Bezos at Code Conference 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guVxubbQQKE

Well worth the investment of one hour or so to see how this man thinks.

The quote that struck me the most (echoing many sentiments of other greats is the following) about 55m into the video:

"I don't like tight agendas. Wandering is important. Thinking you know where you're going... prevents you from inventing"

He also talks about the brilliant "flywheel" model of Amazon.

No wonder Warren himself admires Bezos so much.

The Books that carry most of the freight

Over the past years, I have read (or listened) to hundreds of books spanning finance, investing, history, philosophy and economics.

Like Charlie Munger says, it's the big ideas that really carry most of the freight (think Pareto principle).

Of all the books, the ones I have gleaned the most from and which meaningfully impacted my thinking and actions are below.

This is not to say that the other books I have read are not worthwhile - in many cases, they often echo the same important ideas - and it is useful to have some of these ideas banged into one's head as many times as possible - but I have a preference for going straight to the horse's mouth for wisdom whenever possible.

I will be adding/editing the list as I continue to read and learn. These are the books that are worth reading, re-reading and re-re-reading. It should come as no surprise that many of these books show up on reading lists of multiple billionaires.


Investing
Benjamin Graham: Security Analysis (Warren Buffett has read this 4 times), The Interpretation of Financial Statements
Warren Buffett's partnership and Berkshire Hathaway (yes, all of them)
Peter Bevelin: Seeking Wisdom, A Few Lessons from Sherlock Holmes, Tell me where I"m going to Die so I don't go there
Poor Charlie's Almanack (Mohnish Pabrai says he has read this 7-8 times)
Joel Greenblatt: You can Be a Stock Market Genius, The Little Book that Still beats the Market, The Big Secret for the Small Investor
Warren Buffett books: The Snowball, Warren Buffett's Ground Rules, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, Warren Buffett Way, Warren Buffett portfolio
Financial Shenanigans
Deep Value
What Works on Wall Street
Money Masters
Supermoney
The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks
Quality of Earnings

Philosophy
Nassim Taleb: Antifragile, The Black Swan, Fooled By Randomness
Misbehavior of Markets
Where are the Customer's Yachts?
The Dao of Capital
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman
The   Dhandho Investor

Business/Management
The Outsiders
Zero to One
Double Your Profits in 6 months or less
Creativity Inc
Work Rules!
Sam Walton: Made in America
Behind the cloud
So you want to start a hedge fund
Story by McKee
Ten Commandments of Business Failure
Hidden Champions
Roger Fisher - Getting To Yes, Getting it Done
Competition Demystified
Clayton Christensen - The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Prescription

Biographies/History
Walter Isaacson - Steve Jobs, The Innovator's
Becoming Steve Jobs
Elon Musk
The Everything Store
Dream Big
Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger
The Davis Dynasty
Templeton Touch
Short History of  financial Euphoria
Delivering Happiness
Michael Lewis- The Big Short

Psychology
Robert Cialdini: Influence, Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, the Small Big
Contagious
Hooked
Predictably Irrational
Thinking Fast and Slow
Art of Thinking Clearly
Alchemy of Finance
Richard Thaler - Nudge, Misbehaving
Dan Pink - Drive, To Sell is Human
Heath Brothers - Decisive, Switch, Made to Stick
The Design of Everyday Things
Superforecasting
Charisma Myth
How to Lie with Statistics
Malcolm Gladwell - Blink, David and Goliath, Outliers

Real Estate
William Poorvu - The Real Estate Game, Creating and growing Real estate Wealth
Frank Galinelli - What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to know about cash flow,

Economics/Politics

Everything Lee Kuan Yew has written - especially Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights and One Man's View of the World, Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going
Atul Gawande - Being Mortal, Checklist Manifesto
World Order by Kissinger
Eric Topol - The Creative Destruction of Medicine

Taleb on investing and insurance

Nassim Taleb's Incerto books (Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, Antifragility, The Bed of Procrustes) is on my list of required reading for serious investors (stay tuned for a post detailing my trip through most of the investing literature).

His books have a philosophical bent but also have several practical applications - for both investing and life in general.

Here are a few links with words straight from the man himself on how his insights can be applied to both insurance and investing.  Cheers.


http://www.carriermanagement.com/features/2015/10/08/146093.htm

http://www.moneysense.ca/invest/nassim-talebs-tips-for-embracing-risk/

Thoughts during the recent volatility

The sky is falling is what many would have you believe at the moment.
Those who have studied Mandelbrot and Taleb know that volatility tends to cluster and that events have a memory (even in the long term). So it should be no surprise that the volatility has not yet subsided.

Rather than being scared out of the market, one ought to be looking at this through a different lens. Mr. Market is having a tantrum over many of the wrong things, and he is on sale.

Seth Klarman has said that he does not outperform despite his large cash position; rather, he outperforms because of his large cash position. It is likely for times like these that the prudent, patient investor waits to climb out of his shell and put that money that is weighing in his pocket to good work.

For wisdom from the titans, check out Warren Buffett's Op-ed from 2008 in which he outlines why he continues to buy stocks amid the downturn:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/opinion/17buffett.html?_r=0

And more recently, Howard Marks' brilliant memos have been a source of solace and insight (Warren Buffett himself claims to read them with relish every time they are released):

https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/howard-marks-memos



And if you glean nothing else from this post, please appreciate that volatility does not equal risk. Risk is what you stand to lose. Like Warren Buffett has stated, it is far better to earn a bumpy 15% return than a smooth 10%