Peter Bevelin begins his fascinating book with Confucius' great wisdom: "A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it, is committing another mistake." Seeking Wisdom is the result of Bevelin's learning about attaining wisdom. His quest for wisdom originated partly from making mistakes himself and observing those of others but also from the philosophy of super-investor and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charles Munger. A man whose simplicity and clarity of thought was unequal to anything Bevelin had seen.
In addition to naturalist Charles Darwin and Munger, Bevelin cites an encyclopedic range of thinkers: from first-century BCE Roman poet Publius Terentius to Mark Twain-from Albert Einstein to Richard Feynman-from 16th Century French essayist Michel de Montaigne to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett. In the book, he describes ideas and research findings from many different fields.
This book is for those who love the constant search for knowledge. It is in the spirit of Charles Munger, who says, "All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there." There are roads that lead to unhappiness. An understanding of how and why we can "die" should help us avoid them. We can't eliminate mistakes, but we can prevent those that can really hurt us.
Using exemplars of clear thinking and attained wisdom, Bevelin focuses on how our thoughts are influenced, why we make misjudgments and tools to improve our thinking. Bevelin tackles such eternal questions as: Why do we behave like we do? What do we want out of life? What interferes with our goals?
Read and study this wonderful multidisciplinary exploration of wisdom. It may change the way you think and act in business and in life.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
70 of 74 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A wonderful book on wisdom and decision-making written by a wise decision-maker. This is the kind of book you read first, then leave by your bedside and re-read a bit every day, so you can slowly soak up the wisdom. It is sort of Montaigne but applied to business, with a great investigation of the psychological dimension of decision-making.
I like the book for many reasons --the main one is that it was written by a practitioner who knows what he wants, not by an academic.
Enjoy it,
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I like the book for many reasons --the main one is that it was written by a practitioner who knows what he wants, not by an academic.
Enjoy it,
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A lot of people know Charlie Munger as a great investor. However what is perhaps more interesting about Mungers personality is his ability to use multiple models to explain reality. He has always championed independent thinking and multi disciplinary approach. This book is a wonderful collection of his simple yet big ideas.
The world would be a much much better place if every man woman and child read this book and applied these thoughts in everday living.
The world would be a much much better place if every man woman and child read this book and applied these thoughts in everday living.
34 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is really a self-congratulatory book about Munger, which Munger, in an act of false modesty, can't write himself. Bevelin's book is an unsophisticated aggregation of epistemological methods, written without fluidity and with the obvious intent of kissing Munger butt.
I am sure Bevelin is interested in the subject of "seeking wisdom" but he writes in a calcified way, and some of the ideas are so 19th century, that you can't help but feel you are reading the musings of a rich, old, mildly intellectual dabbler, in a musty grand study room that has been writing his ideas on note books for years (probably with quill pen and ink) and decided "I should write a book about this". His writings about evolutionary selection are insufferable in their shallowness, naivite and lack of sophistication as they apply to the subject of epistemology.
He also talks about very modern concepts and developments in the subject of cognitive psychology and persuassion theory, but his stuff is just bad explanations of Cialdini's great work (which by-the-way is a work I highly recommend and I have reviewed for this site) and of Tversky and Kahneman (called prospect theory). For a serious understanding of these theories, the deeper reader should instead spend his time reading "Influence" by Cialdini and "Judgment under Uncertainty: heuristics and biases" by Tversky, Kahneman and others.
In short the book is a collection of scraps of writing, by a mediocre intellectual, that has powerful friends (I can almost bet he is himself a powerful old-money, money manager) that he wishes to impress and kiss-up to.
The book reeks of self-published vanity, and reading it is not a good use of a serious thinker's time. Perhaps it is just a good marketing tool for the author (to give his friends and clients) and a pride-piece on the mantle shelf of his home. I give it 2 stars because the table of contents rocks and makes you want to buy the book. Too bad the book didn't delivered what the table of contents promised.
I am sure Bevelin is interested in the subject of "seeking wisdom" but he writes in a calcified way, and some of the ideas are so 19th century, that you can't help but feel you are reading the musings of a rich, old, mildly intellectual dabbler, in a musty grand study room that has been writing his ideas on note books for years (probably with quill pen and ink) and decided "I should write a book about this". His writings about evolutionary selection are insufferable in their shallowness, naivite and lack of sophistication as they apply to the subject of epistemology.
He also talks about very modern concepts and developments in the subject of cognitive psychology and persuassion theory, but his stuff is just bad explanations of Cialdini's great work (which by-the-way is a work I highly recommend and I have reviewed for this site) and of Tversky and Kahneman (called prospect theory). For a serious understanding of these theories, the deeper reader should instead spend his time reading "Influence" by Cialdini and "Judgment under Uncertainty: heuristics and biases" by Tversky, Kahneman and others.
In short the book is a collection of scraps of writing, by a mediocre intellectual, that has powerful friends (I can almost bet he is himself a powerful old-money, money manager) that he wishes to impress and kiss-up to.
The book reeks of self-published vanity, and reading it is not a good use of a serious thinker's time. Perhaps it is just a good marketing tool for the author (to give his friends and clients) and a pride-piece on the mantle shelf of his home. I give it 2 stars because the table of contents rocks and makes you want to buy the book. Too bad the book didn't delivered what the table of contents promised.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mashup of Quotations
As with the other Two Star reviews, I have to say that this book lacked any sort of direction or fluidity. Each rule or method seemed to be a rehash of a prior rule or method. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Ray E. Williams Jr.
If you are seeking wisdom, this book will surely give you the...
The book offers a systematic approach to becoming a better thinker and a better decision maker. It synthesizes thinking of two of my heroes- Charlie Munger and Charles Darwin. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Chander Chawla
disappointing
In general, agree with the two reviewers who gave the book two stars. It is weak, trite, full of rote how-to recipes (which I think is generally a very poor way to try to help... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Louis Berger
Rambling
This book contains a lot of interesting nuggets of wisdom, ranging from Marcus Aurelius to Warren Buffet, but the content seems like it was thrown into a blender then poured into a... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Brian C.
Like the best textbook, but written for the non-academic
Expect to revisit this book many times, because there is an overabundance of useful information here.
Make no mistake, this book is tight and concise. Read more
Make no mistake, this book is tight and concise. Read more
Published 16 months ago by EMM
This book is really something special.
Warren Buffet has been in the back of my mind as someone who I admire but don't really know as much as I should about. I knew he was very very successful and down to earth. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Victor Scott
Invaluable. Most Useful Book I Ever Read.
Before I start, I must say that there is some mystique about the book and it can be hard to find. But it must be found. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Sergejs Popovs
Excellent.
The author has done a fine job collecting the wisdom and categorizing the ideas, which is the whole point of the book. Read more
Published on December 15, 2009 by LPH
Mental Models for Life
Buffett and Munger often refer to having certain mental models with which to evaluate investments or to simply make decisions. Read more
Published on September 3, 2009 by W. Hunter
Amazing Compilation of Wisdom!
I found this book to be a collection of writings confirming many things I believed via intuition and introductions to rather practical advice (when considering the "first... Read more
Published on July 14, 2009 by Joshua W. Packwood
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