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Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

latimes.com

11–20 of 612 posts

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#11

Here is a fantastic farewell message that Seth Klarman wrote on Buffett's retirement for The Atlantic, How Buffett did it? https://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/https://www.thea...

Buffett's Alpha: http://docs.lhpedersen.com/BuffettsAlpha.pdf

tldr; he was leveraged with good stocks

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#12

I can't help but wonder if Buffett's dividend focused strategy will continue to be a successful approach in the future. Buffett is no slouch, but seems to have fallen behind relatively unsophisticated investors like Musk and Zuckerburg as time went on and they focused on valuation more than returns/profit.

Buffet's strategy assumes a rational market, so I wouldn't expect it to work as well in an environment where stock market valuations are increasingly vibes-based and often wildly inflated by circumstances that should be illegal (like selling X to xAI to generate a voodoo valuation). Arguably the entire market is heavily overvalued now, though, so while his strategies are probably no longer optimal, they'll probably c…

“in the short run, the market is a voting machine… but in the long run, the market is a weighing machine.”

Ben Graham

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#13
I read somewhere that Bershire Hathaway had sort of finished it's mission. 40 years ago there were lots of large companies who were very 'inefficient' and BH would come along, invest a lot, and start demanding changes. Company performance would improve and BH would make big $$$$.

Now there are few of these and it is hard to do.

I don't know enough to know whether it is right or wrong. but I think that is what I read.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#15

I can't help but wonder if Buffett's dividend focused strategy will continue to be a successful approach in the future. Buffett is no slouch, but seems to have fallen behind relatively unsophisticated investors like Musk and Zuckerburg as time went on and they focused on valuation more than returns/profit.

Buffet's strategy assumes a rational market, so I wouldn't expect it to work as well in an environment where stock market valuations are increasingly vibes-based and often wildly inflated by circumstances that should be illegal (like selling X to xAI to generate a voodoo valuation). Arguably the entire market is heavily overvalued now, though, so while his strategies are probably no longer optimal, they'll probably c…

Some people suggest this is a function of too much wealth centred in too few people, causing a high demand for assets. If that is true, maybe that is where we should focus?

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#16
post #3

I will never undertand this people that live all their life working, when they clearly have the chance to retire much sooner. I will retire right away if I had 10 millions. Maybe 50 millions if I was younger than 40.

This is merely your failure to imagine it. Maybe they enjoy it, maybe they have a specific goal they want to achieve, have some sort of obsession, maybe they feel duty to all the people they lead and relie on them, think they are making the world better so they feel compelled to continue working, are mad with power and enjoy lording over other people. There are many many reasons why one would work after being financi…

> sort of obsession

That doesn't sound very positive to me. Perhaps OP has a point

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#17
post #3

I will never undertand this people that live all their life working, when they clearly have the chance to retire much sooner. I will retire right away if I had 10 millions. Maybe 50 millions if I was younger than 40.

We all die on the same order of magnitude.

We all have pleasure and suffering along the same couple of orders of magnitude.

In geological timespans, none of the fun you had will matter. Even a year from now, your memories are just wistful nostalgia (perhaps a psychological detriment!) And that's if your brain architecture is even set up to recall senses and events well (not everyone can).

My view is that the intellectual pursuit is more fulfilling than a world simulating traversal of novel experiences. Those neurons will turn to dust soon anyway, and it'll be like it never even happened. Why spend so much time fretting over it?

Spend time with family, but trying to rack up on restaurants and things and places and visits - meh, it's just simulation and squirts of neurotransmitters. Ephemeral. They leave no trace. It all fades to emptiness.

I'm not saying be completely stoic. But don't overdose on pleasure and thrill and novelty. Over indexing that way cuts down on impact.

Building never stops, even when you do. Laying a foundation shapes human behavior at scale. Leads to more shoulders being stood upon. Higher order effects.

Every single person I admire made an impact.

I'm not my genes that I was built from or the genes that I might pass down. I'm the ideas and deeds of a short life that hopefully left lasting impact and caused second order effects.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#18
post #3

I will never undertand this people that live all their life working, when they clearly have the chance to retire much sooner. I will retire right away if I had 10 millions. Maybe 50 millions if I was younger than 40.

Can you imagine reading and researching the world on your retirement? Because that's what people like him do, except they mainly focus on 10-K statements. Those are genuinely interesting to read once you learn to skip boilerplate and go for the content.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#19

Driving 7 minutes to work and stopping at a drive-thru to pick up McDonalds breakfast every day. The man is a true American hero.

I always salute at the McDonalds drive-thru.

The man has enviable health.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#20

I can't help but wonder if Buffett's dividend focused strategy will continue to be a successful approach in the future. Buffett is no slouch, but seems to have fallen behind relatively unsophisticated investors like Musk and Zuckerburg as time went on and they focused on valuation more than returns/profit.

Musk and Zuckerberg are primarily entrepreneurs, not investors.
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