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Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

latimes.com

341–350 of 612 posts

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

#341
post #205

We should never idolize a person (in my opinion). Here are some things Buffet has done that I admire (notice that phrasing): - He consistently communicated with shareholders of Berkshire in a straight-forward and transparent way in his letters and annual reports. If you read these documents, I believe that you will have a solid understanding of how he built Berkshire. - He maintained a disciplined approach to investi…

The house he bought at 28 is 3500 square feet in a very very nice neighborhood and was worth $1.2 million a few years ago. It's humble by billionaire standards, not by average person standards. He never needed to size-up because of children, or size-down because of a bad economy, he was already set for both space and finances. Let's not create a moralistic myth out of his lack of need.

>Let's not create a moralistic myth out of his lack of need.

That's the moral though. He didn't need it so he didn't do it. Whereas so many others with so much less do so much more.

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

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can buy a bigger and bigger house car tv stereo whatever, but it will not make you happy. Speak for yourself. There are a lot of aspects to being happy, and having to not want for things certainly helps.

But you can do that without any money.

> You can buy a bigger and bigger house car tv stereo whatever

> But you can do that without any money.

Well...

Material things can contribute to happiness, or detract.

Balancing the things we spend our life on, relative to an understanding of what makes us happy, is going to be an idiosyncratic exercise. Assuming that X won't contribute to the happiness of person Y is some deep projection.

There seem to be many kinds of happiness too. Would I remain happy if I lost my house? Yes. I have gone through enough ups and downs to know that. But would I feel as fulfilled? No. I have gone through enough ups and downs to know that.

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

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. The last one is important. You can buy a bigger and bigger house car tv stereo whatever, but it will not make you happy.

>You can buy a bigger and bigger house car tv stereo whatever, but it will not make you happy. Well that seems like an assumption! Plenty of people are happier with nicer things. I don't think we need to tell people what should make them happy.

But commercialism keeps telling people that only nicer things can make them happy.

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

#344
post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are people who make six figures who are in debt because they overspend and food is often one of the biggest factors in that Those people aren't "poor". They aren't worried about eating or staying warm. "Poor" is when you are deciding between fixing the car you need for work and whether or not you will have electricity the last 4 days of the month. You don't fix that with "clever budgeting".

If you have a negative net worth then I consider you poor no matter how much money you make But yes obviously there are levels to it however regardless if you are buying overpriced fast food when you could be cooking at home for much cheaper that's not good for anybody especially if you don't make a lot of money... So what's your point other than trying to argue over the definition of poor? If you don't have an emerg…

I guess that distinction in poor matters some to me, because when I read your original comment (budgeting to avoid staying poor) the first thing that came to mind was someone I know who often says things like poor people should just work harder and variations of that. And then I'm thinking like food deserts or people dealing with more pressing issues where there's probably a general inability to do any long term planning. And in that context it comes across as out of touch or like a naive solution to a complex problem, but then I guess you also have broke college students and others who could certainly heed this advice, not just necessarily low income people.

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

#345
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they just meant it's very stereotypically american to drive a very walkable distance and eat McDonald's every day

I’m familiar with this neighborhood. If this were my commute I’d probably walk often. But: It’s 42 minutes by foot one way, which is on the longer end for most people. About half of it is pleasantly walkable, the rest looking like no trees and along a busy street. … For probably six months out of the year, the rest being too uncomfortably hot or windy/cold for most people. And he’s probably wearing a suit and leather…

He is extremely rich. All of these problems are easily solvable with the resources he has.

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

#346
post #205

We should never idolize a person (in my opinion). Here are some things Buffet has done that I admire (notice that phrasing): - He consistently communicated with shareholders of Berkshire in a straight-forward and transparent way in his letters and annual reports. If you read these documents, I believe that you will have a solid understanding of how he built Berkshire. - He maintained a disciplined approach to investi…

The house he bought at 28 is 3500 square feet in a very very nice neighborhood and was worth $1.2 million a few years ago. It's humble by billionaire standards, not by average person standards. He never needed to size-up because of children, or size-down because of a bad economy, he was already set for both space and finances. Let's not create a moralistic myth out of his lack of need.

If you compare that with Zuckerberg, Buffett is a saint without question.

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

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - He still lives in the same home he bought when he was 28 years old. Really makes me wonder what drives him. For many people it's the money, but with him it doesn't seem that way. But I haven't read too much about him, so if anyone has insight I'd love to hear about it.

Read his biography - "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life". It's quite long but pretty accurate picture of the man and what drives him. His answer was always that he just loves what he does and he does it with people he loves (Charlie). One can hardly ask for more in life.

Yeah, from the outside it seems like he has lived exactly the life he wanted to. I only know one person like that, and have always tried to learn from him.

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

#348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You ever see Good Will Hunting? The scene where he talks about where he can “just play” and then describes the most talented people in history at what they do. That’s Buffett in his chosen life’s work. Buffett didn’t get, for example, a small loan of a million dollars to start. He’s been working at this longer than probably anyone what will ever read this comment has been alive. He doesn’t care about the money in the…

Yes he did start with a "small loan of a million dollars"! Buffett started with 1.2 million dollars (105K in 1956) in investments from his family, i.e. his aunt, sister, and father in law. It is very nearly impossible to get rich without starting with a huge chunk of money, Buffett is no exception.

Gates/Allen started Microsoft with $5000. Jobs started Apple by selling his VW bug.

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

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever read Elon's wiki? Or any other individual rich enough to curate whatever views they choose? Warren buffet did good and he came up with a winning strategy. Momentum was ultimately his friend and what drove his success. When ETFs are great today and their popularity largely because of Warren, I think a lot of what's increasingly becoming obviously wrong with the markets ties back to the original strategy…

Elon and Buffet are polar opposites.

Musk at one point was one explosion away from bankruptcy.

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

#350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can’t even remember if Zuck testified before the Congress or Senate, but his super weird fucking haircut on that day is indelibly etched into my brain. So a stylist is probably a solid strategic choice for him.

Legend has it that Meta was having difficulty making their metaverse Mii characters look human, so Zuck solved that problem by making himself look like a Mii.

That was his biggest win in quite some time if true. Really hit the mark. My guess is he refused to acknowledge his receding hairline so he just kept having hard "bangs" cut further and further back.
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