The Charlie Munger Guide To Continuous Learning
The Charlie Munger Guide To Continuous Learning
You will not make any significant advances in life based on what you already know.
The best investors never stop learning.
My favorite investor of all time is Charlie Munger. Charlie is a learning machine who also happens to be responsible for some of the greatest quotes about learning. You will find many of my favorites in this short guide.
I hope these quotes encourage you like they encourage me.
Charlie Munger on Continuous Learning
You will not make any significant advances in life based on what you already know.
I constantly see people rise in life who were not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up, and boy does that have it help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.
The reason to keep learning is simple: the world keeps changing and your competitors keep learning.
And the way the world is constructed in this field, you have to keep learning, because the world keeps changing and your competitors keep learning.
Berkshire Hathaway’s track-record is proof that continuous learning works.
I think that a life properly lived is just learn, learn, learn all the time. And I think Berkshire’s gained enormously from these investment decisions by learning through a long, long period.
Look at the BYD deal, as just one example. Warren Buffett did the deal in 2008.
Thirteen years ago, on the advice of his famously skeptical lieutenant, Charlie Munger, Buffett made a $232 million investment in a relatively unknown Chinese car company called BYD.
Charlie Munger spoke about the BYD deal at the 2010 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, and he mentioned how the deal shows that he and Warren are still learning.
Well, it’s an interesting example because Berkshire would not have made an investment in BYD if the opportunity had come along five or ten years earlier. And it shows that the old men are continuing to learn, and that’s absolutely essential. And yet here we are. I think it’s because we’ve shown some capability for learning. And I think the BYD investment is going to work out very well. And I think it’ll work out very well in a way that gives great pleasure to all of us shareholders, because I think they’re going to help solve some significant problems of the world.
Beyond BYD
Here’s two more quotes you can take with you for today…
If you just get up every morning and keep plugging and have some discipline and keep learning…it's amazing how it works.
…or for tonight.
And if I enjoy learning it, I regard it as important, because I think that’s what you’re here for, is to go to bed every night a little wiser than you were when you got up.
What does Charlie Munger say to learn?
The 100 models from all the major disciplines.
You need the models—not just from one or two disciplines, but also from all the important disciplines. You need the best 100 or so models from microeconomics, physiology, psychology particularly, elementary mathematics, hard science and engineering (and so on). You need not be an expert, but you must learn ‘em right. You don’t have to be a huge expert in any of those fields. All you have got to do is take the really big ideas and learn them early and well.
Episode #3 and #4 of the CMQ Investing Podcast help explain what he means by this.
👉 Listen to all the episodes on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Should I make more posts like this? 🤔
Related Reading: The Charlie Munger Guide to Opportunity Cost