Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders, 2023 Kindle Edition

… pay attention when you read…treasure every drop …. And if you can follow in his footsteps… this is financial nirvana…

This book is a good book, but one must study it a bit carefully. The book reveals much of the Berkshire-Hathaway methodology in picking stocks. Insight comes as one reads a good amount of the book and puts it together in your mind. I have been using the Kindle Flash Card Methodology to accumulate the ideas. Near 1969, one sees acquisition in media companies is made. Near 1992, one sees the reasons for the paper media valuation. One also learns to understand why business franchises exist. Media prior to the 1990’s seemed to have such a franchise. Reading the book helps the reader understand what makes a business valuable and what causes a business to dwindle in value.By reading the book and putting the ideas together, one gains investing insight.From a historical perspective, one can see many business events in the world and US and how these events impacted companies and their value. The oil shock and its impact on insurance business is seen. The issue of inflation and how it impacts business is seen. Many worries that are not fulfilled are seen.All of this together makes the book a delight to read for business understanding. It helps a natural worrier understand how that most worries never get fulfilled. Some business understanding is useful to aid reading comprehension. A historical perspective is needed too.

Sure you can get the letters for free online, but the book is cheap and it was a convenient way for me to consume the information. A lot of the information in Warren Buffett's letters is naturally very contextual and I didn't feel bad when skipping over these outdated bits. Beyond those though, I found these letters to contain great gems. They are great food for thought for anyone who is running a business and who wants to generate more value. Anyone who wants to better understand the business models of the industries covered by Berkshire Hathaway, or simply curious about a specific great business mind.More specifically for me: I'm a software engineer first and an entrepreneur second. After reading this book, I felt that I had a better grasp at what's important from a business perspective. It helped me ask better questions about my own businesses and to evolve from stating "this gadget is useful" to actually asking and figuring out how this will also generate financial value, can I create an economic moat, what will be the revenue profile? Steady, Cyclical, linear, exponential?At 3 bucks, it's cheaper than a business major.

I believe it was Einstein who said (something to the effect of) “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”. Well, nobody explains investing as simply as Warren Buffet. His letters to the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders are a collection of his thoughts on investing over the years. It’s a bit like watching a biopic movie in which you see the making of a legend. And Buffet’s legend lies in making sense of the seemingly complex and intellectually taxing task of investing.This is one of those books that should be read more than once. I did. And it’s easy to do so because of WB’s usual witty and colorful prose. If you’re an investor in any sense of the word, this is a must-read. I know that term “must-read” is thrown around a lot. But a first-hand account of the evolution of the investing philosophy of the most successful investor of the 20th century? Yes, that’s a must-read.

Warren Buffet's writings are invaluable. While this content is availble free on the Berkshire Hathaway website, it is a marvelous convenience to have this in Kindle format.Max Olson, who edits this collection, updates this colletction every few years. I was able to download one revision, but not a subsequent one. The update process is frustratingly opaque -- I'm not sure whether this is an Amazon issue, within the control of the editor, or that I misunderstand how to initiate this process.

About businesses and accounting. Learned a ton from Buffett and Munger. It’s a system of capital allocation and making better life decisions. Learn to think objectively, wait patiently, and move decisively.Love it.

I learned two simple yet extremely powerful truths from the greatest mind in investment history.First, buying stocks is buying into the business.Second, buying a business is about how much cash, discounted to this day, can be taken out from the remaining life of it.A note with regard to the Kindle e-book:I believe the publisher/author appends to the book the latest annual letters to shareholders as they come. When I purchased it the title was "Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders, 2018", and now it's up to 2021. However, due to a fundamental computer distributed system problem (see Wikipedia for "Multi-master replication"), my copy does not get these yearly updates due to the fact that I have made notes and highlights, which prevented the book from upgrading to newer versions without conflicts.

This was assigned reading for my Advanced Investment Strategies class. It should be assigned reading for anyone who seeks to become an educated Investor. Period. This is the decision-making process and thoughts of the most successful investor in history. Taking in his perspectives over the totality of his career will, without a doubt, affect you and alter your path in making intelligent investment decision. Our decision-making process in regards to investing is the most important faculty we have. Having our decision-making tempered by understanding how Warren Buffet think is a priceless advantage. Do not fail to read and fully digest this valuable investment resource.