Wed, Oct 21, 2026

We are constantly experimenting with new ideas. If you travel the roads in the neighbourhood of Dearborn you can find all sorts of models of Ford cars. They are experimental cars--they are not new models. I do not believe in letting any good idea get by me, but I will not quickly decide whether an idea is good or bad. If an idea seems good or seems even to have possibilities, I believe in doing whatever is necessary to test out the idea from every angle. But testing out the idea is something very different from making a change in the car. Where most manufacturers find themselves quicker to make a change in the product than in the method of manufacturing--we follow exactly the opposite course.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7213
Excerpt 17

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子夏曰：「日知其所亡，月無忘其所能，可謂好學也已矣。」

Source： https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%AB%96%E8%AA%9E/%E5%AD%90%E5%BC%B5%E7%AC%AC%E5%8D%81%E4%B9%9D
子張第十九·十九之五

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Back when Berkshire's book value was $19.46, intrinsic value was somewhat less because the book value was entirely tied up in a textile business not worth the figure at which it was carried. Now most of our businesses are worth far more than their carrying values. This agreeable evolution from a discount to a premium means that Berkshire's intrinsic business value has compounded at a rate that somewhat exceeds our 23.8% annual growth in book value.

Source： https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1989.html
1989 Chairman's Letter, excerpt 2

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As I was studying the same plumber's bills in great detail, checking every item, if only for a few cents, and finding it to be greatly to the firm's interest to do so, this casual way of conducting affairs did not appeal to me. I had trained myself to the point of view doubtless held by many young men in business to-day, that my check on a bill was the executive act which released my employer's money from the till and was attended with more responsibility than the spending of my own funds. I made up my mind that such business methods could not succeed.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17090
Chapter II, excerpt 32

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If we do attain that 15% average, our shareholders should fare well. However, Berkshire's corporate gains will produce an identical gain for a specific shareholder only if he eventually sells his shares at the same relationship to intrinsic value that existed when he bought them. For example, if you buy at a 10% premium to intrinsic value; if intrinsic value subsequently grows at 15% a year; and if you then sell at a 10% premium, your own return will correspondingly be 15% compounded. (The calculation assumes that no dividends are paid.) If, however, you buy at a premium and sell at a smaller premium, your results will be somewhat inferior to those achieved by the company.

Source： https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1990.html
1990 Chairman's Letter, excerpt 4

This is a direct reading: the original and source are kept; commentary will be added later.