#56 Reflections from Charlie Munger

Hi all,

This is the final edition for 2023, and I would like to thank you for taking time out each week to read this newsletter. I’d also love to hear about and discuss changes you have implemented in your lives due to Plane Thoughts; hit reply to email me directly.

We’re at a point in the year where many are beginning to wind down, so this week I simply want to share some quotes from the late Charlie Munger - the wildly successful investor better known as the right-hand man to Warren Buffet - who passed away last month at the age of 99.

• "Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up."

• "The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.”

• “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time – none, zero.”

• “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”

• "I see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help.”

• "Take a simple idea, and take it seriously."

• "You should never, when faced with one unbelievable tragedy, let one tragedy increase into two or three because of a failure of will.”

• "There is no way that you can live an adequate life without many mistakes."

Wishing you a very happy holidays. Take some time out to rest and recuperate, and see you again in 2024.

Best, Alex Joshi.

PS: You’ll have noticed the irregular publication day last week. I’d like to say there was some thinking behind the benefits of a surprise post, but it was simply a technical error. Oops.

On my bedside table:

• Podcast: Hot Money: The New Narcos (link) - Quality investigative journalism from the Financial Times and Pushkin Industries

Comments, questions, disagreements? Hit reply to reach out to me directly.

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