How could economics not be behavioral? If it isn't behavioral, what the hell is it?
Charlie MungerRead
We both (Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett) insist on a lot of time being available almost every day to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. We read and think.
Interpretation
Taking time to reflect and think deeply is uncommon but essential for effective decision-making.
In this quote, Charlie Munger emphasizes the importance of dedicating time for contemplation and reflection in the world of business. He points out that while many are occupied with the fast-paced demands of professional life, true wisdom and insight often come from the quiet moments spent reading and thinking deeply, a practice that is not commonly embraced in American business culture.
In practice
In a corporate training session to highlight the value of reflective practices.
How could economics not be behavioral? If it isn't behavioral, what the hell is it?
The world of derivatives is full of holes that very few people are really aware of. It's like hydrogen and oxygen sitting on the corner waiting for a little flame.
I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don't believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody's that smart.
Economics is in many respects the queen of the soft sciences. It's expected to be better than the rest. It's my view that economics is better at the multi-disciplinary stuff than the rest of the soft science. And it's also my view that it's still lousy.
Look at this generation, with all of its electronic devices and multitasking. I will confidently predict less success than Warren, who just focused on reading.
Economics profession, they've been - they've been confident in various formulas, but economics is not physics. The same formula that works in one decade doesn't work in the next. Economics is a difficult subject.
Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.
True economy consists in always making the income exceed the out-go. Wear the old clothes a little longer if necessary; dispense with the new pair of gloves; mend the old dress: live on plainer food if need be; so that, under all circumstances, unless some unforeseen accident occurs, there will be a margin in favor of the income.
It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go.
..avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.
You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.
I have lived to see that being seventeen is no protection against becoming seventy, but to know this needs the experience of a lifetime, for no imagination copes with it.
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