Circle of Competence

About a week ago, I came across an interesting article called The Checklist on the blog Street Capitalist. The piece, from the New Yorker, was about a doctor who, through the use of checklists, was able to dramatically improve the critical care unit of Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Today, I posted a Reflection on the other blog [...]

Readers.  Please, if you not already a subscriber or regular visitor, go over to noisefreeinvesting.com/blog and read Shane’s presentation on mental models and avoiding the “Man with a Hammer” Syndrome that Charlie Munger so passionately rallies against.
Shane has graciously put together a 50+ slide presentation on various mental models and examples of psychological follies that [...]

I came across a terrific article today detailing Bill Gates’ step down from MIcrosoft.  It seems that Gates is entering philanthropy with the same zeal as he once had for personal computing.  He and his wife, Melinda, are targeting issues such as world health and education with decabillions in firepower.
The article today from Fortune speaks [...]

You’ve got Berkshire; the king, the original, the Mecca.  Investing in Berkshire Hathaway over the last 40 years has been like injecting rocket fuel into your portfolio, generating 20%+ returns since 1965 and, in the process, minting millionaires and loyal followers. However, nowadays Berkshire is getting so large that, by the laws of statistics, its [...]

Value investing gets a pretty narrow rap. While, in essence, value investing should be defined as merely buying any asset for less than its worth, thus defining all intelligent investing, it often is just spoken of as buying equities with low PE ratios, low price to book ratios, and the like.
In reality, value investors [...]

I put up a new Reflection this evening on the use of ROIC metrics to improve and value an organization. Go over to Reflections on Value Investing and enjoy.
Here’s an excerpt:
Warren Buffett has made it clear that Return on Capital is one of the most useful metrics in evaluating the strength of a given [...]

If you haven’t read Freakonomics, the extremely popular book by Dubner and Levitt, run, don’t walk to Amazon.com and pick it up. It’s an interesting read on how “common knowledge” is more “common,” than “knowledge.”
The two write a blog for NY Times, and a column in the NYT Magazine. I read their most [...]