Updates

  1. Person pages list letters, writing, profiles and links as sortable tables with filters, and show each person's companies as links; Fund letters show each letter's description in its own column.
  2. Experts show a checked job title and a short description of each person; 30 more people have photographs.
  3. Every company, fund, university and publication the experts work for has a page listing the people there.
  4. Fund letters show each letter's thesis and filter by it; 225 person pages list the essays, columns and newsletter issues the person wrote.
  5. Person pages list every essay and newsletter issue a person wrote, and their own books as a table in List view.
  6. Recommends shows the five largest kinds of book and the rest under More; browse pictures load sooner.
  7. Podcasts and talks link the original episode, filter by Audio and video or Press, and list each publisher once.
  8. Pages are wider, Recommends has List and Grid, and a filter clicked again turns off.
  9. Book cards sit in a ruled grid with Open Library and Goodreads links and each book's one-line note.
  10. Funds is now Investors; each investor's styles are buttons that filter the table.
  11. Podcasts and talks on a person's page filter by year and publisher and show as a list or a grid of pictures.
  12. Quotes show only people's own words: 472 summaries written by list sites are gone.
  13. Country pages open from Browse again, and every link on the shelf lands on a page.
  14. Subject and person pages show their sections as tabs, and each book appears once on a person's page.
  15. Book cards show the quote, who said it and the source; grids show five cards to a row.
  16. On a phone, a menu holds the sections, search, Updates, Feedback and dark mode.
  17. Feedback takes a screenshot of the page with no browser prompt, opens a screenshot full size when you click it, and clears itself once sent.
  18. Book cards are centred, search names the topic each book sits in, and any text cut short shows whole on hover.
  19. Search groups its results by kind: people, companies, geographies, subjects, topics, books, funds, fund letters and papers.
  20. The Books table lists who recommended each book by name, and the browser tab names the section you are in.
  21. Feedback can take a screenshot of the page, or one you paste or choose, and opens in the corner beside Updates.
  22. Each rail button reopens its section where you left it, and Browse, Table and People show on every book and subject page.
  23. Filters grey out choices that hold nothing instead of hiding them, and Books › People filters by authors or recommenders.
  24. Feedback takes a subject line and up to three screenshots.
  25. Biographies are grouped by the person they are about: 41 new pages, from Abraham Lincoln to Lee Kuan Yew.
  26. Sport splits into 23 sports, and Religion into one topic per faith.
  27. Book lists show as cards: the cover, one recommendation quote and every recommender by name.
  28. Seventeen subjects that had two or three pages under different names now have one page each.
  29. Every page lists its Experts as authors and recommenders, with a link to them on the Experts tab.
  30. Economics, Financial history, Financial panics and Accounting are subjects of their own, with one page per financial crisis.
  31. Book, person and subject pages open inside the app, so the tabs stay in view.
  32. 996 more book covers, and photographs or logos for 227 more people and companies.
  33. Books › Browse shows every subject as cards, and the rail holds Fund letters, Papers, Experts, Books and Funds.
  34. Every topic over 150 books splits into narrower topics, each with a page of its own.

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Owner Earnings

Mental models

Buffett's cash-based replacement for reported profit: net income plus non-cash charges, minus the capital spending needed merely to hold unit volume and competitive position. The maintenance-capex term is unavoidably an estimate, which is the point - a rough measure of the right thing beats a precise measure of the wrong one. It is the number a private owner would actually take home.

Books 5Experts 3Recommenders 20Resources 3

Start here

  1. The Essays of Warren BuffettLawrence A. Cunningham, Warren Buffett, 1997
  2. Quality of EarningsThornton L. O'glove, 1987
  3. Creating Shareholder ValueAlfred Rappaport, 1986
The Essays of Warren BuffettThe Essays of Warren Buffett
T1 The Essays of Warren Buffett
Lawrence A. Cunningham, Warren Buffett · 1997
Open LibraryGoodreads

Berkshire's shareholder letters arranged by topic: governance, valuation, mergers.

“The resource is as valuable as Larry Cunningham's The Essays of Warren Buffett, which similarly organizes by subject matter” — Christopher Bloomstran

Source: Semper Augustus 2024 Letter to Clients, 'Books and Tunes for Walking', p. 96

Recommended by: Christopher Bloomstran, Francois Rochon and 11 others

Berkshire Hathaway Letters to ShareholdersBerkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders
T1 Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders
Warren Buffett · 2013
Open LibraryGoodreads

Every Berkshire annual letter since 1965, in order, as the company grew.

“…books I've recommended, highlighted to death, or forced on friends.” — Andrew Wilkinson

Source: Andrew Wilkinson's Bookshelf, neverenough.com

Recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Arnold Van Den Berg and 5 others

Creating Shareholder ValueCreating Shareholder Value
T2 Creating Shareholder Value
Alfred Rappaport · 1986
Open LibraryGoodreads

Value is discounted future cash flow, not earnings per share or return on equity.

“I read that book and the light bulbs all went off for me personally.” — Michael Mauboussin

Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #659 — official transcript

Recommended by: Michael Mauboussin, Mohnish Pabrai

Quality of EarningsQuality of Earnings
T2 Quality of Earnings
Thornton L. O'glove · 1987
Open LibraryGoodreads

How to test whether reported earnings reflect reality, from tax books to receivables.

Recommended by: Rational Capital Investment Fund and 1 other

Financial ShenanigansFinancial Shenanigans
T2 Financial Shenanigans
Howard M. Schilit · 1993
Open LibraryGoodreads

The tricks companies use to inflate earnings, cash flow and key metrics, by case.

“Some of my favorites include Howard M. Schilit and Jeremy Perler, Financial Shenanigans” — Michael Mauboussin

Source: Thirty Years: Reflections on the Ten Attributes of Great Investors (Credit Suisse)

Recommended by: Michael Mauboussin, Anu Hariharan

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