Collection: Charlie Munger - #108 'Accepting Information'

[Transcript]

INTERVIEWER 00:00

So in thinking about those investment opportunities or other kinds of activities in trying to be smart about things, how much of this is accepting information from a variety of different sources to cross-check the decision you want to make?

CHARLIE MUNGER 00:25

Well, I’m a big fan of knowing the big ideas in pretty much all of the disciplines, the ones that are pretty easy to assimilate, and then using those routinely in your judgments. That’s just my system.

And I don’t trust the executive to the edge – I don’t believe in just constantly consulting with experts and doing things that way. I might do that if I were building a chemical plant or something.

But in investment decisions, I think it’s very helpful to be able to yourself be pretty comfortable with the big ideas in all the disciplines. And I think that also – life’s more fun if you do that. What I find is though that academia is not very good at the interdisciplinary stuff. Academia rewards a researcher who knows more and about less and less, and there are real difficulties with that approach.

INTERVIEWER 01:37

Well, we try to – I mean, that is an inevitable part of the way we go about doing –

CHARLIE MUNGER 01:44

I know it.

INTERVIEWER 01:45

This work.

[GLITCH] CHARLIE MUNGER 01:46

The inevitable way of doing it. But when you’re outside your own little field, it’s dangerous.

(Source: https://youtu.be/WaDU1J91hY8)

---

[YAPSS Takeaway]

"In investment decisions, I think it’s very helpful to be able to yourself be pretty comfortable with the big ideas in all the disciplines. And I think that also – life’s more fun if you do that." ~Charlie Munger