Of one man in especial, beyond any one else, the citizens of a republic should beware, and that is of the man who appeals to them to support him on the ground that he is hostile to other citizens of the republic, that he will secure for those who elect him, in one shape or another, profit at the expense of other citizens of the republic. It makes no difference whether he appeals to class hatred or class interest, to religious or anti-religious prejudice. The man who makes such an appeal should always be presumed to make it for the sake of furthering his own interest…

Let me illustrate this by one anecdote from my own experience. A number of years ago I was engaged in cattle-ranching on the great plains of the western United States. There were no fences. The cattle wandered free, the ownership of each being determined by the brand; the calves were branded with the brand of the cows they followed. If on the round-up an animal was passed by, the following year it would appear as an unbranded yearling, and was then called a maverick. By the custom of the country these mavericks were branded with the brand of the man on whose range they were found.

One day I was riding the range with a newly hired cowboy, and we came upon a maverick. We roped and threw it; then we built a little fire, took out a cinch-ring, heated it at the fire; and the cowboy started to put on the brand. I said to him, "It is So-and-so's brand," naming the man on whose range we happened to be. He answered: "That's all right, boss; I know my business." In another moment I said to him: "Hold on, you are putting on my brand!" To which he answered: "That's all right; I always put on the boss's brand."

I answered: "Oh, very well. Now you go straight back to the ranch and get what is owing to you; I don't need you any longer." He jumped up and said: "Why, what's the matter? I was putting on your brand." And I answered: "Yes, my friend, and if you will steal for me you will steal from me."

Now, the same principle which applies in private life applies also in public life. If a public man tries to get your vote by saying that he will do something wrong in your interest, you can be absolutely certain that if ever it becomes worth his while he will do something wrong against your interest.

“We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.”

— St. Thomas Aquinas

In any massive failure there are a host of smaller errors that compound; in this case, CrowdStrike created a faulty file, failed to test it properly, and deployed it to its entire customer base in one shot, instead of rolling it out in batches. Doing something different at each one of these steps would have prevented the widespread failures that are still roiling the world (and will for some time to come, given that the fix requires individual action on every affected computer, since the computer can’t stay running long enough to run a remotely delivered fix).

One of my favorite things to do is to read the transcripts of old Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meetings over at CNBC’s Warren Buffett Archive.

(Yes, I realize how sad that sounds.)

The Warren Buffett Archive is an invaluable treasure trove that grants us a peek into the Berkshire AGMs of yesteryear — long before they were streamed online or received much media coverage at all.

Unfortunately, these unedited transcripts can be a bit unwieldy. Expect lots of umm’s, ahh’s, and fragmentary sentences that don’t go anywhere. What sounds perfectly natural spoken aloud often appears awkward and hard-to-read when written down.

Oh, and these transcripts are really, really long.

So, earlier this summer, I set out to do something about that — distilling the many hours of questions and answers at the 1994 AGM into a more readable and condensed format. I did not omit any question or answer, but simply summarized them all so as to get right to the point. If anything, I tried to err on the side of brevity.

Lesson #5

Decide who — not what — you want to be. Make your vision a part of your identity. Don’t say, “I want to be fit.” Say, “I want to be the type of person who can keep up with my kids and grandkids,” or “I want to be the person who everyone looks at on the beach.”

Lesson #41

Don’t major in the minor. There are so many people who worry about the last 5 percent so much that they never start working on the first 95 percent. Which supplements should I take? Which workout is optimal? Which diet is best? If you haven’t gotten the basics in order — training routinely and eating mostly real food — you’re wasting your time. Approximately 95% of your results will come from a basic foundation of training and good food.

Lesson #44

Show up—for yourself, for others, just show up. The biggest difference between successful people and everyone else is that successful people get up over and over again when they fall and just keep showing up. Giving up has killed more dreams than failure ever will.

Ben proceeded to negotiate a salary of $12 per week, two dollars higher than N.H.&L’s typical starting salary but much less than he’d earned while moonlighting as a college student. Today’s top finance graduates may command substantial salaries in New York but Ben Graham would not be able to make ends meet without tutoring the children of army officers on Governors Island after working his long day on Wall Street…

In order to learn the business, Ben started out performing humble duties. He worked as a runner, delivery man, order clerk, and bookkeeping assistant. Right off the bat, he couldn’t believe the laxness he observed. His mother valued every penny and had taught him to take great care with money…