I finally finished reading “Poor Charlie’s Almanack” (which I first mentioned last month) and it was fantastic. I’ve heard a lot about Charlie Munger over the years, but the depth of this book was amazing.
The book technically wasn’t written by Charlie, but it was his full of his content — text of talks and speeches that he gave over the years, with additional snippets from Charlie and others to frame up the talks. This post is about part of the intro to the book, where it was explained as follows:
The quotes, talks, and speeches presented here are rooted in the old-fashioned Midwestern values for which Charlie has become known: lifelong learning, intellectual curiosity, sobriety, avoidance of envy and resentment, reliability, learning from the mistakes of others, perseverance, objectivity, willingness to test one’s own beliefs, and many more.
That list of values is something that most everyone should strive to follow. Among other things, this blog is intended to help me with a few of those items, and the others are something that I continue to work toward.
Throughout the book Charlie talks much about sobriety, which follows a thought I’ve been chewing on lately in trying to figure out why things like alcohol are so popular. I don’t begrudge someone drinking casually, assuming they can keep it under control, but the downsides just seem too large to ignore. If nothing else, alcohol will cost money, add calories, and make you feel little rough the next day. Taken further, of course, it can lead to devastating consequences. Charlie addresses it (among other things) with:
One should stay far away from any conduct at all likely to drift into chemical dependency. Even a small chance of suffering so great a damage should be avoided.
I know a handful of people who have had very serious issues with alcohol, and Charlie’s take is one that most would agree with — avoiding starting is much easier than quitting later.
I’m pleased that his list of values presented in the book match the values that I already strive for, but they also make me realize how far I have to go. Let’s keep going.
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