Charlie Munger: The ONE HABIT That Changed My Life | Daily Journal 2017 【C:C.M Ep.258】

 

[Transcript]

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good morning, Mr. Munger. Jesse Koltes from New York.

 

You said that “any year in which you don’t destroy one of your best loved ideas is a wasted year.” It’s well known that you helped coach Warren towards quality, which was a difficult transition for him. I was wondering if you could speak to the hardest idea that you’ve ever destroyed.

 

CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, I’ve done so many dumb things that I think I’m very busy destroying bad ideas because I keep having them, (Laughter) so it’s hard for me to just single out one from such a multitude.

 

But I actually like it when I destroy a bad idea because I think I remember… I think it’s my duty to destroy old ideas. I know so many people whose main problem in life is that the old ideas displace the entry of new ideas that are better. That is the absolute standard outcome in life.

 

There’s an old German folk saying that describes that, it says, "We're too soon old and we're too late smart." That’s everybody’s problem, and the reason we’re too late smart is the stupid ideas we always have – we already have, we can’t get rid of.

 

Now it’s a good thing that we have that problem. In marriage that may be good for the stability of marriage that we stick with our old ideas, but in most fields you want to get rid of your old ideas.

 

It’s a good habit, and it gives you a big advantage in the competitive game of life, other people are so very bad at it. What happens is as you spout ideas out, what you’re doing is you’re pounding them in, and so you get these ideas and then you start agitating and saying them and so forth and of course, the person you’re really convincing is you who already had the ideas. So you’re just pounding them in harder and harder.

 

One of the reasons I don’t spend much time telling the world what I think about how the Federal Reserve System should behave, and so forth, is I know that I’m just pounding the ideas into my own head when I think I’m telling the other people how to run things.

 

So, I think you have to have mental habits that...

 

I don’t like it when young people get violently convinced on every damn cause or something. They think they know everything. Some 17-year-old wants to tell the whole world that what ought to be done about abortion or foreign policy in the Middle East or something. All he’s doing when he or she spouts about what he deeply believes is pounding the ideas he already has in, which is a very dumb idea when you’re just starting and have a lot to learn.

 

So, it’s very important, that habit of getting rid of the dumb ideas. One of the things I do is pat myself on the back every time I get rid of the dumb idea. You’d say, could you really reinforce your own good behavior? Yeah, you can.

 

When other people don’t praise you, you can praise yourself. I have a big system of patting myself on the back. Every time I get rid of a muchbeloved idea I pat myself on the back, sometimes several times, and I recommend this same mental habit to all of you.

 

The price we pay for being able to accept a new idea is just awesomely large.

Indeed, a lot of people die because they can’t get new ideas through their head.

 

(Source: https://youtu.be/BLctqhNClqY)

 

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