Charlie Munger's Mental Models Explained: A Beginner-Friendly Guide to Thinking Better About Investing and Life

Introduction: Why Charlie Munger's Mental Models Matter So Much

Charlie Munger, the long-time partner of Warren Buffett and Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, was famous not only for his investing success, but for his deeply thoughtful approach to understanding how the world really works. While Buffett often speaks about businesses and valuation, Munger focused more heavily on how human thinking itself can be flawed, incomplete, and easily misled.

Munger believed that most mistakes in investing do not come from a lack of intelligence. Instead, they come from poor thinking frameworks. People often rely on one narrow way of looking at problems, and when reality does not fit neatly into that single framework, errors happen.

Consider a simple example. If you have only ever studied economics, you might view every business problem through the lens of supply and demand. But what if the real problem is that the CEO is overconfident and making irrational decisions? Economics alone will not help you see that. You need psychology. If you have only studied psychology, you might miss that the company's debt load is about to crush it. You need accounting and finance.

Munger's solution was what he called a "latticework of mental models," which simply means collecting the most important ideas from many different fields and learning how they connect. When you have multiple models, you can look at a problem from several angles. The picture becomes clearer, and your decisions become sounder.

This tutorial will take a slow and careful walk through what mental models are, why they work, and how you can begin using them in your own investing journey. You do not need a finance degree or advanced mathematics. What you need instead is patience, curiosity, and a willingness to think in broader and more flexible ways.

Munger's Core Belief About Reality

Before we examine specific models, it helps to understand the philosophical foundation Munger built his thinking upon.

Munger believed three things about the world:

First, the world is governed by a small number of repeatable principles. These principles appear across physics, biology, psychology, and economics. Once you learn them, you see them everywhere.

Second, human behavior changes far less than technology does. People in ancient Rome had the same biases, fears, and desires we have. Understanding human nature gives you an advantage that does not expire.

Third, most big mistakes are psychological, not analytical. We usually know what we should do. The hard part is doing it while our emotions scream at us to do something else.

These beliefs explain why Munger spent so much time studying psychology and why he insisted that investors must understand themselves before they can understand markets.

What Are Mental Models?

A mental model is a simplified explanation of how something works in the real world. It is not meant to capture every detail. Instead, it helps you understand the core structure of a situation so you can make better decisions.

Imagine you are trying to understand how a bicycle stays upright. You do not need to know every equation of physics. You only need a simple model: forward motion creates stability, and balance is maintained through small adjustments. That basic model already gives you useful insight. When you get on a bike, you do not calculate angular momentum. You rely on this mental model, even if you cannot articulate it.

Munger believed that life and investing are filled with repeating patterns. If you can learn the most important patterns and store them in your mind, you can recognize them when they appear again. You are not guessing. You are matching reality to patterns you have seen before.

Think of mental models as tools in a mental toolbox. If you only own a hammer, you will try to solve every problem as if it were a nail. If you own hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, and pliers, you can approach problems with more flexibility and precision. The more tools you have, the fewer problems you will encounter that leave you helpless.

The Latticework Idea—Why One Model Is Never Enough

One of Munger's most famous phrases is that you must build a "latticework" of models rather than rely on a single discipline. This means pulling ideas from psychology, economics, biology, physics, mathematics, and history.

Why is this necessary?

Because real-world problems are messy. They rarely belong to just one category. An investment decision might involve:

1. Economic trends
2. Human psychology
3. Competitive dynamics
4. Regulation and politics
5. Technology change

If you only understand economics, you may miss the psychological forces. If you only understand psychology, you may miss the financial realities.

Munger compared this to looking at a complex object through many different lenses. Each lens reveals something important. When you combine them, the picture becomes clearer.

Here is a way to visualize the difference:

The Single-Discipline Investor:

Sees only the financial statements. Misses the management's psychological biases, the competitive dynamics, and the industry's long-term trajectory.

The Latticework Investor:

Sees the financial statements. Also sees that management is overconfident from past successes. Also sees that new competitors are entering with lower costs. Also sees that customer behavior is shifting. The full picture emerges.

Munger did not invent this idea. He simply recognized that the most effective thinkers in history—from Darwin to Franklin—all drew from multiple disciplines. They did not stay in their lane.

Building Your Toolbox—The Most Important Mental Models

What follows is not an exhaustive list. Munger himself identified dozens of models. But these are the ones most relevant to investing and most accessible for beginners. Each model is explained with a simple definition, an everyday example, and an investing application. This tutorial introduces more mental models than most people can internalize in one reading. That is intentional. You are not expected to master all of them immediately.

If this is your first exposure to mental models, focus initially on these five: Inversion, Circle of Competence, Margin of Safety, Incentives, and Compounding. Skim the rest on your first reading. Return later and add one or two models at a time.

Mental Model #1: Inversion—Start by Avoiding Stupidity

Munger loved the idea of inversion, which means thinking backward.

Instead of asking, "How can I succeed?" you also ask, "How could I fail?"

This model is surprisingly powerful because failure often has clearer causes than success. Success can come from many factors working together, making it hard to pinpoint exactly what mattered. Failure often has a single, obvious cause.

As Munger put it: "It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent."

Everyday Example

If you want to live a long, healthy life, you could study all the latest diets and supplements. You might read conflicting studies and never know whom to trust. But inversion says to also ask: what behaviors almost guarantee poor health?

1. Smoking heavily
2. Eating excessive junk food
3. Never exercising
4. Sleeping very little

By simply avoiding these obvious mistakes, you dramatically increase your odds of success even without perfect habits. You do not need to know the optimal diet. You just need to avoid the known destroyers.

Investing Example

Instead of only searching for great stocks, inversion suggests first eliminating companies that are almost guaranteed to perform poorly:

1. Businesses drowning in debt
2. Companies with dishonest management
3. Firms in industries facing permanent decline
4. Businesses with no competitive advantage

By filtering out obvious losers, you reduce the risk of catastrophic mistakes. Munger often said that avoiding stupidity is far more important than seeking brilliance. A portfolio that simply avoids disasters will outperform a portfolio that chases home runs but occasionally strikes out completely.

Mental Model #2: Circle of Competence—Know What You Understand

Munger emphasized that everyone has areas they understand better than others. Your job is not to know everything. Your job is to know what you know and what you do not know.

This concept is called the circle of competence.

Inside your circle are industries, business models, or situations you understand reasonably well. Outside your circle are things you barely understand or do not understand at all.

Why This Matters

Most investors lose money not because they lack intelligence, but because they venture far outside their circle of competence.

They buy complex financial products they cannot explain. They invest in hot technologies they do not understand. They follow tips from strangers without doing their own thinking.

Munger believed it is perfectly fine to have a small circle of competence. What matters is staying inside it and gradually expanding it through study.

Everyday Example

If your car makes a strange noise, you could open the hood and start tinkering. But if you know nothing about engines, you might cause more damage. Your circle of competence does not include car repair. The wise choice is to take it to a mechanic.

Investing Example

If you understand how grocery stores make money—the thin margins, the importance of location, the steady repeat business—you can analyze a supermarket chain with some confidence. If you do not understand biotechnology, investing in a biotech startup becomes speculation rather than informed decision-making. You cannot distinguish between a promising drug and a dangerous one.

Knowing your limits is a form of wisdom. Warren Buffett once said that investors should draw a circle around the businesses they understand and refuse to consider anything outside it. The circle can grow over time, but it must always be respected.

Buffett demonstrated this with Apple. He did not suddenly become a tech expert. He expanded his circle by recognizing Apple as a consumer franchise—predictable loyalty, ecosystem lock-in, and pricing power—not a hardware company. The model held; the circle expanded.

Mental Model #3: Margin of Safety—Leave Room for Error

The margin of safety concept comes from engineering and was popularized in investing by Benjamin Graham. Munger adopted it as a central principle.

A margin of safety means building extra protection into your decisions so that mistakes do not destroy you.

Everyday Example Outside Investing

When engineers design a bridge that needs to support 10,000 tons, they may build it to support 30,000 tons. This extra strength accounts for unknowns, wear and tear, and unexpected stress. They do not assume perfect conditions.

Investing Example

If you believe a business is worth $100 per share, buying it at $95 leaves little room for error. A small mistake in your analysis, or a minor setback for the company, could leave you with a loss. Buying it at $60 provides a margin of safety.

Your estimate could be wrong. The economy could weaken. The company could stumble. A margin of safety gives you breathing room.

Munger believed that many disasters occur not because people were completely wrong, but because they were only slightly wrong and had no margin of safety. A small error becomes catastrophic when there is no cushion.

Mental Model #4: Incentives—Follow the Motivation

Munger famously said: "Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome."

People respond to incentives. This applies to executives, employees, customers, politicians, and investors. If you want to understand why someone behaves a certain way, look at what rewards them.

Why Incentives Matter

If a CEO is paid based on short-term stock price, they may focus on boosting quarterly earnings rather than building long-term value. They might cut research spending, delay maintenance, or use accounting tricks. The incentive structure predicts the behavior.

If a salesperson earns commission on volume, they may push unnecessary products on customers. The incentive predicts the outcome.

Understanding incentives helps you predict behavior more accurately than simply listening to what people say.

Investing Example

Suppose a company regularly issues new shares to executives as compensation. This dilutes existing shareholders. Even if the business grows, your ownership percentage shrinks. The incentive structure rewards executives regardless of whether the stock performs for owners.

Look at executive compensation carefully. Heavy stock options can drive short-term earnings manipulation—a clear red flag. The best companies align incentives: management owns significant stock, compensation is tied to long-term performance, and decisions consistently favor shareholders.

Mental Model #5: Compounding—Small Advantages Grow Huge Over Time

Compounding means that gains build upon previous gains. This model is simple in concept but extraordinary in impact.

Everyday Example

If you save $10,000 and earn 10% annually:

1. After 1 year: $11,000
2. After 10 years: about $26,000
3. After 30 years: about $174,000

The growth accelerates because each year's gain becomes part of the base for future gains. After 30 years, you have not just added $3,000 per year. You have added $3,000, then that $3,000 earned its own returns, and so on.

Investing Application

Munger and Buffett focused on owning high-quality businesses that could compound earnings for decades. They were not chasing quick profits. They were building snowballs and pushing them down long hills.

Consider a business that earns 15% on its capital and reinvests all profits. In five years, it will earn more because it has more capital working. In ten years, much more. In thirty years, the original investment has multiplied many times over.

Understanding compounding encourages patience. It teaches you that frequent trading and short-term thinking often work against your own wealth. Every time you sell, you interrupt the compounding process and pay taxes that shrink your base.

Mental Model #6: Opportunity Cost—Every Choice Has a Hidden Price

When you choose one option, you automatically give up another. This sacrificed alternative is the opportunity cost.

Simple Example

If you spend $1,000 on a smartphone, you cannot invest that same $1,000. The opportunity cost is the future value of that investment.

If you spend Saturday watching television, you cannot spend it learning a new skill. The opportunity cost is the knowledge you did not gain.

Investing Example

Suppose you own a mediocre business with low growth prospects. Keeping your money there means you cannot put it into a higher-quality opportunity. The cost of holding the mediocre business is not just its own poor returns, but the foregone returns of the better business you could have owned.

Munger constantly compared potential investments against each other. The question was not, "Is this good?" but "Is this better than my other options?"

This mindset leads to better allocation of capital. It forces you to constantly evaluate whether your money is working as hard as it could be.

Mental Model #7: Second-Order Effects—Thinking Beyond the Obvious

First-order thinking asks: "What will happen?"

Second-order thinking asks: "And then what happens after that?"

Most people stop at the first step. They see the immediate effect and assume the story ends there. But in complex systems, first-order effects often trigger second-order effects that matter just as much.

Everyday Example

Imagine a city decides to build a new stadium to attract a sports team. First-order thinking: the stadium will bring jobs and tourism. Second-order thinking: the stadium will increase traffic congestion, raise local taxes, divert spending from other businesses, and maybe not attract as many tourists as hoped. The full picture looks different.

Investing Example

When interest rates fall, first-order thinking says: borrowing becomes cheaper, companies can expand, stocks should rise. Second-order thinking continues: cheaper borrowing also inflates asset prices, encourages risky behavior, creates malinvestment, and eventually leads to bubbles that burst painfully.

Investors who only see first-order effects buy at the top. Those who see second-order effects understand that easy money today means difficult consequences tomorrow.

A 2026 Example

During 2024 and 2025, many small-cap stocks with only loose connections to artificial intelligence soared on excitement about "the next disruption." First-order thinking saw a new technology and assumed immediate riches. Second-order thinking asked harder questions: Which companies actually have durable advantages? Which are simply riding the hype? How will competition intensify? What happens when the excitement fades? The correction that followed rewarded those who thought beyond the obvious.

Mental Model #8: Basic Arithmetic and Probabilistic Thinking

Munger constantly warned that people fail at elementary math. Not calculus. Not statistics. Simple arithmetic.

Why This Matters

People routinely:

1. Underestimate how fast losses compound
2. Overestimate how long recoveries take
3. Ignore base rates

Consider this: If a stock falls 50%, it must rise 100% just to break even. Many investors intuitively think a 50% drop only needs a 50% rebound. That misunderstanding alone ruins portfolios.

Probabilistic Thinking

Understanding probability helps investors accept a crucial truth: You can make a good decision and still lose. You can make a bad decision and still win. What matters is whether your process produces favorable odds over time.

A single outcome proves nothing. A thousand outcomes reveal the truth.

This is why Munger focused on process, not results. A good process will produce good results over time, even if any individual decision fails.

Mental Model #9: Psychological Biases—How the Mind Tricks Itself

Munger devoted enormous attention to human psychology because he believed most mistakes come from predictable mental errors. He famously gave a talk called "The Psychology of Human Misjudgment" that cataloged dozens of biases.

Some important biases include:

Confirmation Bias: Seeking information that supports what you already believe and ignoring information that contradicts it. If you want to buy a stock, you will find reasons to buy. If you want to sell, you will find reasons to sell.

Overconfidence: Overestimating your own skill. Most people believe they are above-average drivers. Most investors believe they are above-average stock pickers. Both cannot be true.

Recency Bias: Giving too much weight to recent events. After a market crash, investors assume markets will never recover. After a long bull market, investors assume markets will only go up.

Social Proof: Copying what others are doing. When everyone around you is buying, it feels safe to join. When everyone is selling, it feels dangerous to hold.

Loss Aversion: Feeling the pain of losses more intensely than the pleasure of equivalent gains. Losing $1,000 hurts more than gaining $1,000 feels good. This leads investors to sell winners too early and hold losers too long.

Example in Investing

During a market boom, everyone around you may be making money in speculative stocks. Social proof pushes you to join, even if valuations make no sense. Recency bias makes you believe the boom will continue forever. Overconfidence convinces you that you are smarter than those who warned of a crash.

Recognizing these tendencies does not eliminate them, but it gives you a fighting chance to resist them. Munger's advice was brutally honest: assume your brain is flawed and design systems to protect yourself from yourself.

Mental Model #10: The Lollapalooza Effect—Multiple Forces Acting Together

Munger coined the term "lollapalooza effect" to describe situations where multiple psychological biases or other factors combine to produce extreme outcomes.

When several forces act in the same direction, the result is often far more powerful than any single force would predict.

Everyday Example

Think about a timeshare presentation. The salespeople use:

1. Reciprocity (they give you a free gift)
2. Social proof (they show you how many others have bought)
3. Scarcity (this deal ends today)
4. Authority (the friendly expert who seems trustworthy)
5. Commitment (they get you to say small yeses that lead to bigger ones)

Each force alone might be resistible. Together, they create a lollapalooza effect that makes rational people buy things they do not need.

Investing Example

Consider the AI hype of 2024–2025. Many stocks with only tenuous connections to artificial intelligence soared to extraordinary valuations. The forces at work included:

1. Social proof (everyone was talking about AI)
2. Recency bias (recent tech winners had made fortunes)
3. Overconfidence ("this time it's different")
4. Authority (analysts on television calling for endless growth)
5. Envy (neighbors were getting rich)

Multiple forces combined—a classic lollapalooza—driving prices far beyond fundamentals before sharp corrections followed. Understanding this model helps you recognize when markets are being driven by reinforcing forces rather than rational analysis.

Mental Model #11: Durability—Not Just Advantage, But How Long It Lasts

Not all competitive advantages are equal. Some are temporary, some are fragile, and some are durable.

Munger and Buffett gravitated toward businesses whose advantages could persist for decades.

Important Distinction

1. Temporary advantages: Fashion trends, fads, one-hit wonders. They create profits for a few years, then disappear.
2. Fragile advantages: Businesses dependent on a single regulation, a single patent, or a single customer. One change and the advantage vanishes.
3. Durable advantages: Strong brands, high switching costs, network effects, economies of scale. These withstand competition and time.

Investing Application

A business earning high returns on capital is attractive. A business earning high returns on capital for twenty years is life-changing.

The durability question is often more important than the profitability question. A moderately profitable business with a durable advantage may outperform a highly profitable business with a fragile one.

Mental Model #12: Simplicity and Avoiding Complexity

Munger repeatedly warned that complexity increases error. People are often attracted to complicated strategies because complexity feels sophisticated. In reality:

1. Complex systems fail in unexpected ways
2. Simple systems fail in predictable ways

Why This Matters

Simple businesses are easier to understand. Easier to understand means easier to forecast. Easier to forecast means fewer surprises.

Munger preferred businesses with straightforward economics: candy companies, soft drink bottlers, banks with simple loan books. He avoided businesses where the answer depended on understanding complex technology or predicting regulatory outcomes.

Investing Application

When you encounter an investment opportunity, ask: Can I explain this business in a few sentences? If not, the complexity may be hiding risks you cannot see.

Mental Model #13: Checklists—Protecting Against Omission Errors

Munger admired pilots and surgeons for using checklists. No matter how experienced they are, they run through the same list before every takeoff or every operation.

Checklists:

1. Reduce omission errors (forgetting to check something important)
2. Prevent emotional shortcuts (skipping steps when confident)
3. Create consistency across decisions

Investing Application

Investing is full of silent failures caused by forgetting to ask one important question. A pre-purchase checklist ensures you ask every time.

Later in this tutorial, we will provide a simple checklist you can use. The key is using it consistently, not just when you remember.

How to Build Your Own Latticework

Building mental models is not a weekend project. It is a lifelong process. Munger himself read constantly for decades, pulling ideas from every field he could access.

Here are practical steps you can take:

1. Read broadly, not narrowly

Do not limit yourself to investing books. Read history to understand how cycles repeat. Read psychology to understand why people behave as they do. Read biology to understand competition and adaptation. Read physics to understand equilibrium and systems. Read biography to understand how successful thinkers approached problems.

2. Seek fundamental ideas, not surface facts

When you encounter a new idea, ask: What is the core principle here? Can I state it simply? How does this connect to things I already know? Surface facts change. Fundamental principles endure.

3. Reflect on mistakes—yours and others'

When something goes wrong, ask why. Which mental models would have predicted this outcome? When you read about a business failure, ask the same questions. Mistakes are the best teachers if you are willing to learn from them.

4. Apply models deliberately

When facing a decision, pause and ask: Which mental models might be relevant here? Am I seeing the whole picture? What am I missing?

5. Discuss and teach

Explaining mental models to others forces you to clarify your own understanding. Conversation also reveals angles you had not considered.

6. Start small and add slowly

You do not need to master dozens of models at once. Start with five to seven models that resonate most: inversion, circle of competence, margin of safety, incentives, and compounding are a strong foundation. Add one or two per year as you read and reflect. The latticework grows slowly—but it grows permanently.

Over time, your thinking becomes more structured and more resilient. You begin to see patterns that others miss. You become harder to fool, both by others and by yourself.

Applying Mental Models to a Real Investing Decision

Let us walk through a hypothetical investment decision and see how multiple models come into play.

Imagine you are considering buying shares of a fast-growing technology company. The stock has doubled in the past year. The CEO is charismatic and appears frequently on financial television. Your friends are talking about it.

Here is how you might apply your collection of models:

Circle of Competence: Do I actually understand how this company makes money? Can I explain its business model in simple terms? If not, I am outside my circle.

Inversion: What could cause this business to fail? Is there a competitor that could destroy it? Is it dependent on a single product? Is it burning cash?

Incentives: How is management paid? Do they own significant stock? Are they selling shares while promoting the company?

Margin of Safety: Is the price far below my conservative estimate of value? Or am I paying a premium based on hopes?

Opportunity Cost: Is this the best place for my capital? Are there other investments with better risk-reward profiles?

Second-Order Effects: If I buy today, what happens next? If the stock doubles again, will I sell or get greedy? If it falls, will I panic?

Psychological Biases: Am I influenced by social proof because everyone is talking about it? Am I suffering from recency bias because the stock has gone up? Am I overconfident in my ability to pick winners?

Lollapalooza Effect: Are multiple forces—hype, envy, authority figures, social proof—combining to create a frenzy?

Durability: Even if this company is successful today, will its advantage last five years? Ten years? Or is it vulnerable to disruption?

Simplicity: Can I explain this business to someone else in a few minutes? If not, what am I missing?

Checklist: Have I asked all these questions, or am I skipping steps because I want to buy?

By layering these models together, you move from emotional decision-making toward rational judgment. You may still decide to invest, but you will do so with eyes open to the risks. Or you may decide to pass, recognizing that the forces at work make a rational decision impossible.

Common Beginner Mistakes with Mental Models

As you begin using mental models, watch for these common pitfalls:

Collecting models but never using them. Reading about models is not the same as applying them. Knowledge without action is just entertainment.

Memorizing names instead of understanding meaning. The label matters less than the concept. If you understand inversion, you do not need to remember that Munger called it inversion.

Using models to justify decisions already made. This is confirmation bias wearing a disguise. Apply models before deciding, not after.

Believing more models equals better results. Depth matters more than breadth. Five models you truly understand and use are worth more than fifty you vaguely remember.

Forgetting that models are tools, not rules. No model applies in every situation. Judgment still matters.

A Simple Munger-Style Investment Checklist

Before buying any stock, ask these questions. If any answer reveals a problem, pass.

Understanding the Business

1. Can I explain how this company makes money in simple terms?
2. Do I understand the industry well enough to assess its future?

Competitive Position

1. Does the business have a durable competitive advantage?
2. How long is that advantage likely to last?
3. What could destroy it?

Management and Incentives

1. Does management think like owners?
2. Are incentives aligned with long-term shareholder value?
3. Is management honest about mistakes?

Financial Health

1. Is the balance sheet strong?
2. Does the business generate consistent free cash flow?
3. Is debt manageable?

Valuation and Margin of Safety

1. Is the price reasonable relative to long-term earning power?
2. Have I used conservative assumptions?
3. If I am wrong, how much could I lose?

Psychological Self-Check

1. Am I influenced by recent price movements?
2. Am I following the crowd?
3. Am I overconfident in this decision?

Use this checklist every time. It will not guarantee success, but it will prevent many failures.

What Mental Models Are Not

Before concluding, it is worth clarifying what mental models are not.

They are not formulas. No mental model gives you a precise answer like "buy at this price." They are tools for thinking, not calculators.

They are not guarantees. You can apply all the right models and still lose money. The world is unpredictable. Models improve your odds; they do not eliminate uncertainty.

They are not quick fixes. Building a latticework takes years. You cannot read one book and suddenly think like Charlie Munger. But you can start today, and each new model makes your thinking slightly better.

They are not a substitute for knowledge. Mental models help you organize information, but you still need information. You still need to study businesses, read financial statements, and understand industries.

Conclusion: Learning to See the World More Clearly

The deepest promise of mental models is not that they turn you into a flawless investor, but that they gradually teach you how to see reality with less distortion. Over time, you begin to notice patterns where before there were only isolated events, and you begin to recognize causes where once there were only outcomes. This quiet shift in perception changes how you interpret success, how you understand failure, and how you relate to uncertainty itself.

Adopting this way of thinking is less like installing software and more like growing a lens. The lens sharpens slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, through repetition, reflection, and honest confrontation with mistakes. You will not wake up one day feeling “finished.” Instead, you will notice that your questions become better, your reactions become calmer, and your decisions become less driven by noise and more anchored in reality.

In that sense, the real value of mental models is not speed, cleverness, or intellectual display. Their real value is humility. They teach you how vast the world is, how limited any single viewpoint can be, and how much improvement remains possible at every stage of life. That humility quietly protects you from the kinds of overconfidence that destroy both capital and character.

If you stay patient with the process, mental models become more than tools. They become companions in thinking — a steady framework that helps you navigate complexity without becoming overwhelmed by it. And over a lifetime, that steadiness compounds into something rare: the ability to make fewer foolish decisions, to recognize genuine opportunity when it appears, and to move through the world with a little more clarity than you had before.

Further Reading

1. Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charlie Munger (the essential collection of his speeches and ideas)
2. Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin (a systematic exploration of mental models)
3. The Psychology of Human Misjudgment (Charlie Munger's famous speech, available online)
4. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini (deep dive into psychological biases)
5. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (the science of how we think and err)
6. The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks (practical investing wisdom with echoes of Munger)