I guess I am in the same camp as Marc Andreessen, i.e. Munger being more interesting than Buffet. The book is fantastic, it was a tie for the best book I read last year, the other being "Founders at work".
Munger discusses many interesting things including "a Latticework of Mental Models", Bias, etc. A few of those essay's are available online.
I own the book, have highlighted almost every page, made tons of notes, try to put in a lattice work pattern as Munger mentions, also try to use as many of the things I learned in real life. Next step is to put it under my pillow and get as much as possible through osmosis :-)
The one I keep joking with my friends is using "Constraint Mis-reaction Theory" in getting hired. E.g: If one want's to get hired for a position, send in a couple of people before you that are better than on you on paper, and ask them to deliberately mess up the interview. By the time you walk in, you can ace the interview, by interviewing the way you normally would.
If you don't believe me, think of the number of times, you have spoken to folks at various companies and wondered how they got hired in the first place, this didn't happen deliberately, but never the less, no one noticed :-)
Charlie also talks about Ben Franklin working the system:
"As he was rising from obscurity in Philadelphia and wanted the approval of some important man, Franklin would often maneuver that man into doing Franklin some unimportant favor, like lending Franklin a book. Thereafter, the man would admire and trust Franklin more because a nonadmired and nontrusted Franklin would be inconsistent with the appraisal implicit in lending Franklin the book."
If you do someone a favor, they may look down on you but if they do you a favor, they respect you more... I believe I got my first real full-time job in software that way.
I met the CEO of a ($300M/yr) company at a networking event (for job seekers) that he sponsored (very classy - it was like a job fair except it wasn't because there were cocktails and the atmosphere was relaxed and mingling-favorable). I was talking to someone from a bio-tech startup and someone tapped me on my shoulder ("Excuse me. The CEO would like to take a picture"). I was even more clueless about social niceties back then - I immediately thought in my head "Meet the CEO?! sure!" - Basically I didn't even excuse myself from the guy I was talking to and went over. I posed for the picture - shook the CEO's hand.
The photographer took the photo and then I asked the CEO "can I give you my business card?" (Before the event, I had made some Kinko laser printed ones with my name on the front and three bullets about my skills [mini-resume] on the back). I was surprised that I asked (the favor). And he regarded me for a very short moment and said "Yes". And then he pulled out his wallet and gave me his (I still have it). And I sent a thank you letter a week later (honestly thanking him for hosting that great, alternative networking event). Then, they called me in, asking me to come in and interview.
As a weird follow-up, through charity work, I've met someone (who is very networked in the tech community). I told her the story - she loved it (and I didn't know she was a personal friend of the now-retired CEO until after I told her the story)
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I guess I am in the same camp as Marc Andreessen, i.e. Munger being more interesting than Buffet. The book is fantastic, it was a tie for the best book I read last year, the other being "Founders at work".
Munger discusses many interesting things including "a Latticework of Mental Models", Bias, etc. A few of those essay's are available online.
The one Marc Andreessen talks about is available here: http://vinvesting.com/docs/munger/human_misjudgement.html
That's actually the original version of the talk -- the version in the book is considerably updated and was finished in 2005, just fyi.
WOW, didn't know you read Hacker news!!
I own the book, have highlighted almost every page, made tons of notes, try to put in a lattice work pattern as Munger mentions, also try to use as many of the things I learned in real life. Next step is to put it under my pillow and get as much as possible through osmosis :-)
The one I keep joking with my friends is using "Constraint Mis-reaction Theory" in getting hired. E.g: If one want's to get hired for a position, send in a couple of people before you that are better than on you on paper, and ask them to deliberately mess up the interview. By the time you walk in, you can ace the interview, by interviewing the way you normally would.
If you don't believe me, think of the number of times, you have spoken to folks at various companies and wondered how they got hired in the first place, this didn't happen deliberately, but never the less, no one noticed :-)
I believe it :-).
Charlie also talks about Ben Franklin working the system:
"As he was rising from obscurity in Philadelphia and wanted the approval of some important man, Franklin would often maneuver that man into doing Franklin some unimportant favor, like lending Franklin a book. Thereafter, the man would admire and trust Franklin more because a nonadmired and nontrusted Franklin would be inconsistent with the appraisal implicit in lending Franklin the book."
I've always wanted to try that...
If you do someone a favor, they may look down on you but if they do you a favor, they respect you more... I believe I got my first real full-time job in software that way.
I met the CEO of a ($300M/yr) company at a networking event (for job seekers) that he sponsored (very classy - it was like a job fair except it wasn't because there were cocktails and the atmosphere was relaxed and mingling-favorable). I was talking to someone from a bio-tech startup and someone tapped me on my shoulder ("Excuse me. The CEO would like to take a picture"). I was even more clueless about social niceties back then - I immediately thought in my head "Meet the CEO?! sure!" - Basically I didn't even excuse myself from the guy I was talking to and went over. I posed for the picture - shook the CEO's hand.
The photographer took the photo and then I asked the CEO "can I give you my business card?" (Before the event, I had made some Kinko laser printed ones with my name on the front and three bullets about my skills [mini-resume] on the back). I was surprised that I asked (the favor). And he regarded me for a very short moment and said "Yes". And then he pulled out his wallet and gave me his (I still have it). And I sent a thank you letter a week later (honestly thanking him for hosting that great, alternative networking event). Then, they called me in, asking me to come in and interview.
As a weird follow-up, through charity work, I've met someone (who is very networked in the tech community). I told her the story - she loved it (and I didn't know she was a personal friend of the now-retired CEO until after I told her the story)
Great story - good for you!
sure. Let me know which book you would like to borrow ;-)
BTW: Thanks for recommending "Four steps to the epiphany", I am halfway through it and it's in the same league as Munger's book.