How to Guarantee a Life of Misery (Harvard School commencement address, 1986)

Charlie Munger · 13 Jun 1986

Charlie Munger did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Addiction can happen to anyone, through a subtle process whose bonds are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken

Their wordsWhile susceptibility varies, addiction can happen to any of us, through a subtle process where the bonds of degradation are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
Our reading
Learning only from one’s own experience, and minimizing what one learns from the good and bad experience of others, is a sure-shot producer of misery and second-rate achievement
Mental modelLearning machine

Their wordsMy second prescription for misery is to learn everything you possibly can from your own personal experience, minimizing what you learn vicariously from the good and bad experience of others, living and dead. This prescription is a sure-shot producer of misery and second-rate achievement.
Our reading
Staying down after severe reverses guarantees being permanently mired in misery, since adversity is plentiful even for the lucky and wise

Their wordsMy third prescription for misery is to go down and stay down when you get your first, second, third severe reverse in the battle of life. Because there is so much adversity out there, even for the lucky and wise, this will guarantee that, in due course, you will be permanently mired in misery.
Our reading
Many hard problems are best solved by addressing them backward, studying how to create non-X in order to create X
Mental modelInversion

Their wordsWhat Carson did was to approach the study of how to create X by turning the question backward, that is, by studying how to create non-X. The great algebraist, Jacobi, had exactly the same approach as Carson and was known for his constant repetition of one phrase: “Invert, always invert.” It is in the nature of things, as Jacobi knew, that many hard problems are best solved only when they are addressed backward.
Our reading
Most people process new and disconfirming information so that their original conclusion remains intact, whereas giving priority to disconfirming evidence was a large part of Darwin’s result
Mental modelYour own biases

Their wordsDarwin’s result was due in large measure to his working method, which violated all my rules for misery and particularly emphasized a backward twist in that he always gave priority attention to evidence tending to disconfirm whatever cherished and hard-won theory he already had. In contrast, most people early achieve and later intensify a tendency to process new and disconfirming information so that any original conclusion remains intact.

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