Speaking only for myself, this annual meeting was difficult to watch. Buffett seems to still be sharp with his recall and his financial prowess. But, even 98 year old Charlie had to cut Warren off a few times because of his wandering ramblings. The decline in abilities is inevitable, and difficult to witness.
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I agree. the rambling and reaching back into the past for related stories made much of the first half especially unwatchable.
Sad really
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Disraeli once said:
âWhen a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.â
While Warrenâs ramblings and sometimes unresponsive anecdotes are cause for concern, his analytical abilities with respect to stock picking still seem sharp, as evidenced by his discussion of recent investments.
Not time to retire as yet!
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My .02
Morning questions were total softies and very easy to get rambling with. I think Warren knows we like the grandfather quality and he played into it.
Afternoon was a bit more substantive, but not much. I was hoping for more gritty talk given todays ugly world.
Greg was the thing that âcouldâ keep me awake at night. Underwhelming.
Iâll still sleep well for the time being.
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It was a hard watch. Still more than capable of doing the allocating. Still brilliant and still grateful for him but not sure I would like to have made the trip.
I wonder has the isolation of the last two years effected him. He was so happy to be there with his tribe and maybe needed to unload his thoughts. Maybe a little bit of lack of self awareness. Think the crowd would have enjoyed shorter answers. Presume there were many more Berkshire related questions that could have been asked and answered.
If Greg is in charge of operations, I would like to hear much more from him about how Berkshire will be run in the future. In 7 hours I didnât pick up really anything new about the business.
Although I may do some Activision arbitrage on MondayâŚthanks Warren.
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The Sandman
Good to hear from you once more.
Donât be such a stranger. We need your insights.
Tex
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Wasnât fond of the rambling however when it came to securities he was sharp!! Funny because I thought his interview with Charlie Rose was very good. Maybe he was just tired from the activities.
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I liked everything Warren and Charlie said about domestic oil and gas production. National treasure. Warren flabbergasted weâre producing 1 MMBOPD from the SPR. Travesty. Such is politics.
Unlike some other countries around the world, we (average Joeâs) can own a piece of it.
Once again Charlie gave a hat tip to petroleum engineers - an honorable profession. Being a petroleum engineer (retired), that was the highlight for me.
My 29 year old son attended for the first time at my urging. He was frustrated with Warrenâs rambling and so was I.
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Greg was the thing that âcouldâ keep me awake at night. Underwhelming.
I read Greg, perhaps incorrectly, different than most comments Iâve read.
I thought he was following the old Buffett line of praise in public and criticize in private. He said he was well aware of the analytics about BNSF versus its competitors. Just didnât get into the âwhyâsâ of what BNSF was doing what it is doing.
I agree that was a mistake. It was an obvious question to be prepared for and have a smooth prepared answer. Talk about different strategies and level of customer involvement - which he alluded to, albeit he could have done better.
Jain was more crisp and blunt. We like that in answer to tough questions. I also recall the leaked memo from Jain to Gen Re that told them their costs were out of control and had to be corrected. Thatâs after Warrenâs continued praise of the âfixedâ Gen Re. It wasnât.
But, being in the corporate world for almost 40 years, I also realize that the two are running different organizations. Insurance is a relatively small organization in terms of senior personnel and number of businesses. Complex, but easier to run under tight control. All have same basic principles. Gregâs area consists of many, many business organizations run in a very decentralized manner. Requires a different management style. Thereâs a reason Jain wasnât selected beyond age, health, and preferred living location. Heâs never run a big, widely diversified, business.
So, while not a great performance, Iâm cutting Greg some slack. Iâve seen any indication that he didnât run a âtightâ shop while managing BHE.
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Like others, I was also alarmed with the rambling. In fact, I texted my elderly mom and asked her what she thought.
She said it sounded like two old friends reminiscing with some stories, and thatâs just what old men do. 
So, since WB still seems sharp as a tack with the details I obviously need to give him a break on the rambling.
Thanks Mom!
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Iâve seen any indication that he didnât run a âtightâ shop while managing BHE.
Iâve NOT seen any indication âŚ
Doesnât matter how many times you proof read âŚ
Sorry about that.
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I thought he was following the old Buffett line of praise in public and criticize in private. He said he was well aware of the analytics about BNSF versus its competitors. ⌠It was an obvious question to be prepared for
Jain answered without criticizing. Most managers who understand the business are able to answer such questions on the fly. NO need to prepare for.
hereâs a reason Jain wasnât selected beyond age, health, and preferred living location. Heâs never run a big, widely diversified, business
For Berkshire insurance is big. We will not know why Buffett selected one man over the other. Whatever little I have seen, I like Jain better.
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If I recall I donât believe Jain ever wanted the top job. He didnât really want to move to Omaha either so that didnât help.
Abel is also like a dozen years or so younger than Jain and I believe that was a factor.
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<Whatever little I have seen, I like Jain better.>
I believe Warren was as interested in Joe Brandon as he was Allegheny. Sounded to me that Warren took initiative to get it done. Seemed clear Warren had the hots for that deal.
I really like the idea of Joe BrandonâŚdeepens the insurance bench AND gives Ajit a little more managerial maneuvering room to assist Greg if necessary.
I liked hearing that story.
Been a few hours now to digest and my opinion has become more positive about todayâs event than the initial gut check.
PS. No talk about Chevron. Did I miss something?
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I really like the idea of Joe BrandonâŚdeepens the insurance bench AND gives Ajit a little more managerial maneuvering room to assist Greg if necessary.
The more I think about it, Ajit is not part of Berkshireâs long-term plan. May be along with WEB Ajit will also retire?
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When Buffett says little (as in his shareholder letter), people say he say nothing new. When he goes into more details, people says heâs rumbling.
But all these questions are the same every year. What do you expect him to do? For many listener who listened many times, and perhaps are getting too old to still listen carefully, it will sounds like ramblings.
For me, after listening carefully, I found Buffettâs answers are very detailed and reveal unique insights. Especially in the afternoon session, he became more lively.
For example, his answers about inflation. My take away from that is he thinks the current inflation is caused by more people are richer now and that is not necessarily bad â people have money and are buying stuffs and ,impo, he doesnât want to say it aloud, that heâs buying stocks.
While I agree that Buffett is rambling more these days and his responses tend to meander compared to his earlier meetings, I am not overly concerned by this.
He is 91 after all and this performative aspect of his role is the least important part of his role these days. From the meeting and the previous interview with Charlie Rose, It is clear that as far as numeracy, mental agility and ability to make capital allocation decisions, he is near the top of his game and ultimately thatâs what really matters.
I would argue that if you were to put up any CEO of a comparable company up to talk for 4-5 hours at a stretch ( including twitter meme-lords like Musk), they would get rambling and wear on patience a lot sooner than Buffett at 91. Part of the perceived issue is the perceived anchoring on his capabilities to communicate more tersely when a lot younger.
With regard to Abel, it seems clear that he is more an operations guy who communicates like a generic corporate CEO and this respect more like Tim Cook to Buffett and Mungerâs charisma and skill in folksy no bs communication. Again, this doesnât bother me. as it is fairly inevitable successors will not be Buffett and Munger clones. The important thing is that they are honest, trustworthy and have sound business and operational judgement.
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Alarming, smarming, how young are you and is this your first time looking at a BRK meeting?
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Okay, maybe I was too harsh and dismissive in my previous post.
They are old men, smart old men, and as I age, rambling kind of goes with the territory, particularly with two old friends. The trick is to glean from their wisdom nuggets I can use to consider my investments and outlook on the worldâs economy.
Take what you like and leave the rest.
Lucky Dog
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It does come across very difficult to watch, and I gave up after about 20 minutes. Not sure if itâs partly due to the poor copy Iâm watching, and perhaps with captions it will make more sense.
Iâm reminded of an old anecdote Buffett once gave, talking about how nervous he was that one of his Solomon traders had a computer at home, and could come home drunk with a woman one night, and place a $1B trade.
I think if I had my net worth in Berkshire, Iâd now be feeling slightly nervous following Warrenâs bizarre and rambling description of the Occidental purchase, but as it is Iâve only got something like 15% invested in Berkshire, so Iâm happy to watch him play the last few rounds of the course.