

Start Your Startup: "Don't Save Sex for your Old Age" (Warren Buffett) - alanthonyc
http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2009/12/03/warren-buffett-on-sex.aspx

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ramanujan
Buffet actually had an interesting marriage in real life.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5133316.stm>

In 1952, Buffett married Susan Thompson, with whom he had three children:
Susie, Howard and Peter. Outwardly their marriage looked conventional - his
wife accompanied him on almost all of his public appearances, served on the
board of his company and was one of Berkshire Hathaway's largest shareholders.

But they ceased to live together in 1977, when she moved to San Francisco. As
a parting gift, however, Mrs Buffett had introduced her husband to Astrid
Menks, a Latvian-born waitress working in Omaha. She moved in with Buffett and
remains his companion.

The unusual friendship led the three to send presents to relatives from
"Warren, Susie and Astrid". Warren and Susan remained married until her death
in 2004.

~~~
dualogy
So he lived together with one woman first, another one afterwards. Not my
definition of 'harem'.

~~~
ramanujan
Fair point. Edited.

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alanthonyc
Lots of nuggets. Here's another on selling out your company:

 _"You can sell it to Berkshire, and we'll put it in the Metropolitan Museum;
it'll have a wing all by itself; it'll be there forever. Or you can sell it to
some porn shop operator, and he'll take the painting and he'll make the boobs
a little bigger and he'll stick it up in the window, and some other guy will
come along in a raincoat, and he'll buy it."_

~~~
tome
Do you think they might have meant "pawn shop"?

~~~
dandelany
Given the references to "boobs" and a "man in a raincoat", no.

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eru
> On being active: "It's nice to have a lot of money, but you know, you don't
> want to keep it around forever. I prefer buying things. Otherwise, it's a
> little like saving sex for your old age."

Ironic. Isn't Warren Buffet known to be tight with money?

~~~
norova
I have to disagree with him here. I don't believe saving your money long-term
is anything like saving sex for old age. One could argue that you need some
form of monetary support for the rest of your life, securing your money is
smart, however, sex is not an essential part of old age. The two ideas are
quite different.

~~~
ghshephard
Warren Buffet is not talking about "Personal Financial Management" - He's
talking about making use of the utility of money when it has value - and not
holding onto it for the sake of holding onto it - until you have it a time
when it might not be useful anymore.

The money you are talking about is consumption spending, not investment
spending. (And I suspect, even in your case, you wouldn't just "hold onto/save
the money" - you'd probably invest/"Buy" something instead - T-Bills,
Equities, etc...)

In general - disagreeing with Warren Buffet with regards to Investment Advice
is like disagreeing with Plato with regards to Philosophy - You may _feel_
like you know more than them, but you don't. You really don't.

~~~
eru
I feel you can disagree with Plato on philosophy. We know much more than the
poor chap. E.g. I think that seeing numbers and math as a inter-mental
construct (with remarkable applications) is a more adequate point of view than
claiming they are in any sense `out-there'. (Of course it's hard to prove
either way.)

You can also disagree with Warren Buffet, though his case is stronger than
Plato's: There's evidence in Warren Buffet's favor.

E.g. George Soros made a lot of money with speculation.

~~~
borism
_E.g. George Soros made a lot of money with speculation._

How's that in support of Buffet? Soros has totally different philosophy!

~~~
eru
Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. That was meant in support of "You can also
disagree with Warren Buffet [...]."

------
leelin

      On internal yardsticks: "Would you prefer to be the 
      greatest lover in the world and known as the worst,
      or would you prefer to be the worst lover and 
      known as the greatest?"
    

Which one is supposed to be better?

Some people are much better at interviewing for a job than doing the job.
Others are great at the job but fail at interviews.

I started to notice a few years ago that I fall pretty extremely into one of
those categories, but I made peace by being glad I wasn't at the other
extreme.

~~~
shaddi
Maybe the point is it is an /internal/ yardstick. You get to decide which one
suits you!

~~~
thaumaturgy
In one, your skill is greater than the opinions of others. In the other, the
opinions of others are greater than your skill.

To me, the choice is clear.

------
yosho
makes you wonder if his skills in bed are equal to his skills at investing.

~~~
drunkpotato
No, no it doesn't.

~~~
borism
I guess like everything about Buffet it's frugal but satisfying :)

