Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger Hardcover – December 5, 2023

This book is packed with insight. I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, but Poor Charlie’s Almanack turned out to be one of the most valuable reads I’ve picked up in a long time. Charlie Munger’s way of thinking is so refreshingly straightforward and smart. It really made me rethink how I approach decisions in everyday life.It’s full of great life lessons, funny stories, and real talk about business, investing, and just being a better thinker overall. It’s not a “quick” read, but it’s totally worth it. I found myself underlining a ton and going back to reread parts.If you’re curious, open-minded, and want to get better at thinking clearly (without the fluff), this one’s for you. Highly recommend!

Charlie's wit and charm shine through

Although there are worthwhile take aways from this book, I feel that each talk is a somewhat redundant attack on academia written out in often rambling fashion. I haven’t decided yet if it’s a difficult read or just uninteresting. I’d hate to be critical of someone I admire as much as I do Charlie Munger, but I’m not sure turning these specific speeches was the best showcase of his wisdoms. Still, 4 stars because there are some meaningful take aways for people that are interested in teaching themselves about the world.

Power of simple rational thought. 4 powerful ideas: Preparation, discipline, patience and decisiveness. I am reading it again and again.

Exposure to the casual wit and extensive wisdom of Charlie Munger primed me to grab the book and try to absorb a bit more. The wit doesn't translate as well to paper as a long life's worth of wisdom does.The book is structured with an opening section that shares a lot of the life background that prepared Charlie Munger for his future. Starting in post-depression Nebraska working in the Buffet store, then on to law school and much more, the story builds through the early association with Warren Buffet, and the broad learning paths through independent learning and a voracious appetite for knowledge. That appetite for knowledge is an enduring theme throughout the book and his life. Hw worked hard to impart that same love of broad learning and wisdom to family, friends, business associates and students along the way. The lessons and the delivery are both top tier.The rest of the book is a series of descriptions of lectures Charlie gave later in life primarily at various learning institutions. Primarily law and business schools it seems, but a couple others thrown in too. The common theme is to always be open to learnings from outside your focus discipline, and integrate all those outside learnings to build a broad base to continuously build on.I'm 20+ years Charlie's junior, and can see where the guidance he shares would have made my early career a bit smoother. That said, I think it would be great for people to read and learn from Charlie starting early, then re-read at life intervals that allow one's own life experiences and situations to benefit from regular course-corrections based on the ideas shared in the book. I know too many youngsters who have attention focus based on continuous screen movement and action; few may initially appreciate the pleasure of reading a good book like this. But a read in mid-teens, and again as major decision points arise, would help most people tremendously.Some of us have had the great fortune to have mentors along the way. Even if you already have that, adding another lesson or twelve from Charlie can only benefit.Yes, I highly recommend this book. It should almost be essential reading from those stepping up to and stepping through their lives and careers. It's that good.

Good reads. It teaches decipline and I would recommend this to all corporate or even small businesses. You can simply pick Charles brain here and there.

Much gratitude for Charlie’s insights from Demosthenes to working at the Buffet grocery store to “FIASCO: Blood in the Water” to Judith Rich Harris to Richard Thaler to multidisciplinary skills to “invert, always invert” to being a successful autodidact. A truly inimitable man whose life was lived with reason and a great sense of fairness (and humor). This book has profoundly influenced my life and henceforth, I will strive to also live with honor and great fortitude.

I have very mixed feelings about this book both because of the way it is organized and the information it contains. The first part of the book is a major disappointment and I almost stopped reading it after slogging through it. It was deep in every negative sense of the word - nothing more than a Charlie Munger suckfest with little substance except for the last 4 pages which provide a list outlining Munger's Investment Principles Checklist.The most useful part of the book are the talks Munger gave to various audiences dispensing his nuggets of wisdom. However, this part of the book is poorly organized and edited. The first problem is Munger refers to his nuggets as "models" and what he means by that is never defined. You discover through reading that he is talking about things like compound interest - that is one model. Munger had about 100 models he used to analyze companies to determine if their shares or the company was worth buying, but most of those models are not clearly defined in his talks until you get to Talk 11 - the last one in the book. Talk 11 should have been the first one you read so you would know what Munger was talking about in the other talks. Talk 3 for example is full of holes where the editor took out whole sections of Munger's talk because Munger refers to them in later talks the result being that you have no idea what Munger is talking about! This idiotic organization and editing made me want to slam the book to the floor for trying to parse useful tidbits of information out of the text!I suggest you read the book in reverse, beginning with the last talk so you have a good base of what Munger is talking about in the preceding talks and avoid the negative effects of the stupid editing. You can read Munger's Investment Principles at the end of the suckfest anytime.