Some Random Thoughts on Reading from the GOATs

"Everybody can read what I read," said Warren Buffett. "It is a level playing field."

In a world where information bombards us from every direction — social media, notifications, and endless digital noise that demands our attention but rarely rewards it with depth — the simple act of reading can feel almost rebellious. A deliberate choice to slow down, curate your mind’s diet, and engage deeply with ideas that matter.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have long preached — and lived — the gospel of voracious reading as the bedrock of their success. For Buffett, this meant poring over Moody’s manuals as a young investor, mining dense tables of data in search of ignored corporate gems. Or his 10-K reading habit — diving into not only the particular company he’s studying, but also its entire industry.

Charlie Munger, meanwhile, saw reading as something grander: a conversation with history’s greatest minds. Books are the lifeblood of Charlie’s philosophy to “befriend the eminent dead” — whose wisdom lives on through words on the page. A single volume can compress decades of insight and experience into hours of reading.

Simply put, it’s how we inherit the hard-won lessons of those who came before us.

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Reading opens a door to the distilled wisdom of others — unbound by time, place, or status. It’s a nice coincidence that one of the most egalitarian activities doubles as a self-growth superpower.

“I think reading — once you’ve learned it — you can take in so much,” said Charlie Munger at the Redlands Forum in 2020. “And you can take it in on your own time schedule. If somebody is talking to you, he might be telling you something you don’t want to know, you already know, that’s too hard, or he’s just going too fast or too slow. But when you’re reading, you can just take it as you want it.”

“It’s just God’s gift. 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.”

Through books, we can commune with minds we could never meet. Like, in my case, Charlie himself. I could never have dreamt of strolling into his office and picking his brain on business and life while he was still alive, but anyone can pick up Poor Charlie’s Almanack and immerse themselves in his brilliance. And I have. Many times.

There are no shortcuts — reading takes time. “I spend an inordinate amount of time reading,” Warren Buffett told students at the University of Nebraska in 1994. “I probably read at least six hours a day. Maybe more.” That’s a staggering commitment from anyone — let alone the leader of a global business empire.

Buffett keeps his schedule deliberately lean with no meetings to clutter his day. This places reading and reflection at the heart of Buffett’s professional life.

Todd Combs backs up his boss. “Our offices are like a library.”

Reading should not come at the expense of relationships. “If you watched [Buffett] with a time clock,” said Charlie, “you’d find that about half of his waking time is spent reading. Then a big chunk of the rest of his time is spent talking one-on-one — either on the telephone or personally — with highly-gifted people whom he trusts and who trust him. Viewed up close, Warren looks quite academic as he achieves worldly success.”

The second sentence there is important. Charlie highlights how his partner spends “a big chunk” of his time in conversation with trusted friends and associates. An integral (but often ignored) part of the Buffett investment process involves getting his nose out of the 10-K and bouncing ideas off other people. As

Frederik Gieschen

noted in “The Reading Obsession”, Buffett’s genius lies in pairing his relentless reading habit with meaningful relationships with others.

Case in point: Berkshire Hathaway’s last major acquisition, Alleghany Corporation, came about because Joe Brandon, who previously worked for Buffett and remained a close friend, sent his first annual report as CEO to Omaha for his mentor to read over. Impressed, Buffett had dinner with Brandon in New York City to suggest Alleghany join the Berkshire empire. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Reading hands you the reins. Buffett perfectly explained this in a 1985 interview about his love for newspapers. “Things are anchored for me when I read the [Omaha] World-Herald at home at night,” he said. “I can find out about the 23 stocks I’m interested in, I can look at the two baseball boxscores I’m interested in and ignore the rest, I can read the three comics I follow and skip others, I can eye down the letters in the ‘Public Pulse’ and read two or three that look important. I can skip half the paper if I want to and go to the other half.”

Television does not offer this convenience. “If I want to pick out a stock quotation [on TV],” said Buffett, “I have to watch 1,300 stocks go across the screen and try to catch the one I’m looking for. I cannot watch the evening news and have the faintest idea how to catch [only] the stories I’m interested in. I have to sit through the commercials to get the news. I don’t have to read the advertisements in the World-Herald unless I want to, but I have to watch the damn commercials to get the news.”

Reading is not just about collecting facts, but building new mental models. By immersing ourselves in new ideas, we hone our ability to spot patterns, challenge assumptions, and make wiser decisions. For Charlie, reading was a discipline that compounded over time — much like his legendary investments. A practice that builds not just knowledge, but a better way of thinking.

Autobiographies, in particular, are goldmines. Whatever they might sacrifice in objectivity is more than made up for with such an intimate window into that person’s mind — their choices, struggles, and triumphs. Reading Ben Franklin’s autobiography might teach us about frugality and ingenuity; Winston Churchill’s about resilience and leadership. These are not just stories to momentarily entertain, but mental frameworks ready to be adapted into our own lives.

“What you need is a latticework of mental models in your head,” Charlie said in 1996, “and you hang your actual experience and your vicarious experience that you get from reading and so forth on this latticework of powerful models. And, with that system, things gradually get to fit together in a way that enhances cognition.”