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Rating: 
Summary: Packed with Knowledge!
Review: A sentence crafter happily at work, James O'Laughlin imparts clarity with literacy. On the rare occasion that his industrious research does not find just the right quote from Buffett or Munger (chapters average 90 footnotes), he uses their favorite metaphors from sports and life. This is excellent writing that falls short only on prophesy and damnation. Buffett must pass Berkshire on to an heir in the next decade, but exactly who might follow him is given short shrift. How this unknown magician might cope with Munger (too old to be an heir) is avoided carefully. The manuscript was begun before September 11, 2001, created insurance chaos, but O'Laughlin doesn't elaborate upon it, beyond suggesting that chaos benefits Buffett - whose main float derives from super catastrophic insurance and reinsurance. We from getAbstract recommend this volume highly - along with getting to know the Real Buffett, you will learn a tidy amount about economics.
Rating:
Summary: Packed With Knowledge!
Review: A sentence crafter happily at work, James O'Loughlin imparts clarity with literacy. On the rare occasion that his industrious research does not find just the right quote from Buffett or Munger (chapters average 90 footnotes), he uses their favorite metaphors from sports and life. This is excellent writing that falls short only on prophesy and damnation. Buffett must pass Berkshire on to an heir in the next decade, but exactly who might follow him is given short shrift. How this unknown magician might cope with Munger (too old to be an heir) is avoided carefully. The manuscript was begun before September 11, 2001, created insurance chaos, but O'Loughlin doesn't elaborate upon it, beyond suggesting that chaos benefits Buffett - whose main float derives from super catastrophic insurance and reinsurance. We recommend this volume highly - along with getting to know the Real Buffett, you will learn a tidy amount about economics.
Rating: 
Summary: King of Investing
Review: As always Warren Buffett's insight to capital management and institutional investing is very appreciated. If you are a fan of Warren Buffett already you may not finding anything new, if you are new to his strategies and style then this book is definitely for you.The only drawback I have with this kind of book is that it really shows the disparities on what the average investor is dealing with and the institutional investor has to overcome. And in that respect it can be alienating.
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: I have read every Warren Buffett book there is and this one is the best by far. The reason: the discussion regarding the development of a circle of competence and dealing with what is both knowable and important and ignoring what is important but not knowable. No other Buffett book covers this absolutely critical issue like this book.
Rating:
Summary: Very well written and very readable book
Review: I have read this book during 4 days (mostly evenings) and when I started to read, I could not stop. Frankly, it is one of the most readable books about investment business which I have ever read. And more - although I am also fan of Warren Buffett, I have discovered lot of things which I simply do not know before. I have also discovered lot of new things about insurance business in which I am working for many years and I thought I know it very well. Lot of good ideas for me, five stars for author.
Rating:
Summary: A return on investment that even Buffett would value
Review: I'm sure that like me your time is scarce and you are reading this review to determine which book to read next to improve your investment returns. Well I can save you some time and recommend that you read this one.
O'Loughlin's book won't make you smarter. What it will do is help you to cut out the mistakes that prove so costly to capial accumulation.
I've read most of the popular books about Buffett. All are interesting, because his tale is compelling, but unlike the others, this book is valuable too.
Why does Tiger win all the majors rather than Phil Mickelson? Both can hit amazing shots, but Tiger has developed a series of mental processes that enables him to employ superior course management to the rest of us and so reduce the chance of dropping shots.
So it is with Buffett. This book describes how Buffett has employed a series of mental models to circumvent the ways that our brains delude us into thinking we are making sound decisions when we are making poor ones.
The take-away messages are clear and I have found it relatively straight-forward to employ them in my investment decision making process. I am making fewer decisions, but feeling much more comfortable with each one.
There's much more to the book than this, but to be honest your time would be better spent learning from O'Loughlin and Buffett than from me.
It took Buffett 40 years and billions of dollars to learn these processes. You can learn them in a couple of hours for under 20 bucks. Now, that really is a Buffett-esque bargain!
Rating:
Summary: Great Insight!
Review: Mr. O'Loughlin provides a high quality analysis of Mr. Buffett's leadership style, rational behaviour and critical self-appraisal. The book is well-researched. Even more important, it is well thought out. There is truth here. The challenge for the reader is to look in the mirror and acknowledge how little he knows, then go forth and allocate capital on that limited basis.
Rating:
Summary: Great Insight!
Review: Mr. O'Loughlin provides a high quality analysis of Mr. Buffett's leadership style, rational behaviour and critical self-appraisal. The book is well-researched. Even more important, it is well thought out. There is truth here. The challenge for the reader is to look in the mirror and acknowledge how little he knows, then go forth and allocate capital on that limited basis.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Warren Worshipper trying to get rich off the man.
Review: This book is simply a summary of all the other books about Warren Buffett. It is interesting & tries to distil the concepts, but doesn't really add to our investment knowledge, unless you haven't read anything about Warren before. The continual references to Jack Welsh also seem redundant. You would be much better off reading "Making of an American Capitalist" by Roger Lowenstein which is the definitive Warren text. However, it is easy to read & gives a good overall view of the Buffett approach, but a lot of it is assumption or extrapolation based on other writers, shareholder letters & a bit of psychology thrown in for good measure. No important players were actually interviewed & given that the writer is based in the UK it appears he just pulled out his collection of Warren books, a psych. text & Jack Welsh's biography then started writing. The Warren worship is getting a bit tired.
Rating:
Summary: Another Warren Worshipper trying to get rich off the man.
Review: This book is simply a summary of all the other books about Warren Buffett. It is interesting & tries to distil the concepts, but doesn't really add to our investment knowledge, unless you haven't read anything about Warren before. The continual references to Jack Welsh also seem redundant. You would be much better off reading "Making of an American Capitalist" by Roger Lowenstein which is the definitive Warren text. However, it is easy to read & gives a good overall view of the Buffett approach, but a lot of it is assumption or extrapolation based on other writers, shareholder letters & a bit of psychology thrown in for good measure. No important players were actually interviewed & given that the writer is based in the UK it appears he just pulled out his collection of Warren books, a psych. text & Jack Welsh's biography then started writing. The Warren worship is getting a bit tired.
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