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Warren Buffett Just Wrote His Best Annual Letter

gatesnotes.com

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Re: Warren Buffett Just Wrote His Best Annual Letter

#21

Post by learnstats2 »

Spearchucker wrote: post #13
learnstats2 wrote: post #12

I read this letter. > The fact is that I gave Berkshire stock to the sellers of Dexter rather than cash, and the shares I used for the purchase are now worth about $5.7 billion. As a financial disaster, this one deserves a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Two comments about this: I don't think Buffet has a good concept of financial disaster. Having or not having an extra $5b today makes little difference t…

He amassed that fortune by paying that kind of attention to detail. He keeps his fortune by paying that kind of attention to detail. All great artists are great because of attention at the macro- and micro-level. To you it's disappointment. To him it's a missed opportunity because of a bad decision. An opportunity missed, whether great or little, is something the man clearly dislikes.

Based on the detail given, I'm not even convinced that this was a bad decision for Buffet.

Somebody else has $5b, but this is not a zero-sum game.

Every decision, including this one, contributed towards Buffet's and Berkshire's position today.

Presumably Buffet took that decision to rather invest the cash in something else - which has apparently done just fine.

Re: Warren Buffett Just Wrote His Best Annual Letter

#22

Post by aczerepinski »

learnstats2 wrote: post #12

I read this letter. > The fact is that I gave Berkshire stock to the sellers of Dexter rather than cash, and the shares I used for the purchase are now worth about $5.7 billion. As a financial disaster, this one deserves a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Two comments about this: I don't think Buffet has a good concept of financial disaster. Having or not having an extra $5b today makes little difference t…

Buffett's letters are always full of praise for his CEOs, and self depricating notes about his own errors. He's aiming for a folksy humility, reminding us that "the world's greatest investor" still makes genuine mistakes. The book of world records line is meant to be funny.

Re: Warren Buffett Just Wrote His Best Annual Letter

#24

Post by techstrategist »

aczerepinski wrote: post #22
learnstats2 wrote: post #12

I read this letter. > The fact is that I gave Berkshire stock to the sellers of Dexter rather than cash, and the shares I used for the purchase are now worth about $5.7 billion. As a financial disaster, this one deserves a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Two comments about this: I don't think Buffet has a good concept of financial disaster. Having or not having an extra $5b today makes little difference t…

Buffett's letters are always full of praise for his CEOs, and self depricating notes about his own errors. He's aiming for a folksy humility, reminding us that "the world's greatest investor" still makes genuine mistakes. The book of world records line is meant to be funny.

Absolutely. This is a combination of tongue-in-cheek and a revealing view into his introspective nature.

Re: Warren Buffett Just Wrote His Best Annual Letter

#25

Post by cameldrv »

kibibu wrote: post #8
pokoleo wrote: post #2

I had a chance to read the letter - I went from knowing nothing about Buffet's businesses to knowing a lot, very quickly. On a related note, I wonder if Gates writing this praise was spurred by something, maybe some news about Buffet. He's relatively senior (84), and has been running Berkshire for a while now. Maybe he's getting ready to give up the reins. In fact, he builds up the reputation his menagerie of "very e…

Love it - one of the world's richest people, and his site is built using Word

It's all part of the image. Buffett gets a lot of miles out of the (authentic or not) aww-shucks folksy homespun image. He can do questionable deals and still not have his integrity questioned, and it's disarming in negotiations, in which, Buffett is as tough as they come.

Re: Warren Buffett Just Wrote His Best Annual Letter

#26

Post by nhstanley »

davidw wrote: post #10

The Economist was a bit less convinced: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21645746-warren-buffe...

> Yet Mr Buffett’s 50th letter to shareholders is an exception, serving to muddy rather than clarify, for two reasons. First, because it does not tackle the questions that hang over Berkshire’s conglomerate model and its durability. Second, because of the uncharacteristic coyness with which Mr Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger —respectively aged 84 and 91—discuss how or when they will give up their jobs.

Did this guy not read the letter? Because Buffet spends a lot of time discussing why he thinks his version of the conglomerate model works and will continue to work. You can disagree with his reasoning, but he certainly discusses it at length.

Second, there have been rumors that Buffet is planning to give up control soon, perhaps at this shareholder meeting. Even if he doesn't, it's not clear that it matters. The final word on asset allocation may come from him, but he is surrounded by people essentially making those decisions for him (as he basically implies in the letter).

Nowhere in this do I get the impression this guy actually read the FULL letter, beyond the first part (meaning beyond page 21).

Re: Warren Buffett Just Wrote His Best Annual Letter

#27

Post by [deleted] »

slaxman wrote: post #19

I love Warren Buffet's quote on hiring: “Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it’s true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.” Often we tend to focus too much on intelligence and too little on integrity. ht…

[deleted]

Re: Warren Buffett Just Wrote His Best Annual Letter

#28

Post by Spooky23 »

cameldrv wrote: post #25
kibibu wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Love it - one of the world's richest people, and his site is built using Word

It's all part of the image. Buffett gets a lot of miles out of the (authentic or not) aww-shucks folksy homespun image. He can do questionable deals and still not have his integrity questioned, and it's disarming in negotiations, in which, Buffett is as tough as they come.

The image is a funny mix of contrasts. In the 90s, he was living in a $100-200k home that he had lived in for 30 years and drove a pickup truck or crown Vic. But he travelled in a Gulfstream!

Re: Warren Buffett Just Wrote His Best Annual Letter

#29

Post by jebus989 »

breck wrote: post #7
pokoleo wrote: post #2

I had a chance to read the letter - I went from knowing nothing about Buffet's businesses to knowing a lot, very quickly. On a related note, I wonder if Gates writing this praise was spurred by something, maybe some news about Buffet. He's relatively senior (84), and has been running Berkshire for a while now. Maybe he's getting ready to give up the reins. In fact, he builds up the reputation his menagerie of "very e…

Could be. From the end of the letter: "Both the board and I believe we now have the right person to succeed me as CEO – a successor ready to assume the job the day after I die or step down."

He talks about this in lots of annual letters. Reality is that Berkshire Hathaway undoubtedly has (a perception of) the lowest bus factor of any holdings group and Buffett has been priming for years to prevent shares tanking when he inevitably passes or steps down.

Aside: to those who enjoyed reading this annual letter I recommend "The Essays of Warren Buffett" — an arranged collection of edited previous letters by theme (though they are all also freely available online).

Re: Warren Buffett Just Wrote His Best Annual Letter

#30

Post by ldec »

pokoleo wrote: post #2

I had a chance to read the letter - I went from knowing nothing about Buffet's businesses to knowing a lot, very quickly. On a related note, I wonder if Gates writing this praise was spurred by something, maybe some news about Buffet. He's relatively senior (84), and has been running Berkshire for a while now. Maybe he's getting ready to give up the reins. In fact, he builds up the reputation his menagerie of "very e…

"I wonder if Gates writing this praise was spurred by something" - it was likely spurred by criticism in the economist:

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21645746-warren-buffe...

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