I’ve made no secret of the fact I’ve been a net purchaser of Berkshire Hathaway shares for the past year. The valuation seemed (and still seems) absurdly low relative to intrinsic value. Apparently, the Berkshire Hathaway Board of Directors and management agrees.1 The company is now looking at itself as the best use of the firm’s cash.
I spent years working out my thoughts on a wide range of topics only to discover that John Stuart Mill had come to many of the same conclusions long before I was even born. I wish I had found his writings as a teenager.
Today’s mail bag question deals with the ethics of the mental model called assortative mating. This refers to the phenomenon whereby individuals choose to engage in relationships with others who are like themselves (positive assortative mating) or dissimilar (negative assortative mating). There are strong economic arguments that the perceived rise in income inequality is due to assortative…
There is a quick test that can help you determine if you rely on intuition or reflective reasoning (intellect) when making decision. Answer the following question as quickly as possible: “A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?” Do you…
This clip has gone viral over the Internet, generating nearly 700,000 views since it was posted. It shows what it would feel like to fly over Earth if you had a spaceship. Watch of for the lightning and thunderstorms. We live on a beautiful planet. The original poster of the video had this to say:…
Wendy’s recent commercial introducing the remade cheeseburger named after founder Dave Thomas is one of the best examples of marketing and psychology I’ve ever seen. It’s brilliant; mental models applied in a constructive way. I’m not going to take the fun out of it, but be on the lookout for some of the clues…
What does it take to be in the top 1% of wealth in the United States? Many of you write me and ask that question, hoping someday to make it into the top 1% of net worth but not sure where that line gets drawn. I thought it might be useful to provide a reference to which I could point people in the future whenever they write, as well as make for some interesting afternoon reading for those of you who are curious about the nature of the economic world in which we live.
Family and friends celebrated my 29th birthday today. Also, the stained glass Monopoly lamp arrived to match the ceramic Mr. Monopoly bank I bought in the middle of night when I couldn’t sleep due to working out too late in the evening and not being tired.
The ceramic Mr. Monopoly bank I bought the other day (er … middle of the night) arrived earlier than expected. I love it. I wish there were Monopoly art and collectibles to the same degree there is with Scrooge McDuck thanks to the work of Carl Barks.
My early afternoon today was spent in a hospital visiting someone very close to me recovering from surgery. As I was looking around at the capacity of the facility, it dawned on me that the quantity of coffee necessary to serve all of these people would require a reconstitution, grind-free system that had a reasonable…