Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Charlie Munger on uncommon sense

From Poor Charlie's Almanack:
Organized common (or uncommon) sense--very basic knowledge--is an enormously powerful tool. There are huge dangers with computers. People calculate too much and think too little.

Part of [having uncommon sense] is being able to tune out folly, as opposed to recognizing wisdom. If you bat away many things, you don't clutter yourself.

We read a lot. I don't know anyone who's wise who doesn't read a lot. But that's not enough: You have to have a temperament to grab ideas and do sensible things. Most people don't grab the right ideas or don't know what to do with them. 

The more basic knowledge you have, the less new knowledge you have to get.