The Buffett Formula - How To Get Smarter
来源：https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/05/the-buffett-formula-how-to-get-smarter
Most people go through life not really getting any smarter. Why? They simply won't do the work required.
It's easy to come home, sit on the couch/kaʊtʃ/, watch TV and zone out until bed time rolls/rol/ around. But that's not really going to help you get smarter.
couch/kaʊtʃ/,
* n. 睡椅，长沙发；床；卧榻
* vi. 蹲伏，埋伏；躺着
* vt. 使躺下；表达；弯下
* n. (Couch)人名；(英)库奇
zone out
* （使）变得头昏脑胀
rolls around 来临
Sure you can go into the office the next day and discuss the details of last night's episode/'ɛpɪsod/ of Mad Men or Game of Thrones. And, yes, you know what happened on Survivor/sɚ'vaɪvɚ/. But that's not knowledge accumulation, it's a mind-numbing/'nʌmiŋ/ sedative/'sɛdətɪv/.
episode/'ɛpɪsod/
* n. 插曲；一段情节；插话；有趣的事件
* Survivor/sɚ'vaɪvɚ/.
* n. 幸存者；生还者；残存物
* numbing/‘nʌmiŋ/
* adj. 使麻木的；使失去感觉的
* v. 麻木；失去知觉（numb的ing形式
* sedative/'sɛdətɪv/.
* n. [药] 镇静剂；能使安静的东西；止痛药
* adj. 使镇静的；使安静的
But you can acquire knowledge if you want it.
In fact there is a simple formula, which if followed is almost certain to make you smarter over time. Simple but not easy.
It involves a lot of hard work.
We'll call it the Buffett formula, named after Warren Buffett and his longtime business partner at Berkshire/'bə:kʃiə/ Hathaway( 哈撒韦), Charlie/ˈtʃɑrlɪ/ Munger. These two are an extraordinary combination/ˌkɑmbɪ'neʃən/ of minds. They are also learning machines.
"I can see, he can hear. We make a great combination."
—— Warren Buffett, speaking of his partner and friend, Charlie Munger.
We can learn a lot from them. They didn't get smart because they are both billionaires/ˌbɪljə'nɛr/. No, in fact they became billionaires, in part, because they are smart. More importantly, they keep getting smarter. And it turns out that they have a lot to say on the subject.
Charlie/ˈtʃɑrlɪ/ Munger查理芒格
extraordinary 美 [ɪk'strɔːrdəneri]
* adj. 非凡的；特别的；离奇的；临时的；特派的
* billionaires/ˌbɪljə'nɛr/
* n. 亿万富翁
* Turn out
* v. （以某种方式）发生；最后是；结果是 （尤指天气突然）变得（晴好） 原来是；结果发现 出席;参加;前去观看关掉，熄灭（电灯、煤气等） 出席;参加;前去观看生产；制造 （尤指把某人从其长期居住处）撵走，赶出，逐出 翻出；倒出 出席；参加；前去观看
How to get smarter
Read. A lot.
Warren Buffett says, "I just sit in my office and read all day."
What does that mean? He estimates that he spends 80% of his working day reading and thinking.
"You could hardly find a partnership in which two people settle on reading more hours of the day than in ours," Charlie Munger commented.
settle on
1. 决定
When asked how to get smarter, Buffett once held up stacks of paper and said "read 500 pages like this every day. That's how knowledge builds up, like compound interest.”
All of us can build our knowledge but most of us won't put in the effort.
One person who took Buffett's advice, Todd Combs, now works for the legendary investor. After hearing Buffett talk he started keeping track of what he read and how many pages he was reading.
The Omaha World-Herald writes:
Eventually finding and reading productive material became second nature, a habit. As he began his investing career, he would read even more, hitting 600, 750, even 1,000 pages a day.
Combs discovered that Buffett's formula worked, giving him more knowledge that helped him with what became his primary job - seeking the truth about potential investments.
But how you read matters too.
You need to be critical and always thinking. You need to do the mental work required to hold an opinion.
In Working tougher: Why Great Partnerships Succeed Buffett comments to author Michael Eisner:
Look, my job is essentially just corralling more and more and more facts and information, and occasionally /o'keʒənəli/ seeing whether that leads to some action. And Charlie-his children call him a book with legs.
Continuous learning
Eisner continues:
Maybe that's why both men agree it's better that they never lived in the same city, or worked in the same office. They would have wanted to talk all the time, leaving no time for the reading, which Munger describes as part of an essential continuing education program for the men who run one of the largest conglomerates /kənˈɡlɑməˌret/ in the world.
conglomerates /kənˈɡlɑməˌret/ conglomerates
"I don't think any other twosome/'tusəm/ in business was better at continuous learning than we were," he says, talking in the past tense but not really meaning it. "And if we hadn't been continuous learners, the record wouldn't have been as good. And we were so extreme /ɪk'strim/ about it that we both spent the better part of our days reading, so we could learn more, which is not a common pattern in business.”
twosome/'tusəm/
* n. 两人一组，两个一组；两人玩的游戏，两人游戏
It doesn't work how you think it works.
If you're thinking they sit in front of a computer all day obsessing /əb'sɛs/ over numbers and figures? You'd be dead wrong.
obsessing /əb’sɛs/
* vt. 迷住，缠住；使…着迷；使…困扰
obsess over 迷恋
""No," says Warren. "We don't read other people's opinions. We want to get the facts, and then think." And when it gets to the thinking part, for Buffett and Munger, there's no one better to think with than their partners. "Charlie can't encounter a problem without thinking of an answer," posits Warren. "He has the best thirty-second mind I've ever seen. I'll call him up, and within thirty seconds, he'll grasp /ɡræsp/ it. He just sees things immediately.”
grasp /ɡræsp/
* n. 抓住；理解；控制
* vt. 抓住；领会
* vi. 抓
Munger sees his knowledge accumulation as an acquired, rather than natural, genius. And he'd give all the credit to the studying he does.
"Neither Warren nor I is smart enough to make the decisions with no time to think," Munger once told a reporter. "We make actual decisions very rapidly, but that's because we've spent so much time preparing ourselves by quietly sitting and reading and thinking."
How can you find time to read?
Finding the time to read is easier than you think. One way to help make that happen is to carve an hour out of your day just for yourself.
In an interview he gave for his authorized biography The Snowball, Buffett told the story:
Charlie, as a very young lawyer, was probably getting $20 an hour. He thought to himself, 'Who's my most valuable client?' And he decided it was himself. So he decided to sell himself an hour each day. He did it early in the morning, working on these construction projects and real estate deals. Everybody should do this, be the client, and then work for other people, too, and sell yourself an hour a day.
It's important to think about the opportunity cost of this hour. On one hand you can check twitter, read some online news, and reply to a few emails while pretending to finish the memo that is supposed to be the focus of your attention. On the other hand, you can dedicate the time to improving yourself. In the short term, you're better off with the dopamine'dopəmin/ laced /leist/ rush of email and twitter while multitasking. In the long term, the investment in learning something new and improving yourself goes further.
dopamine 'dopəmin/
* n. [生化] 多巴胺（一种治脑神经病的药物）
"I have always wanted to improve what I do," Munger comments "even if it reduces my income in any given year. And I always set aside /ə’saɪd/ time so I can play my own self-amusement/ə'mjuzmənt/ and improvement game.”
self-amusement/ə'mjuzmənt/
* n. 消遣，娱乐；乐趣
Reading is only part of the equation.
But reading isn't enough. Charlie Munger offers:
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 /'tɛmprəmənt/ to grab ideas and do sensible things. Most people don't grab the right ideas or don't know what to do with them
temperament /'tɛmprəmənt/
* n. 气质，性情，性格；急躁
Commenting on what it means to have knowledge, in How To Read A Book, Mortimer Adler writes: "The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks."
Can you explain what you know to someone else? Try it. Pick an idea you think you have a grasp of and write it out on a sheet of paper as if you were explaining it to someone else. (see The Feynman Technique and here, if you want to improve retention/rɪ'tɛnʃən/.)
retention /rɪ'tɛnʃən/.
* n. 保留；扣留，滞留；记忆力；闭尿
Nature or Nurture /'nɝtʃɚ/?
Nurture /'nɝtʃɚ/
* vt. 养育；鼓励；培植
* n. 养育；教养；营养物
Another way to get smarter, outside of reading, is to surround yourself with people who are not afraid to challenge your ideas.
[time]
Quick Read
9:54 - 10:03pm9m
Slow Read
10:05 - 1:43pm38m
Read loudly
[Sentences]
Time 10:45 - 10:48pm 3m
It's easy to come home, sit on the couch/kaʊtʃ/, watch TV and zone out until bed time rolls/rol/ around. But that's not really going to help you get smarter.
It's easy to come home, sit on the couch/kaʊtʃ/, watch TV and zone out until bed time rolls/rol/ around. But that's not really going to help you get smarter.
But you can acquire knowledge if you want it.
In fact there is a simple formula, which if followed is almost certain to make you smarter over time. Simple but not easy.
It involves a lot of hard work.
You need to be critical and always thinking. You need to do the mental work required to hold an opinion.
We don't read other people's opinions. We want to get the facts, and then think
Munger once told a reporter. "We make actual decisions very rapidly, but that's because we've spent so much time preparing ourselves by quietly sitting and reading and thinking."
Everybody should do this, be the client, and then work for other people, too, and sell yourself an hour a day.
On the other hand, you can dedicate the time to improving yourself. In the short term
The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.
Another way to get smarter, outside of reading, is to surround yourself with people who are not afraid to challenge your ideas.
More importantly, they keep getting smarter. And it turns out that they have a lot to say on the subject.
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