9 ms·

This is just rich-people worship. What this has to do with tech, other than that a bunch of tech people also worship the rich, is beyond me. Pass.

backordr 10y ago
It's not so much rich-people worship as it is about observing another individual who happened to become one of the richest people in the world. We can learn a lot from each other - being ignorant of the person next to you is a dangerous habit.
- floopidydoopidy 10y ago
  We can learn a lot from a cross section of our entire population. From one man, we can learn about rich person worship and life lotteries.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - valuearb 10y ago
    You should read some of Buffett's voluminous writings. There is nothing like a lottery going on, he's the most skilled investor the world has ever created. In his twenties and thirties he ran the Buffett Partnerships and averaged around 35% a year returns, over 13 or 14 years, beating the market by a massive amount. He retired around age 40, then bored went back to full time work running a company he controlled, Berkshire Hathaway. At one point he had beaten the market all but a couple of 50 years. In his shareholder letters he describes very clearly how he does it. Its a combination of being an excellent value investor, understanding which companies have competitive moats, and working very hard at reducing negative psychological biases. We can't be as good as investor as WEB, but reading and understanding his shareholder letters will make you a much better one in anything you do (buying a house, car, etc), and understanding the psychological biases that drive you to bad investing decisions can be applied in many areas.
    - dv35z 10y ago
      Completely agree. I honestly believe reading the shareholders letters is one of the best "life lessons" readings I have come across. One of the reasons for this is that it's written consistently across the span of one (intelligent) person's life, spanning decades of changes and challenge. WB is transparent about making predictions, and likewise reflective when they don't turn out. He's extremely gracious to everyone around him (constantly calling out great attributes about business partners, colleagues, and even competitors). He's got this consistently optimistic tone about him which is hard to ignore - what could be brittle-dry business writing, instead is full of cheeky humor, anecdotes, advice, etc. In contrast, when I read [auto]biographies of notable people today, we are ONLY seeing the life from a snapshot in time - n accumulation of their life, from deliberately chosen points of view - and we never get to see that relatable part of "what was this person thinking when they were 35 years old, stuck in a panicked business climate". I also think its fascinating to see people's decision-making processes and attitudes change over time. For example, anyone who has read WB's shareholder letters see his attitude change from "buy cigar butts, and sell those" (basically, find OK assets which are undervalued) to "pay a premium for great things, and hold them forever". WB even reflects on this attitude change at times - some of his earlier purchases (like the actual textile mill) was an attempt to identify decent businesses in a bad spot, buy them on the cheap, and turn them around. Later, he basically said - that was just a bad idea, and it's buying trouble for years. Instead, pay a premium for a company which is solid, run by solid people... and let that naturally appreciate in value, and get out of its way. WB mentions Dale Carnegie frequently - I do think reading both "How to Make Friends & Influence People" and Berkshire's Letters to Shareholders could basically be a business course itself - how to do business honorably, ethically, and respectfully. Lots of lessons to be learned there.
      - pg314 10y ago
        I have an economics degree, but feel I've learned more from his shareholder's letters than 4 years of university. So I too recommend them. The letters starting from 1995 can be consulted at http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/reports.html http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/reports.html. They are also available in book form 'Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders', starting from 1965 (with the early partnership letters). Charlie Munger's Wesco Letters to Shareholders are also interesting, especially the early ones: http://www.wescofinancial.com/ http://www.wescofinancial.com/.
DavidWanjiru 10y ago
Hacker News is not a trade union or some other special interest group where the nature of discussion topics is predictable and consistent. It's a group of people who start off with a special interest, tech, but are more broadly interested in life. If you want a forum exclusively about tech, HN is not it. As to worshipping rich people, anything you consider worth people's time can be similarly dismissed as perfunctory worship of it.
valuearb 10y ago
If you could understand who Buffett is and what he does, it would broaden your understanding of the world immensely.
- logicalmind 10y ago
  I'm probably gonna be downvoted for this, but what the heck. I watched the Warren Buffet documentary on HBO with my 11 year old daughter. Now, I've raised my daughter to have an entrepreneurial mindset and to always look at ways to add value to the world. The major points of the documentary that stood out to her were that he has lots of money. He owns pieces of companies who do well, and in turn he does well. His wife didn't feel that was an ideal way to live her life and left to provide value to actual people. I didn't really know what to say, because she is right. Warren Buffet is good at picking companies who are undervalued and making money from that. That's a skill I guess. But do you want a country filled with Warren Buffets? Is there any reason to value this kind of parasitic success? The guy isn't really much different than the mafia or a loan shark. He loans money to companies he thinks will succeed, and wants interest paid back to him. At least Bill Gates provided value (and he was predatory in doing so) and his work changed the world. Aside from his eventual philanthropy, it's hard to see how Warren Buffet has changed the world. Maybe I'm missing something. But how do you inspire a young person to be like Warren Buffet. And more importantly, should you?
  - refurb 10y ago
    Is there any reason to value this kind of parasitic success? I'm not sure you quite understand what Buffett does. Yes, his company invests in other companies. However, it's more typical for him to invest to: (1) gain a controlling share and (2) realign the company's management and strategy. He often turning around companies through his own expertise. Not just "loaning them money and collecting interest".
    - logicalmind 10y ago
      So I should have said, a benevolent Gordon Gekko.
tim333 10y ago
You may note the domain name of this site is ycombinator.com which is an incubator producing profit making companies. There are few who know more about profit making companies than Buffett.

backordr 10y ago

It's not so much rich-people worship as it is about observing another individual who happened to become one of the richest people in the world. We can learn a lot from each other - being ignorant of the person next to you is a dangerous habit.

floopidydoopidy 10y ago
We can learn a lot from a cross section of our entire population. From one man, we can learn about rich person worship and life lotteries.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- valuearb 10y ago
  You should read some of Buffett's voluminous writings. There is nothing like a lottery going on, he's the most skilled investor the world has ever created. In his twenties and thirties he ran the Buffett Partnerships and averaged around 35% a year returns, over 13 or 14 years, beating the market by a massive amount. He retired around age 40, then bored went back to full time work running a company he controlled, Berkshire Hathaway. At one point he had beaten the market all but a couple of 50 years. In his shareholder letters he describes very clearly how he does it. Its a combination of being an excellent value investor, understanding which companies have competitive moats, and working very hard at reducing negative psychological biases. We can't be as good as investor as WEB, but reading and understanding his shareholder letters will make you a much better one in anything you do (buying a house, car, etc), and understanding the psychological biases that drive you to bad investing decisions can be applied in many areas.
  - dv35z 10y ago
    Completely agree. I honestly believe reading the shareholders letters is one of the best "life lessons" readings I have come across. One of the reasons for this is that it's written consistently across the span of one (intelligent) person's life, spanning decades of changes and challenge. WB is transparent about making predictions, and likewise reflective when they don't turn out. He's extremely gracious to everyone around him (constantly calling out great attributes about business partners, colleagues, and even competitors). He's got this consistently optimistic tone about him which is hard to ignore - what could be brittle-dry business writing, instead is full of cheeky humor, anecdotes, advice, etc. In contrast, when I read [auto]biographies of notable people today, we are ONLY seeing the life from a snapshot in time - n accumulation of their life, from deliberately chosen points of view - and we never get to see that relatable part of "what was this person thinking when they were 35 years old, stuck in a panicked business climate". I also think its fascinating to see people's decision-making processes and attitudes change over time. For example, anyone who has read WB's shareholder letters see his attitude change from "buy cigar butts, and sell those" (basically, find OK assets which are undervalued) to "pay a premium for great things, and hold them forever". WB even reflects on this attitude change at times - some of his earlier purchases (like the actual textile mill) was an attempt to identify decent businesses in a bad spot, buy them on the cheap, and turn them around. Later, he basically said - that was just a bad idea, and it's buying trouble for years. Instead, pay a premium for a company which is solid, run by solid people... and let that naturally appreciate in value, and get out of its way. WB mentions Dale Carnegie frequently - I do think reading both "How to Make Friends & Influence People" and Berkshire's Letters to Shareholders could basically be a business course itself - how to do business honorably, ethically, and respectfully. Lots of lessons to be learned there.
    - pg314 10y ago
      I have an economics degree, but feel I've learned more from his shareholder's letters than 4 years of university. So I too recommend them. The letters starting from 1995 can be consulted at http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/reports.html http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/reports.html. They are also available in book form 'Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders', starting from 1965 (with the early partnership letters). Charlie Munger's Wesco Letters to Shareholders are also interesting, especially the early ones: http://www.wescofinancial.com/ http://www.wescofinancial.com/.

DavidWanjiru 10y ago

Hacker News is not a trade union or some other special interest group where the nature of discussion topics is predictable and consistent. It's a group of people who start off with a special interest, tech, but are more broadly interested in life. If you want a forum exclusively about tech, HN is not it. As to worshipping rich people, anything you consider worth people's time can be similarly dismissed as perfunctory worship of it.

valuearb 10y ago

If you could understand who Buffett is and what he does, it would broaden your understanding of the world immensely.

logicalmind 10y ago
I'm probably gonna be downvoted for this, but what the heck. I watched the Warren Buffet documentary on HBO with my 11 year old daughter. Now, I've raised my daughter to have an entrepreneurial mindset and to always look at ways to add value to the world. The major points of the documentary that stood out to her were that he has lots of money. He owns pieces of companies who do well, and in turn he does well. His wife didn't feel that was an ideal way to live her life and left to provide value to actual people. I didn't really know what to say, because she is right. Warren Buffet is good at picking companies who are undervalued and making money from that. That's a skill I guess. But do you want a country filled with Warren Buffets? Is there any reason to value this kind of parasitic success? The guy isn't really much different than the mafia or a loan shark. He loans money to companies he thinks will succeed, and wants interest paid back to him. At least Bill Gates provided value (and he was predatory in doing so) and his work changed the world. Aside from his eventual philanthropy, it's hard to see how Warren Buffet has changed the world. Maybe I'm missing something. But how do you inspire a young person to be like Warren Buffet. And more importantly, should you?
- refurb 10y ago
  Is there any reason to value this kind of parasitic success? I'm not sure you quite understand what Buffett does. Yes, his company invests in other companies. However, it's more typical for him to invest to: (1) gain a controlling share and (2) realign the company's management and strategy. He often turning around companies through his own expertise. Not just "loaning them money and collecting interest".
  - logicalmind 10y ago
    So I should have said, a benevolent Gordon Gekko.

tim333 10y ago

You may note the domain name of this site is ycombinator.com which is an incubator producing profit making companies. There are few who know more about profit making companies than Buffett.