Failure to handle psychological denial is a common way for people to go broke: you have made an enormous commitment to something. You have poured effort and money in. And the more you put in, the more that the whole consistency principle makes you think, "Now it has to work. If I put in just a little more, then it will work."
Charlie MungerIf you have competence, you know the edge. It wouldnt be a competence if you didnt know where the boundaries lie. Asking whether youve passed the boundary is a question that almost answers itself.
Charlie MungerSuppose you were a real estate investor with a 1/3 interest in the best apartment complex in town, the best mall, and the best office building. Would you feel like a poor, undiversified investor? No! But as soon as you get into stocks, people feel this way. Partly, people need to justify their fees.
Charlie MungerAnyone with an engineering frame of mind will look at [accounting standards] and want to throw up.
Charlie MungerPersonally, Iโve gotten so that I now use a kind of two-track analysis. First, what are the factors that really govern the interests involved, rationally considered? And second, what are the subconscious influences where the brain at a subconscious level is automatically conclusions in various ways โ which, by and large, are useful โ but which often malfunction? One approach is rationalityโฆ And the other is to evaluate the psychological factors that cause subconscious conclusions โ many of which are wrong.
Charlie Munger