Inside Charlie Munger's Great Mind

Charlie Munger was the right hand man of history's most successful investor, Warren Buffet. Buffet himself said: "Charlie's mind has a greater span than I do." Munger died yesterday, at 99. Here are 9 insights from the great man. They'll make you smarter:

There's a strange taboo against reading. Elon Musk said in the new Walter Isssacson biography that his parents were always trying to convince him to read less. Charlie Munger said his kids laugh at his reading habit, calling him a book with two legs sticking out.

Charlie Munger: "In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time -- none, zero." This makes sense when you realize that without books, travel, and hundreds of conversations, there is no way for you to leave the intellectual context you were born in.

Pure thinking not interrupted by meetings and a thousand other energy leaks is a productivity hack the world is sleeping on: "We insist on a lot of time being available almost every day to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. We read and think."

Between wisdom and unwise friends, choose wisdom. Charlie Munger: "Acquire worldly wisdom and adjust your behavior accordingly. If your new behavior gives you a little temporary unpopularity with your peer group…then to hell with them."

Only throw your capital, time, and energy after worthwhile opportunities. Charlie Munger: "I didn't get top where I am by going after mediocre opportunities." The saddest moment is when you have nothing in the gas-tank when the golden opportunity comes.

A forest that does not clear its deadwood with small fires will, one day, suffer a giant uncontrollable fire. Brains must clear their deadwood too. Munger: "Rapid destruction of your ideas when the time is right is one of the most valuable qualities you can acquire."

Beware of the proximity fallacy. Munger: "An idea or a fact is not worth more merely because it’s easily available to you." Sometimes you have to read and move outside the zones you're familiar in to fight the eureka moment, the special piece of insight, that you really need.

Learn from the Romans: "An example of a really responsible system is the system the Romans used when they built an arch. The guy who created the arch stood under it as the scaffolding was removed. It’s like packing your own parachute."

Charlie Munger on the importance of mental models: "You have to learn all the big ideas in the key disciplines in a way that they're in a mental latticework in your head and you automatically use them for the rest of your life." Learn the big ideas and keep applying them.