Tren Griffin runs the imfamous value investing blog http://25iq.com/ that focuses on value investing principles, business value, investment philosphy and Legendary Value Investors like Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio). Griffin spends his day as a senior director of strategy at Microsoft Corporation (MSFT, Financial) and his evenings and weekends a blogger. He recently wrote a book about Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio) called, "Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio): The Complete Investor." Griffin sat down and did a interview with the WSJ on Aug. 9.
Interview with the WSJ
WSJ: Why would a strategy executive at Microsoft write so much about investing?
GRIFFIN: Writing helps you understand any topic better. It forces you to think things through from start to finish. Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) has said that, if you can’t write it down, you have not thought it through. Thinking like an investor improves business performance. Capital allocation skills are essential in both business and investing.
WSJ: Which of your “Dozen Things I’ve Learned From ...” posts is your favorite?
GRIFFIN: Nassim Taleb, author of “Fooled by Randomness,” “The Black Swan” and “Antifragile.” I had just taken a long walk with him in downtown Seattle, so my level of apprehension about possibly getting the ideas in the post wrong was very high. And he would surely let me know if I made a mistake.
WSJ: You have a book coming out, just focusing on letters and comments from Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio). Why him?
GRIFFIN: It’s a book I’ve been writing in my head for 25 years. It’s written in the context of investing, but I think that understanding what Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio) teaches can help anyone make more rational decisions for their life.
WSJ: Does Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio) have unique views on rationality?
GRIFFIN: He uses a two-track process. The first process is essentially an expected-value calculation; the goal is to be as rational as possible. The second process involves looking at subconscious influences which can cause an investor’s thought process to malfunction. He believes that through a process of applying a range of mental models he refers to as “worldly wisdom” and a couple of dozen principles related to “the psychology of misjudgment,” a person can reduce mistakes. Included in this are factors such as confirmation bias, the tendency to only seek information or statistics that confirm a previously held view, and action bias, the tendency or need to do something as opposed to being patient.
WSJ: Munger has unique views on investing, particularly about the choice between index investing and what he calls “focus investing.” Do you agree with his approach?
Read the rest of the interview at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/channeling-charlie-munger-a-chat-with-tren-griffin-1439172121
