You've got to have models in your head and you've got to array you experience - both vicarious and direct - onto this latticework of mental models.

Chris Davis [of the Davisfunds] has a temple of shame. He celebrates the things they did that lost them a lot of money. What is also needed is a temple of shame squared for things you didn't do that would have made you rich. Forgetting your mistakes is a terrible error if you are trying to improve your cognition. Reality doesn't remind you. Why not celebrate stupidities in both categories?

If it is wisdom you're after, you're going to spend a lot of time on your ass reading.

I try to get rid of people who always confidently answer questions about which they don't have any real knowledge.

The more hard lessons you can learn vicariously rather than through your own hard experience, the better.

What matters most: passion or competence that was born in? Berkshireis full of people who have a peculiar passion for their own business. I would argue passion is more important than brain power.

Wesco had a market capitalization of $40 million when we bought it [in the early 1970s]. It's $2 billion now. It's been a long slog to a perfectly respectable outcome - not as good as Berkshire Hathaway or Microsoft, but there's always someone in life who's done better.