Turn the page

Buffett announcing his retirement to a standing ovation of 50,000 felt like what I can only imagine those that saw jesus walk on water felt.

I was baptized at the capitalist church.

Buffett is the best investor of all time, and has a powerful, sharp, relaxed aura that’s powerful in real life (and caused a 6% BRK.A drop on his retirement announcement). He feels approachable and relatable, feasting on only coke and McDonalds.

And most importantly, he (and the weekend generally) rewired my brain.

“Turn every page”, “Pull the thread”, “The thrill of the hunt”.

When you invest in public markets, you have to find your edge. That’s not possible by just reading a 10-k, you need to go all the way down the rabbit hole until you build conviction and are able to confidently spot what so many others have missed. Warren, back in 1954, chases down a strange cacoa market arbitrage which led him to a shareholder meeting with him and the (you can listen here)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q23WdK5Yz8], and I heard several other stories like this throughout the weekend, hunting down the early munger partnership files, flying halfway around the world on a small chance to run into a key exec at a company, understanding where the float of the business was stored - all of which yielded profitable intel.

I came away from the weekend reminded of the journey deep into the unknown, where few have been. Even as a self-identified “generalist”, the depth is where the profit is.

This was my biggest takeaway, but here are a few others.

• Savants exist in every field. The level of conviction and understanding of the best hedge fund managers is very high. And inspiring. I wondered what life might have been like had I met someone like this before I settled on studying computer engineering.
• Patience != sitting on your hands idly. When investors talk about patience, they’re working, reading, preparing the mind every day for when the time comes to act quickly. Patience and prep in the off-season builds the conviction to strike.
• Investing is simple, not easy. This is true for companies as well. Speaking simply masks the challenge of getting to that simplicity.
• Two great questions to ask company founders: “If you were trapped on an island for 10 years, which competitor stock would you want to own?” and “If you were trapped on an island for 10 years, which would you short”
• The best investing is emotionless. As a founder, you often live and die by your work, mixing business with mission with ego. Not true with investing, it’s just numbers. Shorting a company isn’t personal.

Grateful for an amazing weekend with my friends, parth chopra, kenton prescott, and jay feng and excited to attend next year as well.

Books worth reading

• Snowball
• Poor Charlie’s Almanack
• Intelligent Investor

Books I have on deck as a result of the weekend

• Buffett’s Early Letters
• Engines that move markets