Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger, 3rd Edition

Similar to Charles P’s review below, I am almost ashamed it took me so long to discover this book. Page for page, it is one of the most densely insightful books I have ever read; and it’s essentially a distillation of wisdom and knowledge from some of history’s greatest minds into a single book. There’s a great quote by Johnny Uzan where he said, “A great book takes years to write but only hours to read. The reader nets the difference.” The net wisdom/knowledge benefit from this book makes it worth exponentially more than its purchase price, and I recommend it anytime anyone asks me the question, “What are your favorite books?” You will be a better and wiser person for having read this special book. Guaranteed.

I give this book 5 stars not because this is one of the best books I have read but because this is one of the best summary of ideas I ingested in last 2 years. I don't know how a casual reader with no prior exposure to topics covered in the book would ingest the densely packed material but if you are an ardent reader in topics such as decision science, finance and probability this book is nothing but a collection of ideas from these areas. If you have read 'Thinking, Fast and Slow', 50% of seeking wisdom would be redundant for you. If you have read 'The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives' another 25% of the material in the book would be redundant. If you have taken a Master's level course in finance & investing or have worked in financial markets, another 15% of the material would be redundant for you. In rare cases, if you have read books such as 'The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics' and 'The Flaw of Averages: Why We Underestimate Risk in the Face of Uncertainty', whatever 10% stuff is left in the book would be repetitive. If you have read all the stuff mentioned above, this book is a good refresher of important concepts. If you haven't read the books mentioned above, this book may be nothing more than a text scratching the surface of tons of concepts. On that note, the book somehow is self contradictory where it talks about seeking wisdom but does exactly what prevents us from seeking it, i.e. shallow reading.

A True Masterpiece! If you admire the legacy and the quality of Charlie Munger's and Warren Buffett's thinking and decision making, this book is a must read for you. Very rich and interesting, full of wisdom and knowledge. It cleverly covers a very wide spectrum of topics from human psychology, philosophy and behavioral economics to guidelines to better thinking and core business theory. It is very well written and delivers without losing it's practicallity structure and purpose.. It is a one of a kind book and I dont think that there is anything even close.. A wonderful job, a very helpfull book bravo!! P.S. : I strongly recommend purchasing it from chem-physics-law-books - Amazon Marketplace they ARE THE BEST!!

Although I write about "Life", it took a lot of convincing by the Farnam Street Blog to convince me to buy it at that price. But it is worth far, far, far more than the relatively miniscule price - and it is worth reading many times. And it is worth implementing into your life - for what value is reading other than to create value itself! The value that can be derived from this book will, in my opinion, be beyond that of at least most of the books you've read - combined. It has so much great content that I made a page on my key website (in the search engine next week) so that I could derive all the value out of it for myself, and hopefully help a few others along the way (which is the purpose of the site). And, yes, it has some rather deep and analytical parts to it that take some concentration and attention. Those might be skipped on the initial reading, but I would recommend going back and reading them - and converting them (if they seem to be about investing or other seeming "non-life" topics) into truths about life. Buy it. Read it. You will never regret buying it. And you'll be able to get so much out of it for your own life, along with the great value you will undoubtedly give to others from how you live your life and what you share. KahunaKeith

This book is a review/summary of Nassim Taleb's works, Poor Charlie's Alamanac, Influence and a bunch of Warren Buffet. The source material is great and this does a good job of compiling it. However, there is very little new that it adds on it's own, and you are better of reading the source material. However, it does help reinforce the concepts of those great books so it was still quite a useful read. It also helps in terms of application of those concepts.

I found this book to be a collection of writings confirming many things I believed via intuition and introductions to rather practical advice (when considering the "first principles"-nature of content) about leading a fulfilling life. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to this book by a fellow investor who works at another successful hedge fund where this book is at the top of their recommended reading. I've recommended this to my siblings and mentees. I would forewarn you that this is more of an overview, or loosely an anthology, regarding "common sense" philosophy in the vein of William James or Thomas Reid. So, if you are not already familiar with some of the concepts or topics, further study is recommended. As Lord Macaulay said regarding "half-knowledge", "Drink deep or taste not; shallow draughts intoxicate: drink largely; and that will sober you."

As an avid reader i am shocked it took so long for me to come across this book. Its packed with methods on how to be more rational and make better choices. I bought the authors other books as well.

As Charlie Munger (Partner to Warren Buffett & Vice Chairman – Berkshire Hathaway) says ‘All I want to know is where I am going to die, so I’ll never go there’. This book ‘Seeking Wisdom’ is in search of this wisdom. Peter Bevelin has written a mind blowing book on how to avoid the roads that lead to unhappiness. At its core this book focuses on why we make misjudgements and how we can avoid them by thinking better and more importantly rationally. Peter Bevelin has read extensively on variety of disciplines and this book is a culmination of what he has learned all these years by reading the best minds. The book is so rich that it should be included in the school curricula. What a head start it would be for a teenager to learn all these wisdom!! The bibliography is very rich as well. Do yourself a favour; read this book and have everyone in your family read it as well.