian leftist. His ideology is too strong to admit his wrong views. We should not regard our own views as unshakable truths with strong ideology, but be alert to the ideological disorder.

Have you heard the story of the bread singer? "I will sing to whoever gives me bread to eat." First of all, Munger used this proverb to reveal the hidden rules of the accounting industry.

In his book, Munger reveals human nature and social status quo, and corrects some wrong ideas of enterprise managers. Too many accounting firms and lawyers are involved in hidden things, such as charging emergency fees and confidentiality fees and providing tax evasion services. Double entry bookkeeping is a great progress in history, but it is shameful to use accounting fraud! Secondly, Munger disapproves of enterprises buying new machines. He believes that better machines can greatly improve productivity, but the ultimate beneficiary is the buyer. We must understand how much money will fall into your hands and how much money will flow to consumers. The cost of buying machines has indeed decreased, but the guy who bought equipment has not benefited from the cost reduction. Third, Munger raised the issue of industrial injury insurance fraud, and many cunning doctors, cunning lawyers and cunning trade unions participated in the insurance fraud. They will cause a lot of disastrous behaviors, which will get worse after they taste the sweetness. A psychologically strong society will cause many bad consequences. It is very dangerous to ignore these principles and allow evil. Finally, he suggested that some companies cut workers' wages because of inefficiency. Although this has reduced the production cost, the essence of the problem has not developed substantially, which has seriously hit the enthusiasm of workers and even led to job hopping.

After reading this book, my shame and joy are intertwined. I am ashamed that I can't fully absorb the wisdom shown in this book. In my joy, I met a great man and gained the essence and experience of his life. Unfortunately, everyone knows Berkshire and Buffett, but no one knows Munger!