I came across an interesting bookshelf with shelves that made me think.
Could you update following bookshelf with your choices?
It is an interesting one and I’ll try to fill up and post my version sometime soon…
But I can immediately mention “The Book I Lent You” section since the list is long and I have really lost (?) few good books. So here is the list:
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
How to Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen
Fooled By Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Romancing the Balance Sheet by Anil Lamba
How Life Imitates Chess by Garry Kasparov
Games of Strategy by Prof. Avinash Dixit, David H. Reiley, and Susan Skeath
बोर्डरूम – अच्युत गोडबोले
अर्थात – अच्युत गोडबोले
युगांत – इरावती कर्वे
खिल्ली – पु. ल. देशपांडे
गणितातील गंमती – वा. म. कोळेकर
थोरांची ओळख (माझे इयत्ता ४ थी चे इतिहासाचे पुस्तक!)
Well, in some cases “Can I have it back?” is not really an option. Because the people are not part of your life anymore. And maybe the book serves as a memory, or probably they might have already disposed off the book long back (when they got rid off you). In any case, “Can I have it back?” is irrelevant.
By the way, imagine the deeper meaning of “Can I have it back” in such cases. What is one implying by asking back the book which he once lent to his near and dear ones. If the book is used by the friend and has some notes, scribbles written by that friend who is no more a friend, will it be troublesome to have that book back?
On the other hand, if the friend doesn’t have that book (or doesn’t want to return your copy), and if he buys a new copy and gives it to you, is it the same thing? Worse still…if the friend just sends the money-equivalent of that book to your wallet or Amazon Gift account and asks you to purchase it yourself…how insulting would that be?
“Can I have it back?” is a futile question in case of a dear (ex-) friend who you lent book to. It is like asking “Can I have my memories back?”. If they are “shared memories”, you cannot (and should not) have them back. You can do whatever you want with “your version” of it, and that is it…
So let them keep the book…maybe they’ll read/ interpret it differently.
As Edmund Wilson said — “No two persons ever read the same book.“
Today I saw following tweet by India’s ex-cricketer Virender Sehwag
Today happens to be the anniversary of India’s 2011 Cricket World Cup victory! 7 years since one of the most memorable sporting achievements in the history of Indian cricket…
Memories are special…but not all. The last line of Sehwag’s tweet led to one such memory:
What were you doing that night?
Well, I don’t specifically remember what I was doing – most likely I was watching the celebrations and post-match events on TV. But the question got me thinking about what she was doing?
And it led to a painful walk down the memory lane – the wrong lane.
She was roaming along with spouse across the high street where lot of people had gathered to celebrate the Indian World Cup Win! And this was during the heydays…
People move on and memories fade. But some memories fade slowly…and that’s painful.
But as they say: Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
So I need to get over and learn the art of forgetting! Maybe I should learn the art today…the 2nd April since tomorrow is another day.
On another note, I saw an interesting book on the street yesterday. Added it to wish-list:
Who are your idols? Who have had profound impact on your thinking? Who have contributed a lot in shaping up your personality, your philosophy? Who have inspired you and motivated you?
Every person would have some “idols” or influencers. That could be a single person or many people for various aspects/qualities. They could be your parents, family, friends or public figures (including “eminent dead”). How do you discover them? At what stage you “realize” that they have caused deep impact on you?
These are the questions that often fascinate me. Someone said to the effect” “Tell me what songs your youth sing and I’ll tell you future of your nation”. On similar lines I feel that one can get great insights about future by seeing who the society idolizes. If Kim Kardashian is the person you idolize, well, you are headed towards fast extinction.
And the person you idolize may change over the years, because you change and grow or the person changes and is no more relevant. The so-called “eternal” idols, or thoughts only mean that they sustain for longer period – maybe decades or even centuries.
So who are my idols – as of today? Well, I want to write about them in detail, so won’t list all the names. But I’ll begin with the first one today.
His name is Charles T Munger, also known as “Charlie Munger” – the longtime partner of Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Vice-Chairman.
Warren Buffett is well known for his wealth and wit. But not everybody would know that one of the biggest influencers in Warren’s life is Charlie. Warren is very outspoken and you can find hundreds of interviews, books and articles on Warren. But there is not much material available about Charlie Munger. Or, it wasn’t until recently. There are four well-known books about Charlie Munger, and I possess and have read all of them.
There is another book I discovered recently, “On Success by Charlie Munger” which I am yet to read.
And then there are few interviews and speeches of Charlie on Youtube which I highly recommend. I will share some links at the end.
I “discovered” Charlie Munger very late in my life – when I was 31 years old. I knew Warran Buffett for few years before that and had read everything about him. I had also known Charlie as his partner, through speeches and Shareholder Letters of Buffett, but I had not “followed” Charlie much.
In general, Charlie was not very popular till 2000s (I maybe wrong on this. Maybe I am speaking only about India). But the more you read about him and listen to him, the more you crave for his worldly wisdom.
Charlie is 94 years old and still very active. Warren Buffett is 6 years younger – 88 and again, very active. The duo has now achieved a cult status (Warren had achieved it many decades ago) and people queue up whenever these two make a public appearance and talk.
What I like about Charlie and the reason I consider him as idol are two excellent qualities:
Charlie Munger is extremely well-read and has indulged in lifelong passion of accumulating knowledge and learning multidisciplinary skills. He quotes Confucius and Ben Franklin and Seneca and many others. To quote Charlie: “That sounds funny, making friends among the eminent dead, but if you go through life making friends with the eminent deadwho had the right ideas, I think it will work better in life and work better in education”. He also quotes contemporary thinkers and even people who were born 30-40 years after him. So he has no qualms on giving credit to whom it is due. In fact, Charlie is like a window to many other great thinkers. I got to know about many other people through Charlie’s citations, examples, quotes and then pursued these people further. In nutshell. Charlie is like an “aggregator” of all good things, knowledge, wisdom etc. You follow him as the first step and then you can follow others
The second reason is that Charlie has also developed his own thinking over the years. He often talks about “Mental Models” – frameworks for thinking and decision making which he has developed or compiled over the decades, and he keeps on updating and improvising them. Mental Models is a unique contribution of Charlie Munger because of which many people in investing community now rate Charlie Munger above Warren Buffett (and I don’t think Buffett would mind that. He acknowledges that often)
Here is an excellent article/blog on compilation of Mental Models of Charlie Munger (113 models as of today).
I also stumbled upon a document consisting of “The Best of Charlie Munger from 1994 to 2011”. Whoever has compiled it needs a big applause! Here is the 349 page document.
Since Jan 2018 I have temporarily stopped buying books. This was a harsh but much-needed decision bacause I realized that I was only buying new books without finishing the earlier ones, and in some rare cases, not even opening the books bought earlier.
Looking forward to finish the books in shelf soon and start with “To Read” list which is also piling up – with some exciting additions.
One of the books on Top of “To Read” list is the new book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, “Skin In The Game”.
I have read book reviews and also watched several interviews of Nassim Taleb about this book. So I know the broad theme. In fact I wrote a blog post earlier on this theme and “Vested Interest” which you can read here:
The reason I remembered this was because of a note by Kotak Equity Research on “Uncanny parallels between Facebook and sell-side research. Here is the note:
There are many booksellers who sell books on pavements, or road-side, but very few do it passionately. I know few such people in Pune and visit their stalls often and also get good books at bargain price.
Recently one such person – Sameer featured in a Marathi newspaper. Sameer has started a WhatsApp group for book lovers and regular visitors of his stall on Lakdi Pool (I am also a member), where he shares info about good, rare books and people instantly book them. At times he conducts auction of rare books and people fiercely bid for them and often raise prices multi-fold. Here is a newspaper clipping about Sameer from Loksatta (Marathi daily).
The reason I remembered this and decided to write this blog is that I came across this wonderful article recently about a bookseller in Mumbai and thought of sharing it as part of the Good Read series.
Bablu has said some very profound things in his video! Worth watching!
I am reproducing the article from Scroll.in (along with link to original article and video).
Yesterday I was working on a stock idea for which I had to write analysis and fill in a template form. The form had couple of standard questions such as whether you are a SEBI registered investment professional etc. The last question on Disclosures was: “Have you invested in the stock you are covering? If yes, how many?”
This question got me thinking. The question was plain and simple: “Are you eating your own dogfood?” Or, since I am a vegetarian, the question was: “Do you eat your own pudding?”
The question has two sides or themes: Skin-in-the-game and Vested Interest – which are two sides of the same coin.
A typical stock analysis and recommendation is for identifying multi-baggers or stocks with huge upside potential.
If you recommend a stock because the stock, according to you, is going to go 5x, and at at the same time you disclose that you don’t own a single stock, the obvious question would be – “How come you don’t own a stock which you believe would go up 5x?”. It means two things: (1) Either you are sure or there is no conviction OR (2) Maybe you have another 20x stock idea which you are not disclosing. Whatever maybe the case, this lack of “skin-in-the-game” makes the stock recommendation suspicious.
On the other hand, if you recommend a stock and disclose that you have a significant position in it, and you have invested a lot of personal money in it; the obvious thought would be that your recommendation is biased. Since you have “vested interest” in seeing to it that the stock is bought by people you would give a positive analysis/report.
So it’s a catch-22 situation. Is there any way out?
There is. But it is a process and not one-time activity. First of all, you should buy the stock. Skin-in-the-game is absolutely important. You have to share the risk and reward of your recommendation. Secondly, if the stock has significant upside (say 5X) you should also buy and keep buying while it moves up. It shows conviction on your part that you are super-bullish. At least, you should never sell.
This dilemma is not only about investing; it is true about many other walks of life. For example, if some Indian living permanently in the US, having no investments in India, constantly lectures on what India should do and how it should improve systems, sooner or later people are going to shut him up. He has no skin-in-the-game. He should not preach from outside. If he cares, he should be in India improving things from within.
Now take case of Office of Profit. If you are part of Government or a Ministry that can decide fate of an industry and thus a specific company, and you also happen to be beneficiary in that company (stakeholder or a Director), then you clearly have vested interest. That is strictly unethical and illegal and not allowed.
All such matters are very subjective and there is a fine line between right and wrong, accepted and not-accepted. Skin-in-the-game can be a virtue in some cases and a vice in others. Ditto with vested interest.
Nassim Taleb, the famous author of books such as Black Swan and Fooled By Randomness has written a book titled “Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life” which is on the same theme. I haven’t read it yet but going by other books of Taleb it should be an interesting read! Look forward to reading it soon…
I had written a couple of posts before on My life and work by Henry ford. This is one book I immensely like and I would recommend this to everybody who is an entrepreneur, a wannabe entrepreneur, interested in Business/ Finance or like to read quality and thought provoking stuff!
I have uploaded the soft copy to my blog. You can download it here:
It is not a big fat tom, so you can very well print it and read – no need to purchase it (which anyways is difficult to get)
I recently read this book – ‘The New Buffettology’ by Mary Buffet (who was Warren’s daughter-in-law for 12 years before she divorced her husband and Warren’s son, Peter) and David Clark.
I immensely enjoyed reading this book; though not a fool-proof, it has some very interesting snippets and anecdote’s about Warren Buffet’s investment strategies and business acumen. It gives you some insight into how Warren thinks and makes his investment decisions.
The books is filled with small write-ups/ tid-bits used to explain some basic concepts/ Warren’s investment philosophies. Here is one excerpt on the shortsightedness of Mutual Fund and how investing in Mutual Funds with long-term perspective is not a good idea (to which I fully agree. I had similar thoughts but was not able to put it in such precise words as te following write-up has done!)
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THE SHORTSIGHTEDNESS OF THE MUTUAL FUND BEAST
A number of years ago the authors were having dinner with a middle-aged mutual fund manager who oversaw tens of billions of dollars for the money management division of a large West Coast Bank. He brought along an enormous book that contained a brief analysis over two thousand different companies that he and his fellow analysts followed. They called it their “investment universe”. At his invitation we thumbed through the book and found a company that we knew Warren had been buying, Capital Cities Communications. Capital Cities was a television and radio broadcasting company run by Tom Murphy, a management genius with a keen eye for the bottom line. Warren loved this company and once said that if he were stranded in a deserted island for ten years and had to put all his money into just one investment, it would be Capital Cities. Definitely a strong vote of confidence.
Our friend also had a list of the stocks his fund had purchased. As we read through the list, we noticed that he didn’t own any Capital Cities. We quickly pointed this out and told him that Warren had recently been buying it. He said that he knew it was a great company but he didn’t own it because he didn’t think the stock price would do much over the next six months. We told him that was insane. That it was a fantastic long-term investment selling at a great price. He told us that he was under great pressure to produce the highest quarterly results possible. If he couldn’t beat his competitor’s returns quarterly, his clients would take their money elsewhere, which meant that he would lose his job, his Porche, and the income to send his son to Harvard. (Sounds grim, doesn’t it?)
Our mutual fund manager felt he couldn’t buy a single share of Capital Cities for his fund, even though he knew it was a great investment, because he wasn’t sure that it was going to go up in price over the next six months. This is the nature of mutual beast; it caters to the short-term oriented mutual-fund-buying public. If it doesn’t, money flows out the door and down the street to the fund that produces better short-term results.
(in case you are wondering, Capital Cities eventually merged with the ABC television network, which eventually merged with entertainment giant Disney, making Warren billions in the process. Good things do come to those who have patience and foresight.)
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I am now fully convinced that investing in Mutual Fund with a long-term perspective is a bad idea…and have vowed never to invest in it 🙂
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