Mental Models Tag Archive

Practise and master one kick

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Bruce Lee...

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Mild success by hard work. Wild success by luck.

(Extracted from Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb) Nero believes that risk-conscious hard work and discipline can lead someone to achieve a comfortable life with a very high probability. Beyond that, it is all...

Life, Randomness Read More

Barbell Strategy

(Extracted from Antifragile by Nassim Taleb) If you put 90 percent of your funds in boring cash (assuming you are protected from inflation) or something called a “numeraire repository of value,” and 10 percent...

Investing, Nonlinearity Read More

Largest positions are the ones you don’t lose

My largest positions are not the ones I think I’m going to make the most money from. My largest positions are the ones I don’t think I’m going to lose money in. Joel Greenblatt...

Inversion, Investing Read More

Investing up to 40% in one stock

“We diversify substantially less than most investment operations. We might invest up to 40% of our net worth in a single security under conditions coupling an extremely high probability that our facts and reasoning...

Focus, Investing Read More

Wait, wait, wait, pounce!

If you took our top fifteen decisions out, we’d have a pretty average record. It wasn’t hyperactivity, but a hell of a lot of patience. You stuck to your principles and when opportunities came along, you pounced on...

Investing, Nonlinearity Read More

Hell Yeah! Otherwise No!

(Excerpt from Anything You Want by Derek Sivers) If you’re not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, say “no.” When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That would be...

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Saying ‘No’ most of the time

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m...

Focus, Via Negativa Read More

Ted Williams and Warren Buffett wait for the fat pitch

(Extracted from Berkshire Hathaway 1997 Shareholder Letter) We try to exert a Ted Williams kind of discipline. In his book The Science of Hitting, Ted explains that he carved the strike zone into 77 cells, each the size...

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Focus gave Bill Gates and Warren Buffet their successes

(Extracted from gatesnotes) At first glance, Warren and I may seem like a mismatch. I’m a technology nerd. He’s an investor who doesn’t use email. In fact, I never expected to be friends with him.  In...

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