worth going to see Charlie Munger?

[figner]

Looks like Charlie Munger will be speaking in my area soon - anyone want to weigh in on whether this would be worth going to see?

 

[haha]

Looks like Charlie Munger will be speaking in my area soon - anyone want to weigh in on whether this would be worth going to see?

You don't say what the cost would be, or what your criteria for "worth it" might be.

For me, it would be worth it if not too much travel was involved.

Ha

 

[figner]

Guess I'm asking about "worth it" purely for the fun/information to be gleaned, given that I'm generally interested in finance, economic theories, and entertaining stories. No admission fee, very close to home.

 

[Marquette]

Guess I'm asking about "worth it" purely for the fun/information to be gleaned, given that I'm generally interested in finance, economic theories, and entertaining stories. No admission fee, very close to home.

Well, considering he's the other half of Buffet's brain, you're only out your time, and you're interested in finance and entertaining stories, then I'd wager it'd be fun. I could be wrong, but his humor strikes me as deliciously dry and I'm sure he has more than a few stories about BRK.

 

[unclemick]

go.

heh heh heh - you do know you required to debrief here upon completion - right?

 

[Notmuchlonger]

go.

heh heh heh - you do know you required to debrief here upon completion - right?

Man I dont want to know if hes wearing underwear or not..

Heh heh heh

 

[Nords]

Guess I'm asking about "worth it" purely for the fun/information to be gleaned, given that I'm generally interested in finance, economic theories, and entertaining stories. No admission fee, very close to home.

If you don't already know whether or not you should go listen to Munger speak then you should Fedex your admission ticket to me...

 

[figner]

ok, I'm going, I'm going!

I think I can get two tix for free, so Nords, if you plan to be in town in March, you're welcome to come with.

Will let y'all know how it turns out, though I'm not gonna debrief.

 

[figner]

So, the Munger event was last week. Glad I went, as it was definitely entertaining and informative. He talked for maybe 20 mins, then had a Q&A session with the interviewer and the audience. One of his main topics was that society needs more generalists (that wasn't the term he used, but I've forgotten it): people who can draw conclusions across several independent fields of study, unlike many experts who are brilliant in their own field but ignorant of how it relates to much else. In response to many questions about how to duplicate his success, he pretty much recommended watching how others made mistakes so that one could avoid making them oneself.

There were a lot of businessy types there, some students. Great catered food while waiting in line, so that alone would have been worth it.

 

[deserat]

His comment about generalists is very apt - although I work in a technical field, I come across that all the time - people who can't fina\d analogies or speak to people in other areas so that they understand the concepts of your area. A bit of bragging following here - I was having a conversation with a cardiologist yesterday, I'm a biomedical engineer and we were speaking about information technology - he made the comment that most of the time the IT types are jabbering away in their lingo and he's lost - he then said that I did such a good job of explaining technical things in a way he can understand - a good translator. I try to tell the doctor/nurse/technician how something (usually technology) will affect the way they work in terms they can understand. I also try to tell the administrator/etc, how something will affect the bottom line or morale or the infrastructure, etc. Frankly, it's arrogant to assume someone will know your particular 'lingo-language.'

The key to being able to do that is to study the different areas, yes, however, to expose yourself to many different fields of study, experiences, etc. I do the same in my Reserve job -I try to explain to people who have been in one place their whole career the different things out there and how they relate.

Another example - and it is only one example in the current financial/economic situation - the 'quants' though very intelligent seemed like they weren't very 'smart - i.e. to assume that one can easily get high reward with low risk isn't 'smart.' One probably should have seen how that type of assumption and associated behavior would ripple through an interconnected system from a long-term perspective. I believe many people lost sight of the big picture and here they/we are.

OK - soapbox done - sounds like at least the food was good!

 

[lswswein]

Couple of really good Munger speeches - worth reading
1. Charlie Munger : THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN MISJUDGMENT</b>
2. http://vinvesting.com/docs/munger/Munger_UCSBspeech.pdf - Interdisciplinary
3. Charlie Munger : Art of Stock Picking

-h