Charlie Munger

The Complete Investor

By: Tren Griffin

Narrated by: Fred Stella

Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's visionary vice chairman and Warren Buffett's indispensable financial partner, has outperformed market indexes again and again, and he believes any investor can do the same. His notion of "elementary, worldly wisdom" - a set of interdisciplinary mental models involving economics, business, psychology, ethics, and management - allows him to keep his emotions out of his investments and avoid the common pitfalls of bad judgment.

Munger's system has steered his investments for 40 years and has guided generations of successful investors. This book presents the essential steps of Munger's investing strategy, condensed here for the first time from interviews, speeches, writings, and shareholder letters, and paired with commentary from fund managers, value investors, and business-case historians. Derived from Ben Graham's value-investing system, Munger's approach is straightforward enough that ordinary investors can apply it to their portfolios. This book is not simply about investing. It is about cultivating mental models for your whole life, but especially for your investments.

©2015 Columbia University Press (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved

Good, but... one major annoyance

What made the experience of listening to Charlie Munger the most enjoyable?

The story itself is great, informative and insightful.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Charlie Munger?

Detailing how Munger draws from other disciplines to help shape strategies. I'm a sucker for a good analogy.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The biggest downside was the constant footnote references for the quotes. "Charlie Munger, Westco Annual Meeting, 1994", ... that broke up the pace of the story and ideas.

Any additional comments?

Cut out the footnote references in the performance. Add a PDF for the Berskshire math section.

Quote references will drive you crazy!

Interesting book ruined by the constant references to the date and place of every single quote. We KNOW all the quotes are by Munger and whether it was in the Berkshire annual report or at a Harvard lecture is completely irrelevant. It just spoils the flow of the story. What a pity.

Derivative

You would think that a book with Charlie Munger's name in the title would have at the very least new insights into what influenced his investing philosophy. Perhaps there would even be a discussion of how he influenced Warren Buffett's thinking, and vice versa. Of course this would require interviewing the subject and delving into primary source material, which appears not to have been done. Instead the work trots out quips and quotes, which most value investors have heard many times before, with the authors commentary.

Sincerely the worst dribble I've ever heard

Would you try another book from Tren Griffin and/or Fred Stella?

No. Not in a million years.

What character would you cut from Charlie Munger?

The pages.

Any additional comments?

The narration is horrible, the content is bland, and there's literally no information in this books. It feels like I've been scammed out of the time I spent trying to listen to any of this.

Please, do yourself a favor, and purchase Poor Charlie's Almanack -- which was written by Charlie Munger.

Great story, tough listen

I've read the book and understand that it is a collection of quotes strung together to paint an overall picture of the man we all know as Charlie the great. But, I found myself losing the story-flow because of all the citations when listening. i cannot offer a solution because of the way the book was written, but it was a tough listen.

The content is decent, the way it is presented...not so much

If it weren't for the constant citations throughout the book it would be a much more pleasant listen/read. Literally every other sentence is cited. Can't these be saved for the end? It makes the reading/listening process twice as long plus sidetracks your train of thought while trying to learn. Decent content, poorly presented.

Don’t buy if you have already other books

Don’t buy if you have already other books like Buffett: Snowball. The citations read out loud really slow this book down

Booring

Just a lot of quotes you have already heard everywhere else. Nothing new and not exciting at all

Close-to-Useless compilation

"I like stocks when undervalued"-CM

"Rewards can dictate behavior"-CM

Were these quotes useful to you?
More useful to you if I add several sentences of my own commentary before offering another banal quote from a great businessman? Then buy this book.

Author really lost credibility when he started to introduce quotes from the manifestly terrible teacher, poor investor, but great promoter, Nicolas Taleb.

Better solution than this book? The original munger transcripts of speeches and writings. This book was a waste of time for both the author and the reader.

Old information - New angle.

Any additional comments?

The book was great in its discussion on rationality. Very few value-investment books pick up on the importance of temperament. This book clearly highlights the importance of self-awareness. Worth a listen.

An ok book - perhaps better to read.

The content of the book is good and the messages being delivered behind the content is very important. But quite frankly, to hear the constant delivery of quotations of various people ('blah blah blah.' Charlie Munger. US Business School. 1998.) gets pretty tiresome after a couple of chapters. Also, I wasn't too keen on the delivery - very dry and almost robotic - which exacerbates my dislike of the constant quotes. Just because a book is about business and investing, doesn't mean it can't be delivered without any enthusiasm! In my opinion, one might be better off reading this in book format.

An excellent book.

Absolutely love it. Very straightforward and clear message to anyone related to all aspects of the way Mr Munger thinks and invests. A great job from the author

Interesting but...

Lesser known personality and thus highly interesting to investigate in that he is an important influence yet less visible in the success of Berkshire Hatthaway. However the book is so admirative of Mr Munger that it makes for a very complaisant review. The sequence of quotes from Mr Munger appears to seek to spell genius at every corner yet the reality is surely more complex.

“Always take the high road, it’s far less crowded.

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time – none, zero.” Charlie Munger

The most valuable asset that a person holds is their mindset.

Charlie Munger is a worldly wise individual with the curiosity to learn and grow everyday. He is reflective and uses his mistakes as a foundation to learn and improve.

Charlie places much importance on reading and learning as does Warren Buffett. This book takes us on a journey through the mindset and perspective of one of the richest men in the world.

Charlie, Charlie, Charlie! What a guy!

Good Book

Great book for those of you looking to start investing in the market, thoroughly enjoyable book.

Good collection of quotes from Charlie Munger

Good collection of quotes from Charlie Munger. The writer fails to bring these quotes together in a cohesive manner though. Narration is somewhat irritating, mainly because of several quotations.

Brilliant!

Loved it, will be listening to this several times over, combines business principles, common sense and the genius of Munger and Buffet, excellent!

Positively Mind Expanding

Refreshing to be so brilliantly challenged about how to think about a lot of things.

It had made me hate Charlie Munger's name

This is a book of quotes rather than anything else. There is nothing wrong with that but when listening to an audio book, having to hear the reference to "Charlie Munger, such and such, 1995" every two sentences really ruins the whole listening experience...

Frustrating

Very frustrating to listen to. Much of the book is quotes from Munger and others and the reader has read the reference after each one. Some books dont work as audio books, this is an example.