Safal Niveshak

Wit. Wisdom. Value Investing.

You are here: Home / 2018 / Archives for February 2018

Archives for February 2018

Lessons From Jeff Bezos’ Letter to Shareholders

| Reading Time: 17 minutes | Leave a Comment |

In our VIA Investor Insight section, recently we’ve started asking interviewees about their favourite business person (apart from Buffett and Munger). The last two people who we interviewed (Saurabh Madaan and Jana Vembunarayanan) unanimously agreed on their choice. Here’s what they said –

Jana:

Jeff Bezos. He’s extremely focused, super-rational, and contrarian (right more often). Some examples of being a contrarian and right are free shipping for prime, kindle, and AWS. There were times he was wrong. For example, he didn’t like the idea of launching Amazon Studios. Even though Bezos disagreed, he committed to the plan. Writing about it openly requires a lot of humility, and Bezos scores full marks on that.

Saurabh:

By far my favourite is Mr. Bezos. If you read his annual letters, they are also just like Mr. Buffett’s letters. They have a lot of lessons about life and thinking in life in general. When he says long term, he really means long term. It’s not even five or ten years. It’s really long term.
[Read more…] about Lessons From Jeff Bezos’ Letter to Shareholders

Inattentional Blindness Bias

| Reading Time: 14 minutes | Leave a Comment |

Note: This post was originally published in the July 2015 issue of Value Investing Almanack. To read more such posts and other deep thoughts on value investing, business analysis and behavioral finance, click here to subscribe to VIA.


“Where is it?” I asked my wife, while my eyes scanned the kitchen cupboard again. I was looking for the sugar jar. The plan was to impress her with my exceptional tea making skills which I acquired after watching few YouTube videos.

“It should be there. Right in front!” informed my wife from the other room.

“It’s not here. I can’t see it.” I again scanned all the shelves in the cupboard.

“Look again. I kept it there in the morning.” My wife sounded very sure about it.

“No! It’s not here. I am sure.” I confirmed while closing the cupboard. What happened next shouldn’t be surprising for you because most of you have experienced it before.

She came, opened the cupboard, grabbed the sugar jar which was obviously sitting right in front and handed over to me. I stood there flabbergasted. How could I miss it? What’s wrong with my eyes? Have I gone blind? It felt as if the jar manifested itself out of thin air. It was like…magic.
[Read more…] about Inattentional Blindness Bias

InvestorInsights: Janardhanan Vembunarayanan

| Reading Time: 39 minutes | Leave a Comment |

Janardhanan Vembunarayanan is a Senior Director of Engineering at LinkedIn. His work involves providing economic opportunity for every professional in the world. He is an ardent believer in the quote: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. So, Jana is also a teacher and blogger, and blogs here.

In his interview with Anshul, he talks about his journey of self-learning and investing, and his experiences in compounding and multi-disciplinary thinking.

Anshul – Safal Niveshak (SN): Tell us about your background especially your education and career path.
[Read more…] about InvestorInsights: Janardhanan Vembunarayanan

Charlie Munger on Bitcoins, Banking, AI, and Life

| Reading Time: 8 minutes | 11 Comments |

I recently attended the annual shareholder meeting of Daily Journal Corp, a publishing company based in Los Angeles, US. I am not a shareholder in DJCO, but this was a chance to hear the 94-year old Charlie Munger, who is its chairman and director.

Mr. Munger answered questions from the audience for around two hours – on wide-ranging topics like bitcoins, banking, artificial intelligence, and life – including one from me (see below). Here are excerpts from the notes prepared by Adam Blum (see the link to entire notes at the bottom of the post).

On searching for ideas – The two rules of fishing are to fish where the fish are, and don’t forget the first rule. Investing is the same thing. In some places, no matter how good a fisherman you are, you won’t do well. Life is a long game. Take it as comes and do the best you can, and if you live to an old age, you will get your full share of opportunities, which will be two in total, maybe, but seize one of the two, and you will be alright.

On personal success – Approach life like [Thomas] Carlyle, and get up every day doing the best you can. Marry the right person. Everyone here who’s your age will do well. You’re not that mad at the world; instead you’re trying to cope with how to make it a little better. If you were here with placards shouting, you wouldn’t have bright future. Avoid extremely intense ideology, because it ruins your mind. The kids with the placards are pounding the idiocy in instead of shouting it out.

[Read more…] about Charlie Munger on Bitcoins, Banking, AI, and Life