Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger, 3rd Edition [Hardcover]

Peter Bevelin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2007 | ISBN-10: 1578644283 | ISBN-13: 978-1578644285 | Edition: 3rd

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: PCA Publications L.L.C.; 3rd edition (2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578644283
• ISBN-13: 978-1578644285
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 100 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful, very very rich book! July 30, 2007

By N N Taleb

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

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be included in school curriculum June 2, 2007

By Aman

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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A book not available from Amazon in the UK. Why not? July 10, 2008

By William Cohen

Format:Hardcover

I have a theory that books that are really worth reading, are usually difficult to find in the bookstore. As Bevelin quotes Oscar Wilde in this book, "The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing."

I work as a speechwriter and the discovery of Charlie Munger's speeches has opened up a whole new universe for me. I studied languages at Oxford University and it didn't teach me a single thing that has helped me run my own business. I love the idea of Munger's multidisciplinary approach, and he's a wonderful contrarian business intellectual. Bevelin provides a kind of Coles' notes to the Buffet/Munger theories.

On every page I have underlined excellent pearls of wisdom that will enhance any business presentation. Here are half-a dozen.

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.
Benjamin Franklin

Everything seems stupid when it fails.
Fydor Dostoevsky

He that complies against his will, is of his own opinion still.
Samuel Butler

The task of man is not to see what lies dimly in the distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
Sir William Osler

I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.
Benjamin Franklin

No victor believes in chance.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Expand your mind. Buy this book.

49 of 63 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Reeks of self-published vanity and Munger rear-kissing January 15, 2011

By Andres Jaramillo

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. Read more ›

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Rambling February 11, 2011

By Brian C.

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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 word processor. The author could have benefited from a strong editor. I'll probably finish reading it because of the caliber of the people the book quotes, but it's been slow and hard to follow.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Mashup of Quotations June 2, 2011

By Ray E. Williams Jr.

Format:Hardcover

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. This book is plagued with redundancy. Reading is very tedious and would be more so without the fantastic excerpts from Buffett and Munger. I also would say, and I don't believe this is too much of an exaggeration, that if you were to remove all of the quotes he uses in this book you would have about 50 pages left over. There is a namazing lack of original thought and exposition in this book.