Do you ever wonder why you always seem to be buying products that you don't really want or need? Do you always buy whatever a telemarketer is making a pitch to sell? Do you simply have trouble saying no to salesman? This fantastic book delves into why people continually fall for high pressure sales techniques and how you can avoid falling for them yourself. These lessons can also be applied to investing. For example, when everyone is proclaiming that Internet stocks are the companies to be investing in, you can say no to their sales pitch. You will have a much better understanding of how humans interact and respond to others after reading this book.

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This is the book that all of us that us who love the wit and wisdom of Mr. Munger have been waiting for. It's an absolutely first class production that contains biographical information on Mr. Munger and, most importantly, finally allows all of us to read and study Mr. Munger's works in one volume. As an added bonus Chapter 10 includes new material written by Mr. Munger especially for this book. I strongly recommend that you read and study this book!

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"... that Enron book is really worth reading because the evil is so extreme. You see people getting sucked in by the evil around them. You just learn so much." Charlie Munger, 2007 Wesco Annual Meeting.

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"If you want to read one book, read the autobiography of Les Schwab. He ran tire shops in the Midwest and made a fortune by being shrewd in a tough business by having good systems…He made hundreds of millions selling tires" Charlie Munger, 2004 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting.

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"The Isaacson book on Franklin was terrific. He had a terrific subject – it’s hard to write a bad book on such an interesting subject." Charlie Munger, 2004 Wesco Annual Meeting.

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"Not everyone will like Deep Simplicity. It’s pretty hard to understand everything, but if you can’t understand it, you can always give it to a more intelligent friend." Charlie Munger, 2004 Wesco Annual Meeting.

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"A Matter of Degrees, by physicist named Segre, is a perfectly marvelous book. Not a book you can go through at 90 mph, but if you parse through it slowly, you'll get a lot out of it. You'll get a lot of hours per dollar if you use it right." Charlie Munger, 2003 Wesco Annual Meeting.

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Mr. Munger recommended (per May 2003 Omaha World Herald article) this book at the 2003 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.

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What Mr. Munger had to say about this book at the 2002 Wesco Annual Meeting: "Ice Age is one of the best books I've ever read. I've spent thousands of dollars buying copies for my friends. If you don't like Ice Age, then you have some limitations."

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Mr. Munger comments on this book: "I also recommend How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It. It's amazing how one million poor people with a lousy climate and no resources had such a large and constructive influence on the world. I tried to figure it out and couldn't. This professor did that. It's a wonderful book."

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Review Pending

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Have you ever wondered why certain countries have become cultural centers and military superpowers? Why have several leading civilizations experienced declines when contacted by other civilizations? This book provides an interesting explanation for why the world has developed the way it has. I found it thought provoking and extremely interesting.

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I must confess that I am a hopeless lover of biographies and autobiographies. With that caveat in mind I found this book on the life of Mr. Rockefeller intriguing. The life he lived, the company he created, and his management style are all worth studying. I also found it an interesting case study on monopolies and I found myself contrasting the situations of Standard Oil and Microsoft often.

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This important book examines how wealth and culture intertwine over time and the effects both can have on nations. It provides a thoughtful, rational explanation of why various cultures that possess certain advantages never have become world powers. It also examines why certain countries have become so successful and why others have fallen. Everyone should study the reasons why certain countries have been successful and others have not so we can learn from those challenges and not be doomed to repeat the same mistakes.

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Mr. Ridley provides us all with an interesting and clear look at what information genetic discoveries are shedding on the makeup of the human body and what implications your genes can have on your health. He spends a portion of every chapter on one of our chromosomes, and describes some useful discoveries and speculations regarding each.

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I think this quote by Mr. Munger speaks for itself: "This book is must reading for those seeking to maximize their contribution to the constructive work of the world." The book provides a nice framework that the reader can apply in their everyday life with a profuse amount of helpful examples. The book attempts to make the reader a part of the solution in problems encountered and not a continuing part of the problem.

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The argument this book advocates is simple: population must stop growing if human society wants to keep increasing its standard of living. Mr. Hardin believes population levels have reached catastrophic proportions and must be curtailed immediately. He proposes many unique solutions though I think the main stream public will find the majority of them to be acceptable solutions.

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The most innovative book on evolution since Darwin. I was pleasantly surprised by how readable and thought provoking this book is. Mr. Dawkins does a masterful job of explaining complex concepts so that everyone can understand them. The book is centered about the concept that the gene controls its environment so that it can reproduce itself. The book is brilliant and provides the reader with a whole new viewpoint on life and evolution.

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Review Pending

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The author focuses on presenting the viewpoint of digital physicist Edward Fredkin, sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson, and Kenneth Boulding. The author essentially lets the three subjects express their particular theories on three subjects, their concepts of information, purposes, and the 'meaning of life'. The book is sure to make the reader stop and think even if they don't accept the three scientists theories.

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"I very much enjoyed Connie Bruck's biography - Master of the Game - about Steve Ross... She is a very insightful writer and its a very interesting story." - Charlie Munger, 1994 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting.

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"I'm rereading a book I really like - which is Van Doren's biography of Ben Franklin. I'd almost forgotten how good a book it was." - Charlie Munger, 1994 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting.

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