A Biography of Warren Buffet

Judging by his annual letter to shareholders, Warren Buffet must be one of the most interesting men in business today. Certainly he seem to have much the same business skills and insights, although more honest, and is as much of a character as J.P. Morgan, Jay Gould, Commodore Vanderbilt and other Robber Barons of the 19th century.

[In the interests of full disclosure, I own a modest position in Berkshire Hathaway B Shares.]

Alice Schroeder's biography of Warren Buffet (The Snowball) is overly long, hard work to read, and gives the impression that Mr. Buffet is merely an obsessive compulsive with a consistent investment philosophy - value investing - learned from Benjamin Graham, dubious social skills, and a peculiar personal life.

On the other hand, his realization that he probably did not understand philanthropy, and his decision to turn over the bulk of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says sometime very profound about the man. Would that Ms. Schroeder had explored - and explained - the part of his character that led to this magnificent and unselfish decision.

The real failure of the book is that it tells, in excruciating detail, the "what" and sometimes the "how", but rarely discusses the "why" or the philosophy of Mr. Buffet's life and work.

Good writing can tell a story without overuse of words and paper but the modern trend in biographies seems to be that quantity trumps quality. One test of good writing is to tell a story in as few words as possible - although not in fewer. In this case, there is no excuse for eight hundred and thirty eight pages (plus notes and index) of what can easily be described as a repetitive and boring data dump. Had Ms. Schroeder limited herself to three hundred and fifty pages, she might have been forced to write a biography that was both instructive and entertaining or she would have given up and spared enough trees to make a respectable forest.

Perhaps, the best advice ever to writers came from Voltaire:

"The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out"

Enough said.