Charlie Munger's Life Changing Advice on Being Less Stupid and More Moral! | DJ 2017 【C:C.M Ep.270】

 

[Transcript]

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Can you flesh out more about the spiritual side of this. How you deal with the struggles and ultimately, life?

 

CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, just because you don’t have a specific theology, and I don’t — you know, when I was a little kid and my grandfather sent me to Bible school and they told me there was a talking snake in the Garden of Eden?

 

I was very young but I didn’t believe them. (Laughter) And I haven’t changed. It doesn’t mean I am not spiritual, I just, I don’t need a talking snake to make me behave well. (Laughter)

 

And I would say that the idea that came down to me, and partly through my family, was that rationality is a moral duty. If you’re capable of being reasonable, it’s a moral failure to be unreasonable when you have the capacity to be reasonable.

 

I think that’s a hair-shirt that we should all take on, even if we’re pretty stupid. Because it’s good to be less stupid. So I think rationality is a moral duty. And we all have a duty to get better. And of course we also have to adjust to the other people who are going through our journey with.

 

I think it would be crazy not to have a social safety net when you’re as rich and successful as we are. Now I don’t think it has to be as dumb as the one we have, but of course we need a solid social safety-net. And it’s a moral idea.

 

So I’m all for morality, without the talking snakes.

 

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

 

[YAPSS Takeaway]

One takeaway from Charlie Munger's perspective on spirituality and morality is that being reasonable is a moral duty. Munger believes that we all have a duty to improve ourselves and become less stupid, and that being reasonable is a crucial aspect of this.