Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

cult conversion

Well, this very sad history demonstrates the truth of Benjamin Franklin’s observation in Poor Richard’s Almanack: “If you would persuade, appeal to interest and not to reason.” The man changed his silly view when his incentives made him change it and not before.

Moreover, they had noticed that people were used to four doors in a comfortable five-passenger car and that biological creatures ordinarily prefer effort minimization in routine activities and don’t like removals of long-enjoyed benefits.

“What a man wishes, he will believe.”

The second helpful notion mimics Galileo’s50 conclusion that scientific reality is often revealed only by math as if math was the language of God.

Einstein has a marvelous statement on that: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no more simple.”

He failed to recognize that what works best in most cases is to appeal to a man’s interest.

Like Ben Franklin observed, “It’s hard for an empty sack to stand upright.”

This sort of tragedy is caused by letting the slop run. You must stop slop early. It’s very hard to stop slop and moral failure if you let it run for a while.