章节 1：开场与投资雷德兰兹（Redlands）的缘起

📝 本节摘要：

本章作为访谈的开场（含一小段剪辑倒叙），查理·芒格首先谦虚地将自己的非凡成就归功于从祖父等长辈那里学到的“思维诀窍”。随后，面对主持人关于为何偏爱在雷德兰兹（Redlands）进行投资的提问，芒格回顾了他早年在该地区的生活轨迹所建立的“天生好感”。他生动讲述了自己如何结识一位患有轻微注意力缺陷但智商极高的年轻哈西迪犹太人阿维（Avi），并由此开启了购买与改造旧公寓的投资契机。芒格还借此分享了他在房地产投资上的长期主义哲学：用心照料资产、为租客改善居住环境（例如重金种树）才是真正符合长期财务利益的明智之举。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but what caused the financial success was not extreme ability you know I have a good mind but I'm way short of prodigy and I've had results in life that are predigious and that came from tricks i just learned a few basic tricks from people like my grandfather

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但带来财务成功的并非极高的天赋，你知道，我头脑不错，但绝非神童，而我在生活中却取得了惊人（prodigious）的成就，这源于一些诀窍，我只是从我祖父那样的人身上学到了一些基本的诀窍。

[原文] [Interviewer]: what were those kind of Charlie welcome to our Redlands family

[译文] [主持人]: 那是什么样的……查理，欢迎加入我们雷德兰兹（Redlands）的大家庭。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well I'm glad to be here i always like these awkward moments i know i want You're supposed to start oh I'm I'm supposed to start

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，我很高兴来到这里，我总是喜欢这些尴尬的时刻，我知道我想……你应该先开始的，哦，我……我应该先开始。

[原文] [Interviewer]: well listen ladies and gentlemen this is an amazing evening i've had the pleasure to spend I think three times with Charlie four times once at his house in Hancock Park and and then from time to time he comes to Revance isn't that amazing so I I'll simply start with an interesting question i think it's an interesting question charlie you have investments in a lot of places like Mel Mill Valley and and Santa Barbara and you live in Hancock Park and sometimes you say that Pasadena is your second home and then you have various investments around Claremont and now investing here in Redlands why are you investing in Redlands what do you what do you think about Redlands i mean what is it that attracts you here i mean I can see a kind of pattern there santa Barbara Mil Valley Pasadena Claremont and Redlands so what what is it Charlie

[译文] [主持人]: 好吧，听着，女士们先生们，这是一个美妙的夜晚，我有幸与查理共度了大概三次、四次时光，有一次是在他汉考克公园（Hancock Park）的家里，然后他不时地来到雷德兰兹，这不是很神奇吗？所以我将直接以一个有趣的问题开始，我认为这是一个有趣的问题：查理，你在很多地方都有投资，比如米尔谷（Mill Valley）和圣巴巴拉（Santa Barbara），你住在汉考克公园，有时你说帕萨迪纳（Pasadena）是你的第二故乡，然后你在克莱蒙特（Claremont）周围也有各种投资，现在又在这里——雷德兰兹投资。你为什么在雷德兰兹投资？你对雷德兰兹有什么看法？我的意思是，是什么吸引你来到这里？我的意思是，我能看到一种规律：圣巴巴拉、米尔谷、帕萨迪纳、克莱蒙特和雷德兰兹，所以，到底是什么原因，查理？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well I have a natural prejudice for this area because when I was at Caltech in 1943 I used to hang around here my first wife went to Scripps College and my sister went to Scripps College and so I'm very familiar with this area and of course I've interfaced with a lot of the people who love these universities out here yes and so I I started with a very I always like the orange trees against the mountains and the snow cap whatever so I started with a deep prejudice yes

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，我对这个地区有一种天生的偏爱（natural prejudice），因为在1943年我在加州理工学院（Caltech）时，我经常在这里闲逛，我的第一任妻子在斯克里普斯学院（Scripps College）上学，我的妹妹也在斯克里普斯学院上学，所以我对这个地区非常熟悉，当然，我也和很多热爱这里大学的人打过交道，是的，所以我一开始就非常……我总是喜欢橘子树映衬着群山和积雪的景色之类的，所以我一开始就带有很深的偏爱，是的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and but my investments here happened by accident what happened was I live in a neighborhood which the acetic Jews sort of came into a few decades ago a very successful group of people and one day into my house a very young 17-year-old aetic Jew came by and gave me the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew and you know munger sounds like it could be a German Jewish name and it means peddler in both German and English so it wasn't totally crazy for an acidic Jew to think that Munger could read the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew but of course I couldn't

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但是我在这里的投资纯粹是偶然发生的。事情是这样的，我住在一个几十年前哈西迪犹太人（Hasidic Jews，注：原文音误记为acetic/aetic/acidic）开始迁入的社区，他们是一群非常成功的人，有一天，一个非常年轻的17岁的哈西迪犹太人来到我家，给了我一本希伯来语的希伯来圣经，你知道，“芒格”（Munger）听起来可能像是一个德国犹太人的名字，在德语和英语中都有“小贩”（peddler）的意思，所以一个哈西迪犹太人认为芒格能读懂希伯来语的希伯来圣经，这并不完全荒谬，但我当然读不懂。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and I got to talking with him and one thing led to another and I sort of befriended Avi and watched him grow up and Avi never went to college he has a mild attention deficit disorder but a ferociously high IQ and he was worried about it and I said "Avi," I said ' Don't worry about it you don't need any college you're going to succeed mightily well Abby is now 32 and has four children and a hugely successful business and I was right he didn't need college and Abby sitting right over there stand up Obby stand wave

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 然后我和他交谈起来，一件事接着一件事，我算是和阿维（Avi）交了朋友，看着他长大。阿维没上过大学，他有轻微的注意力缺陷障碍（attention deficit disorder），但智商高得惊人，他曾经对此很担心，我说：“阿维，”我说，“别担心，你不需要上任何大学，你会取得巨大成功的。”嗯，阿维现在32岁了，有四个孩子，还有一份非常成功的生意，我是对的，他不需要上大学，阿维就坐在那边，站起来，阿维，站起来挥挥手。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and Abby had a client his main client in his apartment management business and he was unhappy and I think rightly so and so I said to him one day cuz I'd gotten to like and trust Obby I said "Why don't you just get rid of that client you got and buy a bunch of apartments for me?"

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 阿维在他的公寓管理业务中有一个客户，那是他的主要客户，他很不开心，我认为这是有道理的，所以有一天我对他说，因为我已经开始喜欢并信任阿维了，我说：“你为什么不直接甩掉那个客户，来替我买一堆公寓呢？”

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: And the first ones we saw were the ones I bought out here and that's how it happened and by the way they're at the end of Alabama you know those beautiful apartments yeah they're really amazing yeah park View park View park View derek great i think half of the occupants of those apartments work at AS3

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 而我们最先看到的，就是我在这里买的那些公寓，事情就是这样发生的。顺便说一句，它们在阿拉巴马街（Alabama）的尽头，你知道那些漂亮的公寓吗，是的，它们真的令人惊叹，是的，公园景观（Park View），公园景观，公园景观，德里克，太棒了，我想那些公寓里一半的住户都在AS3（注：应为ESRI公司）工作。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: so so one day I'm sitting there and he calls me and he says "Uh could I come out and talk to you?"

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 所以有一天我坐在那里，他打电话给我说：“呃，我能出来和你谈谈吗？”

[原文] [Interviewer]: Of course I didn't exactly know who Charlie was so sure yeah okay and that's what began this friendship actually it's amazing

[译文] [主持人]: 当然，我当时并不完全知道查理是谁，所以，当然，好的，这就是这段友谊的开始，实际上这很神奇。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but we've had a fair amount of fun AI and his partner Ruben and I and it's kind of creative to buy old apartments and fix them up and of course we have a philosophy that there is no income unless the place is properly cared for and the apartment management field is full of people who just milk the properties and do the very minimum and that's a stupid mistake if you're a long-term investor

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但我们享受了相当多的乐趣，阿维（注：原文AI为音误）和他的合伙人鲁本（Ruben）还有我。买旧公寓并把它们修缮好是一件很有创造力的事情。当然，我们有一种哲学，那就是除非这个地方得到妥善的照顾，否则就不会有收入；而公寓管理领域里到处都是那些只想榨取房产价值、只做最底限维护的人，如果你是一个长期投资者，这是一个愚蠢的错误。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and Abby and I share a belief that all these things should be immediately improved and I think in the first what year or something like that we spent $600,000 on trees on just four projects

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 阿维和我有着共同的信念，即所有这些东西都应该立即得到改善，我想在第一年左右的时间里，我们仅仅在四个项目上就花了60万美元种树。

[原文] [Interviewer]: he's got my heart right there i've got to say was that a planted question no it was not a plant it was not and but Oh Larry but but Jack you're probably doing it out of love

[译文] [主持人]: 他就在那里俘获了我的心，我得说，那是一个安排好的问题（planted question）吗？不，那不是安排好的，不是。但是，哦，拉里，但是，但是杰克，你这么做可能是出于爱。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and I know how much better it's going to work for me so I don't deserve much credit because it's very much in my interest financially to plant all those trees now I would probably plant them anyway but I can't prove that at any rate that's how that's how we came out here and of course I like I like the mountains and I like the trees and I like the people and I like these good colleges i didn't start out with the idea I picked Redlands out of the world it's just where this apartment project that caught my attention was and but once I was here I did not know there was an EZRI company

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 而且我知道这对我会有多大的好处，所以我其实不配得到太多赞誉，因为现在种下所有这些树在财务上非常符合我的利益，我可能本来也会种它们，但我无法证明这一点。无论如何，这就是我们来到这里的原因，当然我喜欢……我喜欢这里的山，我喜欢这里的树，我喜欢这里的人，我也喜欢这些好大学。我一开始并没有想要从全世界挑中雷德兰兹这个想法，只是吸引我注意力的这个公寓项目恰好在这里。但是一旦我来到了这里，我之前甚至不知道这里有一家EZRI公司。

章节 2：好公司与“双赢”（Win-Win）的商业哲学

📝 本节摘要：

本章中，芒格分享了他评判企业和人际关系的底层逻辑。他坦言自己依靠“老派的常识”行事，并用阿维（Avi）免除ESRI员工租房门槛的聪明举措，引出了他关于“服务客户”的道德与利益统一论。随后，主持人问及芒格与巴菲特收购公司的标准，芒格抛出了他著名的投资法则：“寻找一个白痴都能经营的好生意”。他分享了自己担任一家注定失败的医院主席的惨痛经历，借此说明“烂生意会毁掉好名声”。最后，芒格极力推崇“双赢”（Win-Win）策略，他以Costco（好市多）和好友彼得·考夫曼为例，强调在商业生态中让客户、员工与供应商都赢，才是世界上唯一长久有效的发展公式。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: i have made my way in life with a pencil and a pen and a calculating machine in the compound interest table and I haven't looked at a calculus question since I was 19 years old so I'm totally a creature of of oldfashioned horse since and a little arithmetic and so I don't know about software companies like Ezri so if I'd known I would have paid more for the project

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我这一生都是靠着铅笔、钢笔、计算器和复利表走过来的，从19岁起我就没再看过微积分题了。所以我完全是一个凭着老式的常识（old-fashioned horse sense，注：原文音误记为horse since）和一点算术本能行事的人，因此我不了解像Ezri（注：应为ESRI）这样的软件公司，如果我早知道的话，我愿意为这个项目付更多的钱。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: you know it's it's a huge blessing to go into community as a big employer that keeps hiring and so forth and Obby is so smart i didn't suggest that he start giving there are all kinds of rules in apartment house operators about guarantees of leases and down payments and what have you and not every new employee of EZRI qualifies and AI just took one look at the situation he waves all those requirements for anybody that wants to work at EZRI

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 你知道，作为一个不断招聘的庞大雇主进入一个社区，这是一个巨大的福音，等等。而阿维太聪明了，我并没有建议他开始提供……公寓运营商有各种各样的规定，关于租赁担保、首付款等等，不是每一个EZRI的新员工都符合条件。但阿维（注：原文AI为音误）只看了一眼情况，就对任何想在EZRI工作的人免除了所有这些要求。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: thank you Aby i really appreciate that but there again he doesn't deserve any credit it's a smart business trick so he doesn't know whether he's being nice or being a greedy i don't whatever i like these things where a confluence of two factors is working in the right direction and but I happen to think I share Jack's interest in design and architecture which is an absolute accident

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 谢谢你阿维，我真的很感激。但话又说回来，这没什么值得赞扬的，这是一个聪明的商业诀窍，所以他自己都不知道他是在发善心还是在贪婪。我不管，我就是喜欢这种两个因素汇聚在一起、并朝着正确方向发挥作用的事情。而且，我碰巧认为我和杰克（Jack）对设计和建筑有着共同的兴趣，这纯属偶然。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: my uncle was a graduate of the Harvard School of Architecture and I am a graduate of the Harvard Law School and I have done a fair amount of house building for myself and building projects of various kinds in my long life and so it's kind of a hobby with me to do what Jack does sort of professionally and uh so of course man I see this beautiful campus and this very successful company and I'm also a total nut on the subject that the best way to get what you want in life is to deserve what you want

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我的叔叔毕业于哈佛建筑学院，而我毕业于哈佛法学院，在我漫长的一生中，我自己建过不少房子，也做过各种各样的建筑项目，所以杰克专业在做的事情，对我来说算是一种爱好。所以，天哪，当我看到这个美丽的校园和这家非常成功的公司时……而且，我还是个十足的“疯子”，在这个问题上极度坚持：在生活中得到你想要的东西的最好方法，就是让你自己配得上你想要的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and of course if you apply that to business that means you really take care of the customers and it's perfectly obvious that what's happened to Ezri would not have happened if it weren't terribly good at taking care of the customers

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 当然，如果你把这一点应用到商业中，那就意味着你要真正照顾好你的客户。很明显，如果Ezri在照顾客户方面不是做得极其出色，发生在它身上的事情就不会发生。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and of course that's again I don't deserve any credit for doing I know I make more money taking care of the customers than I would if I were more short-term operated and operating and so I don't want to masquerade as a better fellow than I am because since it works so well I don't think it's it'd be nice if I get Mother Teresa and do something I didn't like doing because I'm a noble soul

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 当然，那又一次……我这么做不配得到任何赞扬。我知道照顾好客户赚的钱，比我进行更多短期操作赚的钱要多。所以我不想把自己伪装成一个比实际更好的人，因为既然它这么有效，我不认为……如果我是特蕾莎修女，因为拥有高尚的灵魂而去做一些我不喜欢做的事情，那当然很好。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but I my life is organized so that just time after time what works for my pocketbook works for every moral teaching that I've been taught and aren't anybody with in such a position is very lucky and you people who work for a company like Ezri are hugely lucky too because there are a lot of employers that are defective

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但我的人生组织方式是，一次又一次地，那些对我的钱包有好处的事情，也恰好符合我所受的每一项道德教诲。处于这种境地的人不是很幸运吗？而你们这些在像Ezri这样的公司工作的人也极其幸运，因为有很多雇主是有缺陷的。

[原文] [Interviewer]: one of the things I have as a question is you have acquired many companies you and Warren together in your career you've looked at probably thousands what's the kind of philosophy that you have determining what's a good company and what's not a good company and I I I'm not suggesting that you've had perfect success in all of your acquisitions because I know you haven't you told me that but what is it that what is your sort of philosophical rule base for when you're looking at organizations to invest in or acquire

[译文] [主持人]: 我想问的一个问题是，在你的职业生涯中，你和沃伦（Warren）一起收购了许多公司，你们可能考察过成千上万家公司，你们用来决定什么是一家好公司、什么不是一家好公司的哲学是什么？我……我并不是说你们在所有的收购中都取得了完美的成功，因为我知道你们没有，你跟我说过，但是，当你们考察投资或收购的组织时，你们那种哲学层面的“规则库”是什么？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well we have a very peculiar way of looking at things we want to buy something that's intrinsically a very good business meaning that an idiot could run it and it would do all right and then we want that business which an idiot could run successfully he'd have a wonderful person in it running it and if we have a wonderful business with a wonderful person running it that really turns us on and it works very well

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，我们看事物的方式非常特别。我们想买一些本质上非常好的生意，意思是一个白痴都能经营它，而且它也能运转良好。然后，我们希望那个白痴都能经营成功的生意里，能有一个非常出色的人来管理它。如果我们拥有一个由非常出色的人管理的非常好的生意，那真的会让我们兴奋不已，而且它运作得非常好。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and now we we do make exceptions but not many and it's a pretty simple philosophy warren sometimes says you have to choose good person or good business and you know what he says this is not politically correct he says "Good business." He wants something that has such tremendous strength that I had a friend when I would practice law and he said "If it won't stand a little mismanagement it's not much of a business." And we like businesses that stand a lot of mismanagement but don't get it

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 现在，我们确实也会破例，但不多，而且这是一个非常简单的哲学。沃伦有时会说，你必须在“好人”和“好生意”之间做出选择，你知道他怎么说吗？这在政治上并不正确，他说：“好生意。”他想要一种具有如此巨大力量的东西，以至于……我以前当律师时有个朋友，他说：“如果它经不起一点管理不善，那它就不是什么好生意。”而我们喜欢那种能经受住大量管理不善、但却并没有被管理不善的生意。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: so that's our formula and it and we can't make it work perfectly but it certainly worked better than most people's methods have been and and we reject some wonderful businesses with some wonderful people where it's just too tough

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 所以这就是我们的公式，我们无法让它完美无缺地运作，但它肯定比大多数人的方法更有效，而且我们拒绝了一些拥有出色人才的绝佳生意，只因为它们太难做了。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and I took on once I've been so lucky in life that I took on once a job of being chairman of a nonprofit hospital because it was a losing hand too many competitors too weak a position had a lot of terrible defects and I said you know this is good for me exposed myself to the disappointments of the real world and I want to tell you it was 40 years of mixed agony and pleasure and and the agony never went away it was if the business is tough enough it has a way of staying tough

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我曾经接手过一次……我一生都非常幸运，所以我曾经接手过一家非营利医院主席的工作，因为那是一手烂牌，竞争对手太多，地位太弱，有很多可怕的缺陷，我说，你知道，这对我挺好的，让我暴露在现实世界的失望中。我想告诉你们，那是由痛苦和快乐交织的40年，而那种痛苦从未消散。就是说，如果一门生意足够艰难，它总有办法一直艰难下去。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: as a Warren says that when a business with a reputation for being tough and a manager with an opportunity for being brilliant get together he says it's the reputation of the business that remains and if they they start tough they stay tough it's really hard to change a whole business or a person lots of luck if you're disappointed one of your children you started

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 正如沃伦所说，当一个以艰难著称的生意和一个有机会展现才华的管理者结合在一起时，他说，留下来的往往是那门生意的名声。如果它们一开始就很难，它们就会一直难下去，要改变整个企业或一个人真的很难。祝你好运，如果你对你的某个孩子感到失望……你一开始……

[原文] [Interviewer]: one time you mentioned that you have a particular way of making deals with people your friends uh business deals could you sort of express that to this crowd uh you know your sort of philosophy about uh do you try to win at all costs or what is your what

[译文] [主持人]: 有一次你提到，你有一种特殊的方式与人做交易，你的朋友们，呃，商业交易，你能向这里的听众表达一下吗？呃，你知道的，你的那种关于……你会试图不惜一切代价赢吗？还是说你的……什么？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: no no no again what really works in life is win-win and that requires some sensitivity to the other fellow's way of thinking and and his needs too and but but win-win is the only formula that really will work on and on and on and when it really starts working when two people trust each other

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 不，不，不。再次强调，在生活中真正起作用的是双赢（win-win）。这需要对对方的思维方式以及他们的需求有一定的敏感度。但是，双赢是唯一能够长长久久、持续有效的公式。而当它真正开始发挥作用时，当两个人相互信任时……

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: imagine take a operating theater at the Mayo Clinic the whole damn group trust one another there's not a lot of lawyers or you know they just know what to do and when to do it and who to call on for what help and everybody does what they're supposed to and so on so we're trying to get these win-win relations

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 想象一下梅奥诊所（Mayo Clinic）的手术室，整个团队都互相信任，那里没有一堆律师，你知道，他们只知道该做什么，什么时候做，需要什么帮助该找谁，每个人都做他们该做的事，等等。所以我们就是在努力建立这些双赢的关系。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and of course I see it all the time costco has this reputation i'm a director of Costco and Costco has this reputation of being a fairly tough buyer i don't regard them as that tough there are a lot of people who are rich as small suppliers of Costco but Costco is into into win-win and that's what really works yeah it's win-win with their customers but it's also win-win with their suppliers and it's also win-win with their employees absolutely everybody has to win

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 当然，我一直都看到这种情况。好市多（Costco）就有这样的名声，我是Costco的董事，Costco有作为一个相当强硬的买家的名声。我不认为他们有那么强硬，有很多人作为Costco的小供应商而变得富有，但Costco追求的是双赢，这才是真正有效的东西。是的，它是与客户双赢，它也是与供应商双赢，它也是与员工双赢，绝对是这样，每个人都必须赢。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and and Peter Coffenham you know well it's just Peter was here a few weeks ago did anybody see Peter he's a close friend of uh Well Peter's the ultimate win-win operator and the last person I want to compete with in life is Peter he's just takes such good care of the customers i've never heard any complaint from Peter's customers except that his price is high everything else about the business is perfect

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 还有彼得·考夫曼（Peter Kaufman，注：原文音误记为Coffenham），你很了解他，彼得几周前刚来过这里，有人看到彼得了吗？他是一个好朋友……嗯，彼得是终极的“双赢”践行者。在我一生中，我最不想与之竞争的人就是彼得。他把客户照顾得太好了，我从来没有听过彼得的客户有任何抱怨，除了他的价格有点高，但生意上的其他一切都完美无缺。

章节 3：关于慈善事业的独特见解与国家建设

📝 本节摘要：

本章由拉里（Larry）就“慈善事业”的提问引出。芒格首先以宏大的历史视角，将美国与荷兰慷慨的慈善传统归因于应对共同苦难（抵御恶劣自然环境与拓荒危险）的历史沉淀。在谈及个人的慈善观时，芒格强调“将资金与理念结合”的价值远胜于单纯的施舍。他以麦克纳马拉（McNamara）对中国的援助以及李光耀（Lee Kuan Yew）建设新加坡的伟大成就为例，高度赞颂了邓小平“不管黑猫白猫，抓到老鼠就是好猫”的务实精神，以及李光耀“找到有效的方法并去执行（figure out what works and do it）”的政治智慧。最后，芒格提出了一个略显反直觉却极其深刻的社会观察：有时为了炫耀而做慈善的“伪善”，在日积月累的“假装”中，也会将人潜移默化地转变为真正的慈善家。

[原文] [Interviewer]: larry do you have any questions

[译文] [主持人]: 拉里，你有什么问题吗？

[原文] [Larry]: yeah I I I don't want to totally but I'm going to uh change it from from the subjects you've been asking Jack and forewarning spoiler alert we talked about this back backstage i think you have a surprising take on a question that I was asking about philanthropy in this country and you gave an analysis that to me was quite unexpected that I wasn't really thinking about so can I have you

[译文] [拉里]: 是的，我……我不想完全偏题，但我打算……呃，改变一下你刚才问杰克（Jack）的那些话题，而且先预警一下（剧透警告），我们之前在后台谈过这个。我认为你对我在问的关于这个国家慈善事业（philanthropy）的问题，有一个令人惊讶的看法，你给出了一个对我来说相当出乎意料、我以前从未真正想过的分析，所以我能请你（再讲一遍吗）……

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: yeah I'm glad to repeat it what I have noticed in my life is that in Europe they do not have American philanthropy it It's just different

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 是的，我很乐意重复一遍。我在一生中注意到的是，在欧洲，他们没有美国式的慈善事业，它就是不同的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: the only country in Europe where the people give heavily and routinely the way we do in America is Holland and they were fighting the North Sea together right 35% of of Holland is under sea level and they really had to help one another with the dikes and so forth

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 欧洲唯一一个人们像我们美国人那样大量且常态化捐赠的国家是荷兰。他们当时在一起对抗北海，对吧？荷兰35%的土地低于海平面，他们真的必须互相帮助修建堤坝等等。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and in America we had the pioneers taking away the country from hostilities and danger and bad climate and so forth and everybody had to help everybody else

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 而在美国，我们有先驱者（pioneers）从敌意、危险、恶劣气候等等之中开辟出这个国家，每个人都必须帮助其他人。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: so I think that both Holland and the United States were helped with a big tradition of philanthropy by the common hardship and I think it's a great strength that we have in America

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 所以我认为，荷兰和美国都在共同的苦难中形成了一个庞大的慈善传统，我认为这是我们在美国拥有的一项巨大优势。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: that and if any of us were transplanted to Italy or France or Germany we'd feel we're among the most selfish people they just don't have much of a tradition of giving

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 就是这样。如果我们中的任何人被移植到意大利、法国或德国，我们会觉得我们身处在最自私的人群之中，他们就是没有太多给予的传统。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and I don't know about you but my involvement with charitable activities has been a big part of my life and I think I'm better for it and I've had a better life so I think they're missing out

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我不知道你们是怎么想的，但我参与慈善活动一直是我生活中很重要的一部分，我认为我因此变得更好，我拥有了更好的生活，所以我认为他们（欧洲人）错失了这一点。

[原文] [Larry]: how do you do it i mean you you what I've watched is you have a very specific set of things you do and I I'm totally charmed by it but also interested in having you share it

[译文] [拉里]: 你是怎么做的呢？我的意思是，我观察到你有一套非常具体的行事方式，我完全被它迷住了，但也很想听你分享一下。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well not everybody is charmed by it because I get begging letters every day and I just throw in the waste basket particularly when they come from individuals I don't know yeah because I have a feeling if I started responding to those I'd have nothing but letters

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，并不是每个人都被它迷住的，因为我每天都会收到乞讨信，我直接把它们扔进废纸篓，特别是当它们来自我不认识的个人时。是的，因为我有一种感觉，如果我开始回复那些信，我就会除了收信之外什么都干不了。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but I'm like everybody else i have things that interest me more than other things and I have done a lot of philanthropy where I've mixed my own ideas with my money

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但我和其他人一样，我有些事情比其他事情更让我感兴趣，我做过很多慈善，在这些慈善中，我把自己的理念和金钱结合在了一起。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and my attitude there is a lot like what McNamera told the Chinese when he went over there when they were still mired in communism without Chinese characteristics

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 而我在这方面的态度，很像麦克纳马拉（McNamara）去中国时对中国人说的话，当时他们还深陷在“没有中国特色”的共产主义之中。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and Magnamera says "We're giving you all this money from my World Bank." He says "But I want you to know something." He says "The ideas I'm promoting are going to help you a lot more than this enormous amount of money."

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 麦克纳马拉说：“我们要从我的世界银行（World Bank）给你们所有这些钱。”他说，“但我希望你们明白一件事。”他说，“我所推广的理念，将会比这笔巨额资金对你们的帮助大得多。”

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: And so it worked out what a little free enterprise did when added to Chinese communism was take 800 million people up to billion something people and 80% of them were living in stoop labor and subsistence agriculture they were living like the people of central a Africa live

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 结果确实如此。当一点点自由企业精神被加入到中国共产主义中时，它所起的作用是，带领8亿到10亿多人口……当时他们中有80%的人过着弯腰劳作（stoop labor）和维持温饱的农业生活，他们生活得就像非洲中部的人一样。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and it wasn't that all that many years with the Chinese have a big middle class and an average GDP of $10,000 a person instead of $300 a person transformed the world and the ideas were worth more

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 没过多少年，中国人就拥有了庞大的中产阶级，人均GDP达到了1万美元，而不是300美元，这改变了世界，而那些理念的价值要大得多。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and you have to give the Chinese credit for one of those old communist said I don't care if the cat cat is black or white as long as it catches might they watched the Chinese man in Singapore and take a malarial swamp and turn it into almost a paradise with a 70% Chinese population

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 而且你必须把功劳归于中国人。其中一位老共产党员（注：指邓小平）说过，我不管猫是黑的还是白的，只要它能抓到老鼠（注：原文might为音误，应为mice）就行。他们观察着新加坡的华人，把一个疟疾肆虐的沼泽变成了一个近乎天堂的地方，那里有70%的华人人口。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: And they're sitting there in this poverty and obscurity and no toilets and really very tough lives and here is Singapore flourishing with his Chinese population that old communist says "I want to be like Singapore." And he made it happen now that I think it deserves some credit

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 而他们当时坐在贫困和默默无闻中，没有厕所，过着非常艰难的生活，而这边是新加坡及其华人人口在繁荣发展，那位老共产党员说：“我想变得像新加坡一样。”然后他做到了，现在我认为这值得一些赞誉。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: in my life i think what happened in Singapore was one of the interesting bits of political science that ever happened in the history of the world i would argue that Lee upon you is probably the greatest nation builder that ever built

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 在我的一生中，我认为在新加坡发生的事情，是世界历史上发生过的最有趣的政治学事件之一。我认为李光耀（Lee Kuan Yew，注：原文Lee upon you为音误）可能是世界上最伟大的国家建设者（nation builder）。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: now occasionally he would use a pretty tough method when he took over he was a very young man and he needed an army he was surrounded by a bunch of Muslims that hated him and in fact they'd spit him out

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 不过有时他也会使用相当强硬的手段。当他接管时，他还是个非常年轻的人，他需要一支军队。他被一群恨他的穆斯林包围着，事实上他们当时把他给踢了出去。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and he asked all the other nations of the world to please help him get an army cuz the English just left and said handle your own problem and every nation in the world refused to help him but one and that was Israel

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 他请求世界上所有其他国家来帮助他建立一支军队，因为英国人刚刚离开，并说你们自己解决你们的问题。世界上每一个国家都拒绝帮助他，除了一国，那就是以色列。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and he said "How am I going to take military aid surrounded by Muslims who hate me from Israel?" He finally figured it out he accepted the aid and told everybody they were Mexicans

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 他说：“我被恨我的穆斯林包围着，我怎么能接受来自以色列的军事援助呢？”他最终想出了办法：他接受了援助，然后告诉所有人他们是墨西哥人（Mexicans）。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well you you can see why he was so successful he had a mantra which doesn't have any literary quality but it has a lot of good sense in it he he would say over and over again figure out what works and do it

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，你们可以明白他为什么如此成功了。他有一句口头禅（mantra），这句口头禅没有任何文学色彩，但却包含着极大的常识，他会一遍又一遍地说：找到有效的方法，并去执行它（figure out what works and do it）。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: that's what le that's what Bill Mod said very practical very practical very practical figure out what works and do it

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 那就是……那就是比尔·莫德（Bill Mod，注：音误）说过的，非常实用，非常实用，非常实用，找到有效的方法，并去执行它。

[原文] [Larry]: do a a followup on this um did you do you feel that philanthropically are people I know there's not a gene but born with an instinctive sense that uh to help or is it a learned trait as one gets on

[译文] [拉里]: 就这个问题做个跟进，嗯……你是否觉得，在慈善方面，人们——我知道没有这种基因——是天生带有一种去帮助别人的本能，还是说它是人们在成长过程中后天习得的特质？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: i I just I think there's a million different reasons for philanthropy and one thing that is very interesting that I've observed in my life I've known a lot of roguish people that made a fair amount of money and they start giving a little money to show off

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我……我只是认为做慈善有上百万种不同的原因。我在一生中观察到一件非常有趣的事情，我认识很多赚了相当一笔钱的无赖/狡猾之人（roguish people），他们一开始为了炫耀而捐出一点钱。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and 20 years later they're actually real philanthropists you become what you pretend to be to some considerable extent and having observed this so much I think there's something to be said for hypocrisy

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 结果20年后，他们实际上变成了真正的慈善家。在很大程度上，你会变成你假装（pretend to be）的样子。在观察了这么多这样的情况后，我认为对于“伪善（hypocrisy）”也有其可取之处。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but that's not a common that's not a common observation but I've seen it do so much good in life that I don't think it's all bad the hypocrisy I always try to pretend to be a little better than I am not too much of a uh

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但这不是一个普遍的……这不是一个普遍的观察结果，但我看到它在生活中做了这么多好事，所以我不认为“伪善”完全是坏事。我总是试着假装自己比实际的我更好一点，虽然不是伪装得太……呃。

章节 4：阅读的力量与通识教育的价值

📝 本节摘要：

本章主要探讨了阅读与自学在个人成长中的决定性作用。芒格指出，阅读是自我教育的最佳途径，它允许人们完全按照自己的节奏和偏好去高效汲取知识。在谈及“专业化”与“通识教育”的对比时，芒格坦言，虽然高度专业化（如专注于某一领域的外科医生）是大多数人通往成功“最安全”的途径，但他个人更偏爱跨学科的通识思维（Liberal Arts）。他极力强调，仅仅掌握好基础语言和基本算术，就足以让人攻克广阔的知识领域，而高等教育最宝贵的财富绝非高深理论（如微积分），而是“学会学习的方法”。最后，芒格分享了他在哈佛法学院时期，为了弄懂“统一教”（Reverend Moon）的洗脑机制而自行破解一连串心理学诡计的趣事，生动展示了他“只要别人不解释，我就自己找答案”的强悍自学精神。

[原文] [Interviewer]: by the way don't you read a book a day something like that like you told

[译文] [主持人]: 顺便问一下，你是不是像你以前说过的那样，一天读一本书左右？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well maybe not I read and I skim a lot I do the accidents of life you'll give me books I a torrent of books and perfect strangers give me books lots of them and I almost never buy a book anymore when I was young I used to order them from the book review columns of the New York Times and now that it's Torrent of Books comes in I just select what I want and I'm amazed at how well some of these people are reading me

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，也许不到一天一本，我经常阅读，也经常略读。生活中总有种种机缘，你们会送我书，我收到过如同洪流般的书，完全陌生的人也会送给我很多书。我现在几乎不再买书了，年轻时我常根据《纽约时报》的书评专栏订购书籍，而现在书籍如潮水般涌来，我只挑选我想要的看，而且我很惊讶有些送书的人竟然如此懂我。

[原文] [Interviewer]: and what and what has that done to your life

[译文] [主持人]: 那么，这……这对你的人生有什么影响呢？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: i think Well it it's it was perfect for me i don't think you can take every bookish little boy and turn him into a billionaire by patting him on the head and say "Read all you want Johnny." But if it were that easy there'd be more billionaires but it enormously helped me

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我觉得……嗯，这对我来说非常完美。我不认为你可以随便找一个爱读书的小男孩，摸摸他的头说“想读什么就读吧，约翰尼”，然后就能把他变成亿万富翁。 如果真有那么简单，亿万富翁早就满大街都是了，但这（阅读）确实给了我极大的帮助。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and I think reading once you've learned it reading and arithmetic you can take in so much and you can take it in on your own time schedule if somebody's talking to you he may be telling you something you don't want to know you already know it's too hard or he's going too fast or too slow but when you're reading you can just take it as you want take it as you want it so it's just God's gift if you if you're into self-education there's nothing like reading and of course people who do a lot of it have an enormous advantage

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我认为一旦你学会了阅读——阅读和算术，你就能吸收极多的知识，而且你可以完全按照自己的时间表来吸收。如果有人在对你说话，他可能在讲一些你不想知道的、或者你已经知道的内容，也可能讲得太深奥，或者语速太快、太慢；但当你在阅读时，你可以完全按照自己的意愿去汲取，你想怎么吸收就怎么吸收。所以，如果你热衷于自我教育，阅读简直就是上帝的恩赐，没有什么比得上阅读，当然，读得多的人会拥有巨大的优势。

[原文] [Interviewer]: and what does that say to education you might have a question yeah we back to this issue about sort of today you have such a variety and depth of diverse interests and ways in which you acquire knowledge and observation and all the rest what where do you think we're headed in terms of specialization versus a broad-based uh at least

[译文] [主持人]: 这对教育又意味着什么呢？你可能会有个问题……是的，我们回到今天讨论过的这个问题：你有如此广泛和深度的多样化兴趣，以及你获取知识、进行观察的各种方式等等。你认为我们在“专业化（specialization）”与“基础广博（broad-based）”之间的权衡上，至少将走向何方？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well specialation specialization is the safest way up for most people and for that reason say surgeons know more and more about less and less and that's that's what gets rewarded and if you have a nasty fistula in your colon you do not want a surgeon who's good at P or political science you know you know it's it's it's understandable how world rewards this specialization

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，专业化……对大多数人来说，专业化是向上攀升的最安全途径。正因如此，比方说外科医生会对越来越窄的领域懂的越来越多，这就是能获得回报的模式。如果你结肠里长了一个难缠的瘘管，你绝对不会想要一个精通政治学之类的外科医生，对吧。你知道，你知道这个世界为什么会奖励专业化，这是可以理解的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: i never liked it and I loved picking up new ideas being a passionate reader and so I decided I'd make whatever living I could make doing what I like to do which is sort of romping over a whole field i do not recommend it to other people because the safe way up is to know a hell of a lot about something and under our system they find you out ezra wouldn't have worked very well if you also ragged lawns you know the you never know really i've done my I've done my share of it yeah well I mean but if you had everybody out here wouldn't work working by the hour raking lawns on their spare time it it wouldn't work very well

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但我从来都不喜欢这样，我喜欢汲取新思想，作为一个充满激情的读者，我决定要用我喜欢做的事情来谋生，不管是怎样的生计，那就是在整个广阔的知识领域中纵情驰骋（romping over a whole field）。我不向其他人推荐这种方式，因为最安全的晋升之路，是对某一件特定的事情知道得极其透彻。在我们的体制下，人们会发掘出你来。如果你们同时也去耙草坪（注：此处举例意指不专注），Ezri（注：原文记为ezra）可能就不会运作得这么好了，你知道，真的说不准。我做过……我做过我那份耙草坪的事，是的。嗯，我的意思是，如果你们让这里的每个人都在业余时间按小时计费去耙草坪，那绝对运作不好。

[原文] [Interviewer]: and I think I think what Larry is trying to get at is the role of a liberal arts education what is your thoughts about that

[译文] [主持人]: 我认为……我认为拉里（Larry）想要探讨的是通识教育（liberal arts education）的作用，你对此有什么看法？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well it's an enormous advantage of course if you learn your own language that's a very useful gift and of course learning the basic math of life is another tremendous gift and if you're really good at picking up language and doing just basic arithmetic you can take enormous territory you don't need much else

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，那当然拥有巨大的优势。如果你学好了自己的母语，那将是一项非常有用的天赋；当然，学会生活中基础的数学也是另一项极大的恩赐。如果你真的非常擅长掌握语言和进行基础的算术，你就能攻克极其广阔的领域，你不需要太多其他的东西。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: uh I have never looked at the calculus problem since I left Caltech never left it never looked once never used it and I was a whiz mhm by the way I went away totally 70 some years that was enough yeah I don't know about your calculus but mine is mine was is gone but this other stuff never goes away and if you keep honing it and if you get good at it then you learn something that's more important than what they teach you in college is you learn the method of learning

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 呃，自从我离开加州理工学院（Caltech）后，我就再也没看过微积分题了，离开后一次也没看过，一次也没用过，而我以前可是个微积分奇才。嗯哼，顺便说一下，我已经彻底离开那里70多年了，这已经足够久了。是的，我不知道你们的微积分怎么样，但我的……我的早就忘光了。但其他这些（基础）东西永远不会消失，如果你不断磨砺它，如果你变得擅长它，那么你会学到比大学里教你的东西更重要的事情，那就是你学会了学习的方法（the method of learning）。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: when I want to know something I just learn it and take for instance I got to the Harvard Law School and I couldn't figure out how Reverend Moon was inviting people out to one weekend and they came back brainwashed zombies for the rest of their lives and I just and nobody in the Harvard Law School could explain it to me so I said I'll figure it out for myself

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 当我想知道某件事时，我就直接去学。举个例子，我到了哈佛法学院时，我实在想不通为什么文鲜明牧师（Reverend Moon，注：统一教创始人）只是邀请人们出去度个周末，他们回来后余生就变成了被洗脑的僵尸。我就是不懂，而且哈佛法学院里也没人能向我解释清楚，所以我说，我要自己弄明白。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: you know my mother had a little nursery rhyme with a little head red hand that said I'll do it myself said the little red hand so I said I'll figure this out well it took me a long time but I finally figured out to my satisfaction exactly what what was being done they were just and they just stumbled into this through practice evolution it wasn't calculated forethought they just assembled a bunch of psychological tricks and pounded them on these people all at once under conditions involving stress and at a certain point the brain would just snap and they had these people transformed into slaves boom

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 你知道，我母亲曾教过我一首关于“小红母鸡”（little red hen，注：原文音误记为little head red hand）的童谣，里面说：“‘我要自己来做，’小红母鸡说。”所以我说，我要自己弄明白。好吧，这花了我很长时间，但我最终以让我自己满意的方式，确切地搞懂了他们到底在做什么。他们只是……他们只是在实践演变中偶然摸索出了这套方法，这并不是深思熟虑的预谋。他们只是把一堆心理学诡计集合起来，然后在包含巨大压力的环境条件下，一股脑儿地猛砸在这些人身上。到了某个临界点，大脑就会直接崩溃（snap），然后“砰”的一声，他们就把这些人变成了奴隶。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well that was a very interesting thing but of course nobody wants to talk about it because it has implications people here but I think that the that habit of of if they won't explain it to you figure it out for yourself has helped me enormously in life it's also hurt me because you give terrible offense when you go into somebody else's profession and act like you know more than he does right and I've I'm much smoother now than I was when I was younger i'm still pretty insufferable

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，这是一件非常有趣的事情，但当然没人在（法学院里）谈论它，因为它对这里的人有一定的影响/暗示。但我认为，那种“如果别人不给你解释，你就自己找答案”的习惯，在生活中给了我极大的帮助。当然，它也伤害过我，因为当你涉足别人的专业领域，表现得好像比他还懂时，你会极大地冒犯别人，对吧。我现在比年轻时圆滑多了，但我依然相当令人难以忍受（insufferable）。

章节 5：对政治仇恨的警示与对宏观经济的展望

📝 本节摘要：

本章探讨了当前的政治与经济环境。面对主持人关于当今时代的提问，芒格首先表达了对当下日益加剧的政治仇恨与怨恨的深切担忧，指出“怨恨”与“仇恨”会对个人的心智造成极大的自我破坏。在谈及宏观经济时，他坦陈自己这一代人享有了史无前例的“巨大顺风车”，并预测未来出生的人将面临更为艰难的投资环境与挑战。然而，芒格依然保持达观，他引用吉卜林（Kipling）的诗句，建议投资者在股市波动面前保持淡定，将成功与失败视为同等的“骗子”，以平常心应对人生的起伏。最后，几位嘉宾为接下来的现场观众问答环节做好了过渡准备。

[原文] [Interviewer]: what What are you thinking about today's economy in reference to 10 years ago in reference to 20 30 40 years ago what's going on today

[译文] [主持人]: 你……对比10年前，对比20、30、40年前，你是如何看待当今经济的？如今正在发生什么？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well what's gone on in politics is that the people hate each other more than they used to it wasn't that we didn't have political hatreds in the old days but now the hatred is you can cut with a knife on both sides i think it's very ugly and I also think it is stupid to allow yourself to hate that much

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，在政治上发生的事情是，人们比过去更恨彼此了。并不是说我们过去没有政治仇恨，但现在的仇恨浓烈得简直可以用刀切开（cut with a knife），而且是双方皆如此。我认为这非常丑陋，我也认为，任由自己去怀有如此深重的仇恨是愚蠢的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: there are two things I've noticed in a long life really do a enormous damage to the bearer and one of them is resentment and the other is hatred and it just what good is it going to do you to have this vast resentment of the way the world is

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 在漫长的一生中，我注意到有两件事确实会对持有者造成巨大的伤害，一是怨恨（resentment），二是仇恨（hatred）。对这个世界的现状抱有如此巨大的怨恨，对你到底能有什么好处呢？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and of course I've watched people work on resentment to get power in politics adolf Hitler did you know we poor Germans have been abused blah blah blah blah blah waving his arms and I think that we have drifted on both sides into way too much hatred and way too much resentment and I think it does terrible damage to the bearer

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 当然，我见过人们利用怨恨在政治上获取权力，阿道夫·希特勒就是这么干的，你知道，挥舞着手臂说我们可怜的德国人受到了虐待，等等等等。我认为我们双方都已偏离轨道，陷入了太多的仇恨和太多的怨恨之中，我认为这对持有这种情绪的人造成了可怕的伤害。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: you can be disappointed in your political opponent you don't have to hate him after all he's just you're probably as much of a nut case as he is in some ways

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 你可以对你的政敌感到失望，但你不必恨他。毕竟，他只是……在某些方面，你可能和他一样也是个疯子（nut case）。

[原文] [Interviewer]: well does it does it scare you about our times or what do what do you think do you think it's going to all work out

[译文] [主持人]: 那么，这……我们这个时代会让你感到害怕吗？或者你怎么看？你认为一切最终都会好起来吗？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well there's always been a fair amount of it in politics you know and Jefferson and Hamilton hated each other and Franklin didn't even Franklin had a certain amount of resentment and hatred and he was he he worked hard at being sensible no I I think that we have way too much too much abs it it's blinding you hate that much it blinds your cognition

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，政治中一直都存在相当多这样的事情。你知道，杰斐逊（Jefferson）和汉密尔顿（Hamilton）就互相仇恨，而富兰克林（Franklin）没有……甚至连富兰克林也有一定程度的怨恨和仇恨，但他……他努力保持理智。不，我……我认为我们现在有太多、太多的仇恨了，它是蒙蔽双眼的。你怀有那么多的仇恨，它会蒙蔽你的认知。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and there's some good in everybody to give an extreme example Adolf Hitler was terribly nice to his dog his mistress and the Jewish doctor that treated his mother's cancer i mean there is something I mean even Adolf Hitler had something good to name him i mean you don't have to be totally mad at everybody because you don't like their politics

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 而且每个人身上都有一些优点。举个极端的例子，阿道夫·希特勒对他的狗、他的情妇，以及治疗他母亲癌症的犹太医生都非常的好。我的意思是，总有一些……我是说，即使是阿道夫·希特勒也有一些值得一提的优点。我的意思是，你大可不必因为不喜欢别人的政治立场就对所有人怒气冲冲。

[原文] [Interviewer]: what about economically are you uh afraid of the times today i mean compare it to 10 years ago when the great recession happened and maybe if you could about the recession what happened

[译文] [主持人]: 那么在经济方面呢？你呃……对当今这个时代感到害怕吗？我的意思是，与10年前发生大衰退（Great Recession）时相比。也许你可以谈谈那场衰退到底发生了什么？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: in a sense you got to remember that I had the easiest time in the easiest place that any generation ever had imagine being born a white male in a burgeois household born in 1924 in Omaha Nebraska i've had a huge tailwind all my life mhm

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 在某种意义上，你必须记住，我拥有过所有世代中最轻松的时代、处在最轻松的地方。想象一下，1924年出生在内布拉斯加州奥马哈（Omaha）的一个资产阶级（bourgeois）家庭的白人男性，我一生都顺风顺水，嗯哼。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: there never was a better time when more things got fixed more diseases got cur cured there was more general prosperity and improvement and so on and so on and so on

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 从来没有一个比如此更好的时代了：在这个时代里，更多的事情被解决，更多的疾病被治愈，出现了更普遍的繁荣与改善，等等等等等等。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: is the future going to be as easy for the young male born in 19 well 2021 i don't think so i think it's going to be harder you can almost see that coming

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 那么，对于出生在19……嗯，2021年的年轻男性来说，未来还会这么轻松吗？我不这么认为。我认为会变得更艰难，你几乎可以预见它的到来。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and you know and some of it was accidental we got this terrible hydrogen bomb and it's given us 60ome years of peace i mean major peace we have little wars and my father was scarcely out of one war before his son was going off in another i think it will be tougher in the in the future

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 你知道，有些事情是偶然的。我们拥有了这种可怕的氢弹，而它给了我们60多年的和平，我的意思是主要的和平，虽然我们也有小规模的战争。而我的父亲当年几乎才刚从一场战争中脱身，他的儿子又要奔赴另一场战争了。我认为未来的日子将会更加艰难。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and I think the I've been continuously invested in American enterprise for 70 years and that was a pretty good 70 years i think the averages are up something like 40 times in my adult life there never was such a period before in in real inflation adjusted time of course it's not 40 times it's way less because maybe two or 3% of that peranom is inflation

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我想……我连续投资美国企业已经70年了，那是相当美好的70年。我想在我的成年期，平均指数大概涨了40倍。在经过真实通胀调整的时间维度里，以前从未有过这样的时期。当然，实际上没有40倍，要少得多，因为其中可能有每年2%或3%是通货膨胀。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but what are the chances let's assume the real return was seven or 8% what are the chances that the person born today is going to have seven or eight% growth and no big wars or troubles for 70 years i'd say they're almost zero

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但是有多大的概率……假设实际回报率是7%或8%，今天出生的人有多大的概率能够在接下来的70年里，不仅享有7%或8%的增长，而且还没有发生大规模的战争或麻烦？我会说，这几乎为零。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: now I don't think that's any reason to despair after all why should you despair in a world if we have a game you can't win anyway we're all going to die and if you can stand that you can stand a little depression or something

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 不过，我不认为这是绝望的理由。毕竟，如果你处在一个本来就赢不了的游戏里，你为什么要在这个世界上绝望呢？反正我们终究都是要死的，如果你连那个都能承受，你也就能承受一点经济萧条之类的事情了。

[原文] [Interviewer]: yeah yeah that's true but what about the uh in a shorter time horizon is this a good time to invest in the stock market it's a funny question is it

[译文] [主持人]: 是的，是的，那是真的。但是在呃……在一个更短的时间跨度内，现在是投资股市的好时机吗？这是个有趣的问题，不是吗？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: yeah well I am continuously invested in American equities mhm and I've had my Bergkshire stock decline by 50% three times mhm and I don't it doesn't bother me that much i regard that as just a natural consequence of adult life properly lived

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 是的，嗯，我是一直持续在投资美国股票的，嗯哼。我的伯克希尔（Berkshire）股票曾经有三次下跌了50%，嗯哼。而我不……这并没有让我那么心烦。我将其视为好好生活的成年人必然会经历的自然结果。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: so if you have my attitude it doesn't really matter i I always like Kipling expressing expression in that poem called if and he said success and failure he says treat those two impostors just the same you just roll with it sometimes it's going for you and some against it's all part of the same game

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 所以如果你有我这样的态度，这就无所谓了。我……我一直很喜欢吉卜林（Kipling）在那首名为《如果》（If）的诗里的表达，他说对于成功和失败，他说，“将这两个骗子（impostors）一视同仁”。你只需顺应它，有时运气站在你这边，有时站在你的对立面，这都是同一场游戏的一部分。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: i think having if you get rid of the crazy hatreds I don't mean you don't avoid bad people i mean you you will seldom talk to anybody who's better at avoiding bad people than I am but I think that's okay but I I don't hate them

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我认为拥有……如果你摆脱了那些疯狂的仇恨……我的意思不是说你不去避开坏人，我的意思是，你很少能和一个比我更擅长避开坏人的人交谈。但我认为那是没问题的，但我……我不恨他们。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: you know this uh causes me going to let but it won't be as good i I don't think that it's going to be as easy for the next generation as it was for me understand

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 你知道，这呃……导致我去随遇而安。但这不会像过去那样好了。我……我不认为下一代人会像我当时那样轻松，明白吗？

[原文] [Interviewer]: Jack jack if you started all over again you might not do as well either i'm not anxious to go back and try

[译文] [主持人]: 杰克（Jack），杰克，如果你从头再来，你可能也不会做得这么好了。我（芒格的玩笑意味）可不急着回去再试一次。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: you want to go back to go and try again no we none of us do i mean I was very lucky just like you in a sense i was luckier actually in that sense

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 你想回去再试一次吗？不，我们谁都不想。我的意思是，我非常幸运，在某种意义上就像你一样，事实上，在这个意义上我更幸运。

[原文] [Interviewer]: yes Larry no no i was just going to say uh due do a little housekeeping were we reserving some time or had we talked with him about taking any questions ultimately from the

[译文] [主持人]: 是的，拉里（Larry）。不，不，我只是想说，呃，做一下流程梳理（housekeeping）。我们是有预留一些时间吗？或者我们之前有和他谈过最终接受来自（观众）的一些提问吗？

章节 6：观众问答（一）—— 幽默感与早年的人生榜样

📝 本节摘要：

本章进入现场观众问答环节。第一位提问者探讨了芒格与巴菲特标志性的幽默感及引人入胜的沟通风格。芒格回应称，这种幽默感很大程度上是天生的，他形容两人从小都有点“书呆子气”，但对探究事物运转原理充满热爱，并指出“热爱解决问题相当于提高了20点智商”。面对第二个关于“20多岁时受何启发”的问题，芒格深情回忆了自己成长环境中的优秀长辈，特别是出身贫寒却极度理性、自学成才的祖父（前联邦法官）。他强调，自己惊人的财务成就并非源于绝顶聪明的神童天赋，而是归功于从祖父等长辈身上学到的基本“思维诀窍（tricks）”。

[原文] [Interviewer]: Would you like to take some questions from the people would you like to ask any questions i do it at the annual meeting of all the time well well Charlie sometimes I don't answer but I take the question well you have the same prerogative here for what you're getting m uh here are there mics and runners not sure if we have them or not okay you have to speak loudly okay raise your hand introduce yourself

[译文] [主持人]: 你想接受现场观众的一些提问吗？你想回答一些问题吗？我在每年的年会上都会这么做，嗯，嗯，查理，有时候我不回答，但我会接受提问，嗯，你在这里也享有同样的特权（prerogative），考虑到你所获得的……呃，这里有麦克风和传递话筒的工作人员吗？我不确定我们有没有。好的，你得大声点说。好的，请举手并做个自我介绍。

[原文] [Chris Talon]: hi I'm Chris Talon hey thank you so much for doing this uh Jack this is an incredible opportunity to meet somebody just so amazing um what what I'm struck by Mr mer is your is your humor and I'm I I'm also struck by your partner's humor in in your style of communication in front of a group especially in front of probably your shareholders my question is is was it something that you developed over time or was it something that just sort of happened naturally through your sort of homespun storytelling ability your your ability to to to understand the world

[译文] [克里斯·塔伦]: 嗨，我是克里斯·塔伦。嘿，非常感谢你们举办这个活动，呃，杰克（Jack），这真是一个不可思议的机会，能见到如此了不起的人。嗯……芒格先生（注：原文mer为音误），让我印象深刻的是您的……您的幽默感，我也……我也被您的合伙人（巴菲特）的幽默感所打动，在你们面对人群，尤其可能是面对你们的股东时的那种沟通风格。我的问题是，这是你们随着时间的推移培养出来的，还是它自然而然地通过你们那种朴实无华（homespun）的讲故事能力、你们理解世界的能力而流露出来的？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: i think Warren and I are very much the way we were born we were both a bit nerdish and not a huge successes as young boys and and but we both had this love of humor and we both loved understanding how things worked and we both are have been lucky enough to attract marvelous associates and partners and so if we weren't pretty goodnatured we'd be crazy and I don't think if you don't have humor I don't think you can get it i think you're born with it

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我认为沃伦（Warren）和我很大程度上保持了我们天生的样子。我们在小时候都有点书呆子气（nerdish），并不是非常成功的小男孩。但是……但我们都热爱幽默，而且我们都热爱探究事物是如何运作的。我们俩都非常幸运，能够吸引到极好的同事和合伙人。所以，如果我们没有相当好的性情，我们早就疯了。而且我不认为……如果你没有幽默感，我不认为你能后天学会它，我认为这是与生俱来的。

[原文] [Interviewer]: that's right

[译文] [主持人]: 说得对。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and the same with shyness and a lot of you can conquer shyness a little but but basically I think we all live with the natures we were we were given and we just have to make do but Warren and I have fun in business and we we like our business and we like the people we work with and and we like the problem solving that's a huge advantage in life if you really love problem solving that that is worth about 20 IQ points

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 害羞也是一样。很多人可以稍微克服一点害羞，但……但基本上，我认为我们都是带着被赋予的天性生活，我们只能尽量去适应它。但是，沃伦和我在商业中找到了乐趣，我们……我们喜欢我们的事业，我们喜欢和我们共事的人，而且……而且我们喜欢解决问题。在生活中这是一个巨大的优势，如果你真的热爱解决问题，那简直相当于提高了约20点智商（IQ points）。

[原文] [Interviewer]: true very true another question right here thank you introduce yourself

[译文] [主持人]: 真的，非常真实。这边还有一个问题，谢谢，请自我介绍一下。

[原文] [Audience Member]: wonderful to listen to thank you uh I wonder if I could ask you to go back to maybe your 20s or something of of what got you really excited when you began seeing what you might do and what your future could be or what you seemed to be especially enthusiastic about that led you this down this path what turned you on first young you know you could have

[译文] [观众]: 听您说话真是太棒了，谢谢。呃，我想知道我是否能请您回顾一下，也许是您的20多岁左右的时候，当您开始看到您可能做些什么、您的未来可能会怎样时，是什么让您真正感到兴奋？或者，是什么让您显得特别热情，从而引领您走上了这条道路？年轻时最先激发您兴趣的是什么？您知道，您本来可以有各种选择的……

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: Well I I came from a conventional family happy marriage good siblings etc my parents' friends were wonderful people so I had just fabulous people in fact I used to say I have a great trouble in Los Angeles finding people as well as I as as fine as the people I used to know in Omaha and I had a very unusually desirable situation as a young boy and and so did Warren although he was more unhappy when he was young than I was and it just happened and I think what was born in was the proper training and proper background

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，我……我来自一个传统的家庭，父母婚姻幸福，兄弟姐妹和睦等等。我父母的朋友们都是很棒的人，所以我身边全都是极好的人。事实上，我过去常说，我在洛杉矶很难找到像我过去在奥马哈（Omaha）认识的那些人一样优秀的人。作为一个小男孩，我拥有一个非常非凡、令人羡慕的成长环境。沃伦也是如此，尽管他年轻时比我更不快乐。事情就这样自然发生了，我认为，与生俱来的是正确的训练和正确的背景。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: my grandfather Munger was a had been born in extreme poverty his two parents were school teachers in a little town in Nebraska and two school teachers income enabled him to buy the meat for dinner every night at the butcher shop in the little town he lived in in Nebraska and he went to the butcher shop with a nickel and he bought the parts of the animal nobody else would eat

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我的芒格祖父是一个……他出生在极度贫困的家庭。他的父母是内布拉斯加州一个小镇上的学校老师。两位老师的微薄收入，只够他每天晚上在内布拉斯加州他所居住的那个小镇上的肉店里买肉做晚餐，他拿着五美分（a nickel）去肉店，买的是动物身上其他人都不愿意吃的部分。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: now if you start life that poor and make your own way which my grandfather did you're quite a fellow and he was self-educated and not self-educated in a rudimentary way i mean he spoke Greek and Latin self-educated and so I had very interesting people as my examples and my grandfather Munger believed down to the soles of his feet in being rational and he worked at it and I watched it and of course it worked well for him it had made him district attorney and president of the bar association and finally a very young federal judge and he served as the only federal judge in his capital city for almost 40 years

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 现在，如果你的起点那么贫穷，却能自己闯出一条路——我的祖父就是这么做的——那你就是个了不起的人。他是自学成才的，而且不是那种粗浅的自学，我是说，他通过自学能说希腊语和拉丁语。所以，我身边有非常有趣的人作为我的榜样。我的芒格祖父彻头彻尾（down to the soles of his feet）坚信理性的力量，他身体力行，而我都看在眼里。当然，这对他也非常受用。这让他成为了地方检察官、律师协会主席，最后成为了一名非常年轻的联邦法官。他在他的首府城市担任唯一的联邦法官，长达近40年。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: i mean he had a splendid life and he always lived way below his income and and was able to help other people when they needed help he was a very good example and he was kind of firm about it he he never took a drop of liquor in his whole life somebody asked him once "Why don't you drink?" And he says "Why would I take money out of my pocket and put something in my mouth that would make my head work less well?"

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我的意思是，他度过了辉煌的一生，而且他总是生活在远低于自己收入水平的状态中，并能够在别人需要帮助时伸出援手。他是一个非常好的榜样，而且他在这方面相当坚定。他……他一生中滴酒不沾。有人曾经问他：“你为什么不喝酒？”他说：“我为什么要从我的口袋里掏出钱，然后把一种会让我的大脑运转变得迟钝的东西放进我的嘴里呢？”

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: Well you can say why I like my grandfather and he was politically incorrect when my parents got married he came he looked around the congregation and came time for him to make a toast and he said "Well," he says "I'm always particularly optimistic at a wedding when I see the same kind of people on both sides of the aisle." Well that's not politically correct but it's a very understandable sentiment

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，你们可以理解我为什么喜欢我的祖父了。而且他在政治上“不正确”。当我的父母结婚时，他来了，环顾了一下参加婚礼的人群，到了他敬酒的时候，他说：“嗯，”他说，“当我在婚礼上看到过道两边坐着的是同一种人（背景相似的人）时，我总是感到特别乐观。”嗯，这在政治上并不正确，但这是一种非常可以理解的情感。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and so anyway I had these good people around me and and a very interesting time of peace and so forth but what caused the financial success was not extreme ability you know I have a good mind but I'm way short of prodigy and I've had results in life that are prodigious and that came from tricks i just learned a few basic tricks from people like my grandfather

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 所以无论如何，我身边有这些优秀的人，并且度过了一段非常有趣的和平时期等等。但导致我取得财务成功的，并不是极高的天赋。你知道，我头脑不错，但绝非神童，而我在生活中却取得了惊人（prodigious）的成就，这源于一些诀窍（tricks），我只是从我祖父那样的人身上学到了一些基本的诀窍。

章节 7：芒格的“思维锦囊”—— 逆向思考与回归常识

📝 本节摘要：

本章由上一节提到的“思维诀窍”自然过渡，芒格详细分享了他的“思维锦囊”。他首先提出了著名的“逆向思考（Invert）”原则，并以二战期间担任空军气象预报员的经历为例：为了保护飞行员，他不去想“如何保全”，而是去想“什么最容易害死他们”，从而有效避开致命危险。接着，他生动讲述了帮助客户解决爱迪生公司地役权赔偿的案例，痛斥了那位只会在二维平面上算账的平庸估价师，强调了“三维思考”和回归常识的重要性。最后，芒格以投资阿纳达科（Anadarko）公司和二叠纪盆地（Permian Basin）为例说明，真正的洞察力不需要没完没了的“尽职调查”，只要抓住核心常识，就能迅速做出极其聪明的决策。

[原文] [Interviewer]: what were those tricks what kind of Now everybody's leaning in wanting to know

[译文] [主持人]: 那些诀窍是什么？哪种类型的？现在大家都探着身子想知道呢。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: it's too late for you old guys there are all kinds of tricks that I just got into by accident in life one I invert all the time i was a weather forecaster when I was in the air and how did I handle my new assignment being a weather forecaster in the airore is a lot like being a doctor that reads X-rays it's a pretty solitary you're in the hangar in the middle of the night and drawing weather maps and you're clearing pilots but you're not interfacing with a bunch of your fellow men very much

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 对你们这些老家伙来说太迟了。生活中我有各种各样偶然习得的诀窍，其中之一就是我一直在用的“逆向思考（invert）”。当年我在空军时是一名气象预报员，我是如何处理我作为气象预报员的新任务的呢？在空军做气象预报员很像做一个看X光片的医生，那是一项相当孤独的工作，你半夜待在机库里画天气图，你给飞行员放行，但你很少和你的一大群同事打交道。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and so I figured out the minute I was actually making weather forecasts for real pilots I said "How can I these pilots?" Now that's not the question that most people would ask but I want to know what the easiest way to kill them would be so I could avoid it and so I thought it through in reverse that way and I finally figured out I said "There are only two ways I'm ever going to I was in the ferry command there only two ways I'm going to kill pilot."

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 所以我想明白了，从我真正开始为真实的飞行员做天气预报的那一刻起，我说：“我怎么才能（害死）这些飞行员？”这并不是大多数人会问的问题，但我想知道害死他们最容易的方法是什么，这样我就能避开它。所以我就这样反过来把事情想透彻，我最终想明白了，我说：“在空运司令部里，只有两种情况我会害死飞行员。”

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: I'm going to get him to icing his plane can't handle and that will kill him or I'm going to get him someplace where he's going to run out of gas before he can land because all the airports are sucked in and I just was fanatic about avoiding those two hazards and if Kobe Bryant had had somebody like me he'd still be with us it was so stupid to kill yourself that way but just that basic I may have learned that from my grandfather my grandfather would say to him when I'm swimming he'd say "Swim as long as you want but stay near the shore." Well but you can laugh but he was a very wise man

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 第一种情况是，我让他飞进他的飞机无法承受的结冰区域，那会害死他；或者我让他飞到某个地方，在能够降落之前耗尽了燃料，因为所有的机场都被大雾吞噬（sucked in）了。我简直对避开这两种危险到了狂热的地步。如果科比·布莱恩特（Kobe Bryant）当时身边有我这样的人，他现在还会和我们在一起。那样害死自己真是太愚蠢了。但就是这么基础的道理，我可能是从我祖父那里学来的。当我游泳时，我祖父会对我说：“你想游多久就游多久，但要待在岸边。”嗯，你们可以笑，但他是个非常明智的人。

[原文] [Interviewer]: oh but what what I'm what I'm hearing you say is that you as a discipline look at what the risk is on the other side of the situation and you avoid that that's one of the rules right

[译文] [主持人]: 哦，但我……我听到您说的是，您把这作为一种纪律，去审视情况的反面存在什么风险，然后避开它。这是其中的一条规则，对吧？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well it's like a lot of practical problems in algebra if you invert you can solve it easily if you don't you can't solve it easily exactly right and so of course and I had that trick very early and most people would say how can you please tell us what you do to save India to help India and of course I would approach it differently i'd say what could I do which would most easily hurt India and approaching it in reverse that way I got better results

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，这就像代数中的很多实际问题，如果你反过来思考（invert），你就能轻易解决；如果你不反过来，你就很难解决。完全正确。所以我当然很早就掌握了这个诀窍。大多数人会说，请你告诉我们，你该怎么做才能拯救印度、帮助印度？而我当然会用不同的方式来处理，我会问：我做什么能最容易地伤害印度？通过这种逆向处理的方式，我得到了更好的结果。

[原文] [Interviewer]: you look at the vulnerabilities yeah yes

[译文] [主持人]: 您着眼于脆弱点（vulnerabilities），是的，是的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and I have a whole bag of tricks like that i went to the ROC both in high school and college and the ROTC taught me to fire mortar shells or artillery shells one shot over one shot short and then kapow well I never shot any damn shells but I've been using that metal trick all my life that's why how I determine what size to make something over and under and kapow and so I just got a bag of tricks and I got the right bag of tricks early and of course it's been of enormous help to me

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我有一整袋子这样的诀窍。我在高中和大学都参加过后备军官训练团（ROTC，注：原文ROC为音误），ROTC教我如何发射迫击炮弹或炮弹：一发打过头（over），一发打不到（short），然后“砰（kapow）”（注：意指取中间值命中）。虽然我一发该死的炮弹也没打过，但我一生都在运用这种思维诀窍（mental trick，注：原文metal为音误），这就是我如何决定把某件事做到什么尺度的方法：超过一点，不及一点，然后命中。所以我就是有一袋子诀窍，并且我很早就得到了正确的锦囊，当然这对我有极大的帮助。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: let me give you an example i had a client once when I was a young lawyer and he owned a bunch of hilly ranch land on the edge of civilization not very far from here in Southern California and the Edison company came through and they wanted a new easement through his land they already had some easements and he hired the leading appraiser in Orange County real estate appraiser and said uh and he had the idea that he should have $250,000 for this easement from the Edison Company

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 让我给你举个例子。我年轻当律师时有过一个客户，他在文明世界的边缘拥有大片丘陵牧场土地，离南加州这里不远。爱迪生公司（Edison company）要穿过那里，他们想在他的土地上获得一个新的地役权（easement），他们之前已经有一些地役权了。他雇了橙县（Orange County）最顶尖的房地产估价师，并认为他应该从爱迪生公司获得25万美元的地役权赔偿。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and this leading appraiser who was very pompous and very old and and very distinguished and he told him "No I'm sorry that's only $125,000 value in your damn ranch and so he came to me and said "Charlie can you talk some sense into this elderly appraiser?" So I looked at his problem and I told the what I thought how he was doing his own appraisal wrong i'm not a real estate appraiser he is and what he had done is what he was taught to do in appraisal school he thought the problem through in two dimensions and he figured out from comparable sales what the value per acre was and he computed the acreage and he added something a little bit on the damage the easement would do to the remaining property and so but it's all done in two dimensions

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 这位极其傲慢、年事已高且非常著名的顶尖估价师对他说：“不，很抱歉，你这破牧场只值12.5万美元。”于是他来找我，说：“查理，你能给这位老估价师讲讲理吗？”所以我看了看他的问题，并告诉他我认为他自己的估价错在哪里。我不是房地产估价师，他才是，但他所做的只是他在估价学校里被教导的那一套。他在二维平面上思考问题，他从可比销售中算出每英亩的价值，然后计算了面积，再对地役权给剩余财产造成的损害稍微加上了一点点，所以，这全都是在二维层面上完成的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and I said to this appraiser you've got to do this in three dimensions you know God gave us three dimensions and I said if they put the utility towers big transmission line towers which is why the it's going to freeze the grade and the logical way to develop your land is to lop off the top of the hills and put them in the valley that's the way hilly land is developed and they're doing enormous damage to you by freezing the grade and he wouldn't change a damn thing so I said to my elderly client I think you have to fire this twit and I will hire you an appraiser who can think

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 然后我对这位估价师说，你必须在三维层面上做这件事，你知道，上帝给了我们三个维度。我说，如果他们建了公用事业塔、大型输电线路塔，这就会把地势坡度固定住（freeze the grade），而开发这片土地最合乎逻辑的方法是削平山头，把土填到山谷里，这才是丘陵土地的开发方式。而他们把地势固定住，会对你造成巨大的损害。但他根本不愿做任何改变，所以我对我那年迈的客户说，我认为你必须解雇这个蠢货（twit），我会给你雇一个会思考的估价师。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and so I got him $600,000 which wasn't at all hard because I was dealing with a bunch of honest engineers at the Edison who did think in three dimensions but again that's so simple but you'd be surprised how many lawyers would screw that one up and and of course people like that appraiser who didn't know his own business very well because he didn't pay attention to the fundamentals those people are always with us and if you just have the mental trick of constantly going back to the basics it's pretty basic insight that

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 于是我帮他争取到了60万美元。这根本不难，因为我在和爱迪生公司一群诚实的工程师打交道，他们确实在用三维思考。但这又一次证明了，道理就这么简单，但如果换成许多其他律师，他们搞砸这件事的概率会让你惊讶。当然，像那个连自己的本职工作都不太懂的估价师一样的人，只因为他没有关注基本常识（fundamentals）——这样的人一直都在我们身边。只要你拥有那种“不断回归基本面”的思维诀窍，这就是非常基础的洞察力。

[原文] [Interviewer]: are you conscious that a geometrical problem in a real world is threedimensional are you conscious of the rules or they're just there

[译文] [主持人]: 你是有意识地知道现实世界中的几何问题是三维的吗？你是有意识地运用这些规则，还是它们自然而然就在那里？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well it's so habitual with Yeah I understand that and I revolve possibilities and I rag problems hard and if they don't yield I come back and and so this is just a bag of tricks and it enables a non-predigious man to get predigious results

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，这已经变成一种习惯了。是的，我明白这一点，我会反复权衡各种可能性，我会死磕（rag）那些难题，如果它们没被解决，我会回头再来。所以，这只不过是一个“思维锦囊（bag of tricks）”，它让一个非神童的普通人也能取得惊人的成就。

[原文] [Interviewer]: remember you last summer you bought Anadarko big oil company yes and uh you described I think you just gotten back from being with Warren for the weekend yeah and uh you were describing that you didn't do all the analytics and you didn't do all of the research but you used your bag of tricks and you flew out to Omaha you and Warren spent the weekend you called up the president of the Bank of America got the money made the deal

[译文] [主持人]: 记得去年夏天你们买下阿纳达科（Anadarko）大型石油公司的时候吗？是的，而且呃……您描述过，我想您当时刚和沃伦共度完周末回来。是的，而且呃……您当时描述说，您并没有做完所有的分析，您也没有做完所有的尽职调查研究，但您运用了您的思维锦囊。您飞去了奥马哈，您和沃伦度过了那个周末，您打电话给美国银行（Bank of America）的总裁拿到了钱，然后做成了这笔交易。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: no I didn't go to Omaha or where did you go no no I stay we have a telephone

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 不，我没有去奥马哈。（主持人：或者你去了哪里？）不，不，我待在原地，我们有电话。

[原文] [Interviewer]: okay you talked Okay you talked to Warren about it anyway yeah but you made it in about two days and it was like

[译文] [主持人]: 好的，你们通了电话。好的，不管怎样您和沃伦谈论了这件事，是的，但您大约在两天内就做成了，那感觉就像……

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: No no okay warren didn't need Warren and I have been together so long that just one grunt we can speak a volume and and no it's perfectly obvious the Peran Basin is our number one oil reservoir and we don't have another like it and it's perfectly obvious you have a preferred stock that you have an advantage over everybody else and plus an upside and we've done this kind of thing before too so of course we did it and it's not very difficult

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 不，不。好吧，沃伦不需要……沃伦和我在一起太久了，我们只要哼哧一声就胜过千言万语了。不，这非常明显，二叠纪盆地（Permian Basin，注：原文Peran为音误）是我们排名第一的油藏，我们没有第二个像那样的油藏了。而且非常明显，你拥有优先股，你比其他所有人都拥有优势，外加升值空间，而且我们以前也做过这种事情。所以我们当然就做了，这并不是很困难。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but you're right there are all kinds of organ endless due diligence and we knew enough to act based on the rules and why they were in a hurry yes but but you don't need perfect if you're 96% sure that's all you're entitled to in many cases and I see these people doing this due diligence and the weaker they are as thinkers the more due diligence they do and of course it's just a way of allaying an inner insecurity and of course it doesn't work

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但你说得对，存在各种各样没完没了的尽职调查（due diligence）。但我们基于那些规则，以及他们为什么这么着急的原因，我们所知道的足以让我们采取行动。是的，但你不需要完美，如果你有96%的把握，在很多情况下那就是你所能享有的最高胜算了。我看到那些人在做尽职调查，他们作为思考者的能力越弱，他们做的尽职调查就越多。当然，这只是减轻他们内心不安全感的一种方式，而这当然是没用的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: you you got to be able to to quickly understand how much brains does it take to know the Perian Basin is America's best oil reserve it's layer after layer after layer you know we there is no nothing like comparable yes and if you have an 8% dividend off the top if from a perfectly reputable place of very talented people the woman who runs that is a production engineer she's good and they get better results in that shale than other people and so it's it's a no-brainer at least it's a no-brainer if you don't make it hard

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 你……你必须能够迅速理解。要知道二叠纪盆地是美国最好的石油储备库，这需要多少脑力？它是一层接着一层又一层，你知道，我们……没有什么比得上它。是的，而且如果你首先能拿到8%的股息，对方又是一家声誉完美、人才济济的机构，管理那家公司的女士是个生产工程师，她很优秀，他们在页岩油开采方面的业绩比别人都要好。所以，这……这是一个完全不需要动脑筋（no-brainer）的决定，至少如果你不把它复杂化的话，它就不需要动脑筋。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but I see people if you in America now they do these leverage buyouts and these firms do what they call due diligence and they will send armies of young lawyers out at high rates per hour riffl through all the purchasing orders at a place like Ezri don't even think about it

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但我看到人们……比如你现在在美国，他们做这些杠杆收购（leverage buyouts），这些公司做他们所谓的尽职调查，他们会以极高的小时费率派出成群结队的年轻律师，去像Ezri这样的地方翻遍所有的采购订单。连想都别想，不可能的。

[原文] [Interviewer]: no I'm not thinking about it but they but they but my point is they don't Ezra wouldn't

[译文] [主持人]: 不，我没有这么想，但他们……但他们……但我的观点是，他们不会的，Ezri（注：原文Ezra为音误）也不会允许的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: No you don't have to look through the purchasing orders right to know that Ezra is a good business and I don't think people are that insecure mentally ought to be in positions of decision-making power

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 不，你不需要为了知道Ezri是一家好公司，而去翻看采购订单，对吧？我不认为那些在心理上如此缺乏安全感的人，应该处于手握决策权的位置上。

[原文] [Interviewer]: yeah yeah good i'll applaud that one

[译文] [主持人]: 是的，是的，太棒了，我要为这个观点鼓掌。

章节 8：观众问答（二）—— 帮助年轻人的建议与艰难的人事决策

📝 本节摘要：

本章中，一位观众提问如何帮助那些处于社会底层的非大学生青年改善生活。芒格坦率地表示，单纯给建议是没有用的，必须去寻找那些自带“发芽潜力”的人，并集中资源去培养他们（“施以重肥”）。他指出，许多人受限于自身的思维模式，很难接受外来的真知灼见。随后，在主持人的追问下，芒格分享了生活中一项伟大的“诀窍”：勇于摧毁自己最心爱的观念。他举了一个异常艰难的伯克希尔人事案例：由于对一位罹患癌症的精算师高管充满私人感情，芒格没有及时将其免职，导致公司签下了糟糕的再保险合同。芒格将此视为一个“可原谅但绝不再犯”的错误，并引用李光耀面对挚友不道德行为与自杀时坚决不予掩盖的例子，深刻反思了在情感与“更高职责（维持标准）”之间做出艰难抉择的必要性。

[原文] [Joshua Gillespie]: hello I'm Joshua Gillespie thank you Larry Jack Charlie for all being here uh Charlie like you I am very excited about investing in undervalued assets however specifically what I'm interested in is low socioeconomic young folks who are not collegebound so what specific advice functional advice would you give to that demographic of folk who are looking to better their lives

[译文] [乔舒亚·吉莱斯皮]: 你好，我是乔舒亚·吉莱斯皮（Joshua Gillespie）。谢谢拉里（Larry）、杰克（Jack）、查理（Charlie）能来到这里。呃，查理，像你一样，我对投资被低估的资产非常感兴趣。然而，我特别感兴趣的是那些社会经济地位较低、不打算上大学的年轻人。那么，对于那些希望改善自己生活的这部分人群，你会给出什么具体的、实用的建议？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well I don't think you can just give it goodbyes to the young and just have it automatically sprout like Jack's Beanstalk a lot of people are just natural nonspouters and so my technique is to find the people who have the sprouting and then fertilize them greatly and in other words as Warren puts it in a more pathy way as you might imagine so that that's our system that's great

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，我不认为你可以直接把好建议（注：原文goodbyes疑为good advice的音误）给年轻人，然后就让它像《杰克与豆蔓》（Jack's Beanstalk）那样自动发芽（sprout）。很多人天生就是“不发芽的人”（nonspouters）。所以我的技巧是，找到那些自带发芽潜力的人，然后给他们施以重肥。换句话说，正如沃伦（Warren）用一种正如你所想象的、更简练（pithy，注：原文pathy疑为音误）的方式所说的那样，这就是我们的系统，那非常棒。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: we we don't know how to turn now i can turn any purse any silk into a pretty a better purse if they'll learn my tricks but what I found there is that they either get it quickly almost instantly or I never get through i don't know what Jack's experience is but I have all kind they're nice people and they're but they got this their thoughts are already there the thoughts they already have displace they've been programmed in a different way than you and they can't accept the can't accept it yes even if they kind of suspect you're right and you're rich and they're not they still think they know

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我们……我们不知道现在该怎么去转化。如果他们愿意学习我的诀窍，我可以把任何钱包、任何丝绸变成一个漂亮、更好的钱包（注：此处化用英语谚语“巧妇难为无米之炊”的字面意象）。但我发现的情况是，他们要么几乎瞬间就领悟了，要么我永远都无法让他们明白。我不知道杰克（Jack）的经验是什么，但我遇到过各种各样的情况。他们都是好人，而且他们……但是他们有这个……他们的思想已经固化在那里了，他们已有的思想排斥了新思想，他们被以不同于你的方式编程了，他们无法接受……无法接受它，是的。即使他们隐约怀疑你是对的，而且你很富有而他们不是，他们仍然认为自己懂得多。

[原文] [Interviewer]: well they're they're they're victimized by their rules or their tricks as you call them you happen to be brought up in an environment where the tricks

[译文] [主持人]: 嗯，他们……他们……他们受害于他们自己的规则，或者用你的话说，他们的“诀窍”。你碰巧在一个拥有那些好诀窍的环境中长大……

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: Yeah and one of the great tricks in life is to destroy your own bestloved ideas and that I worked at mhm i actually go through my best loved ideas occasionally see if I can weed one out

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 是的，生活中最伟大的诀窍之一，就是去摧毁你自己最心爱的观念（best-loved ideas）。我一直在这方面努力，嗯哼。实际上，我偶尔会审视自己最心爱的观念，看看是否能剔除掉一个。

[原文] [Interviewer]: you know what are you talking about give me an example

[译文] [主持人]: 你知道，你在说什么？给我举个例子。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well a good example well that's a very good example but it's not an example of this we all Oh I give you an example it's a hard one we had an executive in Bergkshire who was a wonderful human being and terribly good at what he does was he was an actuary and he was a member of our inner council and he was with us and we knew his wife and children and we loved the guy and he got a nasty cancer and was dying slowly and we just left him there dying and failing and the reinsurance contracts he signed during those last two or three weeks were awful it was a mistake and I've never done it again it's natural to love your friend so much and it's hard to come down on a close friend and it's in your rules how can you break

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，一个好例子……嗯，那是个非常好的例子，但不是关于这个的例子，我们都……哦，我给你举个例子，这是一个很艰难的例子。我们在伯克希尔（Berkshire）有一位高管，他是一个非常好的人，在他的本职工作上极其出色。他是一名精算师（actuary），是我们内部委员会的成员，他和我们在一起，我们认识他的妻子和孩子，我们都爱这家伙。但他得了一种可怕的癌症，正在慢慢死去，而我们就让他留在那个职位上，看着他走向死亡、能力衰退。而在他最后两三周里签下的那些再保险合同（reinsurance contracts）简直糟透了。这是一个错误，而且我再也没有那样做过了。如此深爱你的朋友是很自然的，对一个亲密的朋友狠下心来也很难。但它在你的规则里，你怎能打破它呢？

[原文] [Interviewer]: It's like getting up on the same side of the bed every morning when you believe in something like you obviously are expressing a couple things to me uh one is that you loved this guy and you didn't want to just shut him down so you kept him in place and he screwed up is that the basic message

[译文] [主持人]: 这就像你每天早上都从床的同一边起床一样，当你相信某些东西时，就像你显然在向我表达两件事，呃：一件事是你爱这个人，你不想直接让他停职，所以你把他留在了原位，结果他搞砸了，这是基本的信息吗？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: yeah I had a higher duty and it was Yeah it I think it's a forgivable sin you know I'd rather have if I'm going to have sins I'd rather have this one than a lot of others but it was a mistake yes it was a mistake or or maybe not you know that happened to Lee Kuan Yu this guy I admire so ran Singapore for so many decades and his best friend had committed some moral act and immoral act and it had come to life and he committed suicide and the wife came to a close friend and said you know in Chinese culture it's a deep shame to commit suicide said "Can't we cover up the suicide?" He said "No we can't cover up the suicide." Again he was just tougher on maintaining certain standards i don't know if that's right or not but I suspect he was right after all he built an empa he built a whole nation and all I've done is build one wallet

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 是的，我当时有着更高的职责，而它……是的。我认为这是一个可原谅的罪过（forgivable sin），你知道，如果我注定要犯下一些罪过，我宁愿犯这个罪过，而不是许多其他的罪过。但这确实是个错误，是的，是个错误。或者……或者也许不是。你知道李光耀（Lee Kuan Yew，注：原文音误为Yu）也发生过这种事，这个我非常敬佩、统治了新加坡几十年的家伙。他最好的朋友犯了一些道德……不道德的行为，事情败露了，于是他自杀了。他的妻子找到这位亲密的朋友（李光耀）并说，你知道在中国文化中，自杀是一种极大的耻辱，她说：“我们就不能把这起自杀掩盖过去吗？”他说：“不，我们不能掩盖这起自杀。”再一次地，他在维持某些标准上只是更加强硬。我不知道这是否正确，但我怀疑他是对的，毕竟他建立了一个帝国……他建立了一个完整的国家，而我所做的只是建立了一个钱包（wallet）。

章节 9：慈善实践案例—— 用常识解决UCSB大学宿舍难题

📝 本节摘要：

本章由主持人询问芒格在加州大学圣巴巴拉分校（UCSB）的慈善捐赠项目切入。芒格分享了两个绝佳的案例：首先，他利用加州大学不受地方区划法规限制的特权，用7000万美元帮助加州大学买下了原本因区划限制而无法开发、价值远超该数额的绝美牧场。随后，他谈到为UCSB捐建本科生宿舍的计划。芒格以犀利的言辞批评了顶尖大学“耗尽土地”和为了省20平方英尺而让学生挤一间房的愚蠢做法。他运用常识与“船舶建筑学”理念，亲手规划了一栋能让5000名学生在5英亩土地上拥有单人卧室的绝佳建筑。这也再次印证了他“专门寻找容易问题来解决”的极简智慧。

[原文] [Interviewer]: well I' I'd like to close with a couple more questions about your own philanthropy at UCSB and first how did you this well that is by the way that's a marvelous example i Yeah exactly because there's an example so here I am i'm 95 years old this time this is a chancellor uh Chancellor Yang yeah and but I've got a friend who's the widow of the last surviving grandchild of Dhini major California oilman of a former era

[译文] [主持人]: 嗯，我想以几个关于你在加州大学圣巴巴拉分校（UCSB）的个人慈善事业的问题来作为结束，首先，你是怎么做到的……顺便说一句，那是一个极好的例子，我……是的，正是如此，因为这里有个例子，所以我在这里，我当时已经95岁了，这是一位校长，呃，杨校长（Chancellor Yang），是的。但是我有一位朋友，她是上一个时代加州石油大亨多希尼（Doheny，注：原文音误记为Dhini）最后一位在世孙子的遗孀。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and but it's in Santa Barbara the ultimate nimiism and she's got an 18,800 acre ranch with two miles of frontage on the ocean no wind perfect climate great views avocado trees it has a private lake it's like you can't believe it

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但它在圣巴巴拉（Santa Barbara），这是终极的“邻避主义（NIMBYism，注：原文音误记为nimiism）”之地。她拥有一个18,800英亩的牧场，有两英里的临海正面，没有狂风，气候完美，景色极佳，还有牛油果树，它有一个私人湖泊，简直让人难以置信。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and she can't sell to anybody because nobody in Santa Barbara was going to be fair enough to allow her do anything with her own property and she really needed to sell and so I said Tossy I said I'll give the university $70 million and and we'll and it will buy the ranch with my $70 million

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 而她卖不给任何人，因为圣巴巴拉没有人会公平地允许她对她自己的财产做任何事情。而她真的需要卖掉它，所以我说，托西（Tossy），我说，我会给大学7000万美元，然后我们会……大学将用我的7000万美元买下这个牧场。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well I knew that the university is not subject to the damn Santa Barbara zoning rules and so uh I had suddenly transformed $70 million into a billion dollars worth of property in about two seconds now I didn't get the billion the university did but I like helping the university and particularly when I can get a billion dollars worth of value for $70 million plus a little horse cent

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，因为我知道大学不受圣巴巴拉那该死的区划法规（zoning rules）的限制。所以，呃，我大约在两秒钟内，突然就把7000万美元变成了价值10亿美元的财产。当然，我没有得到那10亿美元，大学得到了，但我喜欢帮助大学，尤其是当我能用7000万美元加上一点点常识（horse sense，注：原文音误记为horse cent）就能换取价值10亿美元的东西时。

[原文] [Interviewer]: and so what's going to happen now not everybody would have known that they weren't subject to the university needs housing charlie saw that they needed housing he was interested in the university he saw this property and so now they suddenly have the ability to build housing for students it's a Well it'll be faculty and and graduate students yeah

[译文] [主持人]: 那么现在会发生什么呢？不是每个人都会知道他们（大学）不受（区划法规）限制。大学需要住房，查理看到了他们需要住房，他对这所大学很感兴趣，他看到了这处房产，所以现在他们突然有能力为学生建造住房了，这是一个……嗯，这将是为教职员工和研究生建的，是的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but it's more extreme than that i'm also I just got approved last week by the subcommittee of the regions to build a dormatory for undergraduates at UCSB in this case I'm going to give them 20% of the money and they're going to borrow the rest at 3% or something like that

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但情况比那还要极端。我还……我上周刚刚获得加州大学董事会小组委员会（subcommittee of the regents，注：原文regions为音误）的批准，要在UCSB为本科生建一栋宿舍楼（dormitory）。在这个项目中，我将给他们提供20%的资金，他们将以3%左右的利率借贷剩余的资金。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but this housing is going to put 5,000 students on five acres and the housing will be the best of its kind in the world

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但这个住房项目将在5英亩的土地上安置5000名学生，而且这个住房将是世界上同类建筑中最好的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well how in the hell can some 95year-old guy doesn't know anything to speak of about housing suddenly be right when he says we'll put 5,000 people on five acres and it'll be the best housing in the world

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 那么，一个什么住房知识都不懂的95岁老头，怎么可能在他说“我们要在5英亩地上安置5000人，而且它将是世界上最好的住房”时突然就变成正确的了呢？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well but I've built other housing i'm not quite as ignorant as I look and I realized that all I had to do was to make a big square building which is 10 stories high and devote the top story to being a sort of an our town in the sky with great views looking out at the world with high ceilings and so forth

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，但我建过其他住房，我并不像我看起来那么无知。我意识到，我所要做的就是建一座巨大的方形建筑，10层高，把顶层建成一个类似于“天空中的我们的小镇（our town in the sky）”，拥有极高的天花板和向外眺望世界的绝佳视野等等。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and then adopt ship architecture for the rest of the thing and uh build it out of pre-cast concrete for the first seven floors on a poured concrete foundation and then build the top floor out of butler steel components which is what Costco uses to build its stairs it stores wherever it is allowed to do it

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 然后在其余部分采用船舶建筑学（ship architecture）的设计，呃，用预制混凝土（pre-cast concrete）在浇筑的混凝土地基上建造最初的七层，然后用巴特勒钢铁（Butler steel）组件建造顶层，这正是Costco用来建楼梯……在任何允许的地方建门店（stores，注：此处原话可能有少许含混）的材料。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and when I work that out it it works like gang busters it can't poss tools it sounds ridiculous doesn't sound ridiculous to me it sounds like your philanthropic yeah but that's the question of the put all this stuff together to actually make it real it's the mental trick that's interesting

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 当我把这一切弄清楚时，它运作得非常出色（works like gangbusters）。这不可能……工具……听起来很荒谬，对我来说并不荒谬，听起来像你的慈善事业……是的，但问题是把所有这些东西结合在一起，真正让它变成现实，有趣的是这个思维诀窍（mental trick）。

[原文] [Interviewer]: why can't a university with an IQ average of 160 and nothing to do but think about its future oh one thing else I did why Why can't they do that on your own is what you're saying why are the university so stupid that's a very important question

[译文] [主持人]: 为什么一所平均智商160、除了思考自己的未来之外无事可做的大学不能……哦，我还做了一件事（注：此为芒格插话）……为什么？“为什么他们自己做不到？”这就是你想要说的。为什么大学这么愚蠢？这是一个非常重要的问题。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and they're not stupid about everything they just have a few blind spots and one of the blind spots is they run out of land now how can a great university in the most important state in the most important country in the world how in the hell can you run out of land and think you're being a rational university

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 他们并非在所有事情上都很愚蠢，他们只是有一些盲点。其中一个盲点是，他们耗尽了土地（run out of land）。现在，在一个世界上最重要国家里最重要的州，一所伟大的大学，到底怎么可能耗尽土地，还认为自己是一所理性的大学呢？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: ucla has run out of land berkeley has run out of land how could places so massively brilliant they win Nobel prizes and so forth be stupid enough to run out of land

[译文] [查理·芒格]: UCLA（加州大学洛杉矶分校）耗尽了土地，伯克利（Berkeley）耗尽了土地。这些赢得了诺贝尔奖等等、拥有如此庞大聪慧头脑的地方，怎么会愚蠢到耗尽土地的地步？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: the answer is they get these damn bureaucracies and somebody has to be the adult in the room it's not a mild bit of craziness to run out of land if you're UCLA it's a Well my grandfather would say he basically thought it was sinful to be dumber than you had to be and I share some of that what you can't remove I think is forgivable but to have a easily removable ignorance in your own head is really stupid

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 答案是，他们陷入了这些该死的官僚主义（bureaucracies），必须有人来做房间里的成年人。如果你是UCLA，耗尽土地可不是轻微的疯狂，这简直是……嗯，我的祖父会说，他基本上认为“比你原本该有的样子更蠢是一件罪恶的事”，而我也同意这一点。我认为你无法消除的愚蠢是可以原谅的，但在你自己的脑子里保留着一种极其容易消除的无知，那真是太愚蠢了。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: but but any this that is really going to happen you you people are going to live to see it and yeah building ship architecture on land how hard a subject is that i've seen the plans they're really so clever for students to live in views for every student to the ocean

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 但是……但是所有这些真的都会发生，你们……你们都能活着看到它。是的，在陆地上建造船舶建筑，这是一个多难的课题啊？我已经看过了设计图，它们真的非常巧妙，能让学生们住在里面，每个学生都能看到海景。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well let me tell you the final one what these great IQ 160 people do it takes 20 extra square feet of space under the building code that binds a university in Cal uh the UC system 20 extra square feet to give a student his own private sleeping area 20 extra square feet

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，让我告诉你最后一件事，这些平均智商160的聪明人做了什么。在约束加州大学……呃，加州大学系统（UC system）的建筑规范下，只需要增加额外的20平方英尺空间，只需要额外的20平方英尺，就能给一个学生提供他自己私人的睡眠区域，就额外20平方英尺。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: can you think of anything dumber than building housing that's going to last 200 years when you force a whole bunch of unrelated people to live together and throw up on one another and god knows what to save 20 extra square the incremental cost of 20 extra it's insane

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 你能想到比这更蠢的事情吗：在建造一座将使用200年的住房时，你强迫一大堆没有血缘关系的人住在一起，互相呕吐在对方身上，天知道还会发生什么，仅仅是为了省下额外的20平方英尺？20平方英尺的增量成本？这简直疯了（insane）。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: so I gave every student his own room and all right went to the regents committee there was this nice woman and she said you know she says I never had a single room in my whole college career where I didn't have somebody else in it it's insane it's absolutely insane and I'm fixing it

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 所以我给每个学生都配了单人房。然后，好吧，我去到了董事会委员会，那里有位很棒的女士，她说，你知道，她说在我整个大学生涯中，我从来没有住过一间没有别人的单人房。这疯了，这绝对疯了，而我正在修复这个问题。

[原文] [Interviewer]: but why wasn't it already fixed did you study architecture or how did you come to all of this

[译文] [主持人]: 但为什么它之前没有被修复呢？你是学过建筑学，还是怎么想到所有这些的？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well I hate to admit this to somebody like you who's a perfectionist but I pick easy problems you know and it's easy to fix housing when it's so when the people are so dumb they put two unrelated people in the same room when it takes 20 extra square feet to eliminate that defect so I seek out easy problems i've tried hard problems it makes it a lot more difficult

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，我真不愿向你这种完美主义者承认这一点，但我挑选的都是简单的问题（easy problems）。你知道，当人们愚蠢到把两个没有血缘关系的人塞进同一个房间、而消除这个缺陷只需要额外增加20平方英尺时，修复住房问题就变得很容易了。所以我去寻找那些简单的问题。我也尝试过解决难题，那会让事情变得困难得多。

章节 10：收购喜诗糖果（See's Candies）的教训与永远走“高尚之路”

📝 本节摘要：

本章作为整个访谈的尾声，主持人问及了伯克希尔历史上最著名的收购案之一——喜诗糖果（See's Candies）。芒格借此机会极其坦诚地分享了他们早年的“愚蠢”：他和巴菲特差点因为区区10万美元的差价，错失了这家利润丰厚的伟大公司。他将最终的成功归功于合伙人的极力痛骂与劝醒，并借此深刻指出：人皆生而愚蠢，想要保持理智非常困难；如果不持续学习和进化，固守早年的认知，伯克希尔早成了一片废墟。访谈最后，在主持人的邀请下，芒格分享了巴菲特的一句至理名言，为整场对谈画上了隽永的句号：“永远走高尚之路，因为那里并不拥挤。”

[原文] [Interviewer]: okay I got one final one charlie didn't you buy seized candy

[译文] [主持人]: 好的，我还有最后一个问题。查理，你不是买下了喜诗糖果（See's Candies，注：原文转录seized candy为音误）吗？

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: yes I certainly did

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 是的，我确实买了。

[原文] [Interviewer]: why did you do that why did I do it i mean yeah anybody got a guess on

[译文] [主持人]: 你为什么那么做？“我为什么那么做”，我的意思是，是的，有人能猜到吗……

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: well here I want to confess something that will give you all encouragement because it will show how dumb we all were when we were young and how we we barely bought it

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 嗯，在这里我想坦白一件事，这会给你们所有人带来鼓励，因为它会展示我们年轻时有多蠢，以及我们当时是如何差一点就没买成它的。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: the price was $35 million and they had 10 million surplus cash and they were making $4 million a year so hardly expensive and it was this iconic brand yeah and been created by a woman that was 70 years old when she founded the company very interesting story

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 当时的价格是3500万美元，而他们有1000万美元的盈余现金，每年赚400万美元，所以一点也不贵。这是一个标志性的品牌，是的，由一位创立公司时已经70岁的女性所创造的，非常有趣的故事。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: and at the very end we were about $100,000 apart and Warren was used to saying "God damn it you know I'll bid 20 and an eighth and I don't mean a quarter." And we just almost didn't buy it and I would not we just squeakaked through

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 在最后关头，我们在价格上相差了大约10万美元。而沃伦（Warren）习惯于说：“妈的，你知道我会出价20又八分之一，我绝不出四分之一（注：意指绝不肯多出哪怕一点点钱）。”我们真的差点就没买成它，我也不会让步……我们只是勉强涉险过关（squeaked through）。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: we made a wonderful decision because we were just barely smart enough to make a no-brainer and that teaches another lesson too we all start out stupid and we all have a hard time staying sensible and you have to keep working at it

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我们做出了一个绝妙的决定，因为我们仅仅是勉强足够聪明，去做出了一个毫不费脑子（no-brainer）的决定。这也教导了我们另一个教训：我们一开始都很愚蠢，而且我们都很难一直保持理智，所以你必须不断在这上面下功夫。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: bergkshire would be a wreck today if it were run by what Warren and I knew when we started it's that we kept learning as and I don't think we'd have all the billions of stock of Coca-Cola we now have if we hadn't bought C's you know I mean there were huge consequences of getting over that last stupidity

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 如果由沃伦和我刚起步时的认知水平来经营，今天的伯克希尔（Berkshire）早就成了一片废墟了。关键在于我们一直在不断学习。而且我认为，如果我们当时没有买下喜诗（See's），我们现在就不会拥有价值数十亿美元的可口可乐股票。你知道，我的意思是，克服那最后的愚蠢带来了极其深远的结果。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: we threw out our typical firm business-like methods and and what happened there neither Warren and I deserve any real credit for my partner i had wonderful partners all my life it was a petroleum engineer he just said to Warren and me "You guys are all wrong on this." He says "This is a wonderful company and you're being way too chancy there aren't many companies like this."

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 我们抛弃了我们那种典型的冷酷商业作风。而在那里发生的事情，沃伦和我都不配得到任何真正的赞誉。多亏了我的合伙人——我一生都有极好的合伙人——他是个石油工程师，他直接对沃伦和我说道：“你们在这个问题上全错了。”他说，“这是一家极好的公司，你们太计较得失（chancy）了，像这样的公司可不多。”

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: And that he changed our minds so now you know how we were smart enough to buy seas barely bar the answer is barely he said to me in "Okay this is my last question." By the way we're smarter now i'm glad i'm glad everybody appreciates these don't you guys love these amazing um

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 于是他改变了我们的想法。所以现在你们知道我们是怎么聪明地买下喜诗的了吧？勉强……勉强买的，答案就是勉强买的。（注：芒格似在回应主持人的控场）他对我说了，“好吧，这是我的最后一个问题。”顺便说一句，我们现在聪明多了。我很高兴，我很高兴大家能欣赏这些故事，你们不觉得这些很神奇吗，嗯……

[原文] [Interviewer]: you said to me something about the high road uh well that's Warren's famous remark i love that share that

[译文] [主持人]: 您曾对我提起过关于“高尚之路（high road）”的话题……呃，嗯，那是沃伦的著名言论，我很喜欢，分享一下吧。

[原文] [Charlie Munger]: warren always says "You should always take the high road because it's less crowded

[译文] [查理·芒格]: 沃伦总是说：“你永远应该走高尚之路，因为那里没那么拥挤。”