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Charlie Munger has died

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Re: Charlie Munger has died

#151

Post by DennisP »

axlee wrote: post #51
paxys wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to remember that Bogle/Munger/Buffet all gained prominence when value investing wasn't a thing and investing of any kind was wildly out of reach for the common man. Today anyone can go online and buy VTI in minutes. Every financial advisor and 401k plan recommends index funds by default, and it is how the vast majority of people and organizations store their wealth. It doesn't need any more cheerleaders or i…

Value investing has very little to do with investing in ETFs/indexes. By definition, investing in an ETF can't be value investing, because value investing is about picking (yes, picking) stocks that are undervalued. And that implies going against the market. The complete opposite in buying into the market through an ETF.

There are plenty of value ETFs. They even have indexes.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#152

Post by missedthecue »

paulpauper wrote: post #117
carabiner wrote: post #67

Also responsible for the windowless college dorm: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29038356

I don't understand the outrage over this. Are windows a major selling point of dorm rooms? When I was in college i don't recall dorm windows being that important. I was studying or elsewhere most of the time anyway.

I have noticed very online communities were outraged about this and other people I knew in real life weren't. I wonder if it's because people who dominate HN and reddit are more likely to spend their college life in their dorm, where a windowless environment would naturally get depressing very quickly.

My dorm room was windowless when I went to university and I didn't notice because I was only there when it was dark anyway. But I remember I got the flu once and was inside for a while and I very distinctly recall that the lack of natural lightcycle began to take its toll. Still, cheaper room and board would be my preference.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#153

Post by icedchai »

paxys wrote: post #46
Animats wrote: post #34

One of the greats of investing. And a value investor. It's all about the profits, not the growth. Munger is gone, Bogle is gone, Buffett is 93. Who takes up the mantle of value investing now?

You have to remember that Bogle/Munger/Buffet all gained prominence when value investing wasn't a thing and investing of any kind was wildly out of reach for the common man. Today anyone can go online and buy VTI in minutes. Every financial advisor and 401k plan recommends index funds by default, and it is how the vast majority of people and organizations store their wealth. It doesn't need any more cheerleaders or i…

Many "financial advisors" will put you in funds with high expense ratios that give them a good sales commission, then take another 1% of assets under management on top. Eventually people wise up and move elsewhere.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#154

Post by stickfigure »

_zoltan_ wrote: post #137
kypro wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually agreed with his reasoning on this and don't think it was motivated by greed at all. Firstly it would have been cheaper for the students. But secondly and more importantly, the buildings did have windows, it was only the dorms themselves which didn't, but the reasoning for this was that were primarily built for sleeping so he argued they didn't need windows. And not requiring windows meant that each student…

have you ever been to a dorm? do you think people just sleep there? especially a couple thousand people?

That's probably the whole point - they "just sleep" in their small single occupancy rooms and do most of their socializing in attractive common areas.

If you're wondering how the kids are going to hook up - well, window or not, single-occupancy beats the hell out of literal room-mates, which was my dorm experience. And we sure as hell found a way.

If you ask students whether they'd rather have a windowless private room or a shared room with a window, what do you think the breakdown will be?

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#155

Post by missedthecue »

paulpauper wrote: post #110
boeingUH60 wrote: post #25

Whenever I want to give an example about American capitalism...I always look to Buffett and Munger as examples. These are people who invested and created long-term value for shareholders, building up economies along the way. The antithesis of crypto bros selling tulip bubbles and some tech companies selling overpriced stocks based on hype. We need more Mungers in the world as the current gen die of old age.

They invested in opportunities that provided value for them, but this not the same as value investing. They got special deals on stocks unavailable to ordinary investors, like in 2008.

He was already very rich before he made that deal with Goldman. It didn't put him on the map, in fact it only happened because he was already there.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#156

Post by [deleted] »

Waterluvian wrote: post #109
rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Imagine taking out much smaller student loans, to live in a space with vastly improved common areas, and having your own isolated space to sleep instead of having to share it with 1-2 others." To be clear, I think the building is awful and fails at most of its stated goals, but I think the goals themselves were solid.

Sure. But it’s kind of a bizarre form of treating the symptoms of a deeply broken financial model rather than the causes. My eyes popped the first time I learned what my American colleagues paid for their education.

[deleted]

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#157

Post by RayVR »

One of my favorite quotes from Munger

> It’s very important to not put your brain in chains too young by what you shout out.

From his speech at Harvard in '95, he's talking about how loudly proclaiming something, shouting about it even, locks our brains into this, making us resistant to contradictory ideas, regardless of evidence.

This observation has felt more and more important over the last decade.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#158

Post by ketzo »

divbzero wrote: post #88
loganfrederick wrote: post #5

A legend of the business and investing world. Acquired podcast got to do one of (possible the) last interviews with him a month ago for anyone looking for recent content from him: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/charlie-munger Also Stripe Press is releasing just next week a book (technically re-release of an older book) on his collected thoughts: https://press.stripe.com/poor-charlies-almanack

I highly recommend listening to the Acquired interview. At age 99 he was still remarkably sharp and up-to-date.

My favorite tweet about his death:

"TRUE G IS IF YOU DIE AT AGE 99 AND THEY STILL WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE CLOSE FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT."

[1] https://x.com/INVESTMENTSHULK/status/1729608350751449218?s=2...

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#159

Post by missedthecue »

graphe wrote: post #53
lenerdenator wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Munger was the guy who kept Buffet at least somewhat grounded. It's relevant because it's true. Or Peter Thiel. Or Larry Ellison. Or Jack Dorsey. Musk is just the most relevant example. We've taken the mahogany-and-tweed businessmen who realized that at some level they had a responsibility to not be _complete_ assholes to the society and systems that created them, and replaced them with business cult figures. Would M…

How was buffet ungrounded? If anything he was too conservative and his real estate still has predatory loans. The recent gains from BH are due to new management to the tech industry from other managers.

in his early days, Buffett made is money by buying "cigar butts", the analogy being that you can pull a cigar out of the ashtray for free and get one more puff.

These were trash companies that Buffett could wring for one more dollar before they inevitably expired. The problem was that it didn't scale. Munger revolutioned Buffetts method by essentially teaching him to buy great companies are fair prices rather than fair companies at great prices.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#160

Post by Difwif »

paulpauper wrote: post #105
swyx wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i find it funny how the bryan johnsons of the world take like 123 pills every day and optimize all the fun out of life and we still dont really really know if it works or not and then old geezers like munger and buffett do whatever the hell they want and outlive everybody

genetics. they matter a ton . read the bios of really old people (100+ yrs old) and nothing really stands out beyond having a lot of family member who also lived a long time. I think a low-stress lifestyle helps a lot too.

Not to downplay everything you said but you really think Charlie Munger led a low stress life?
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