2000年股东大会 · 巴菲特心中最好的阐述自己观点的投资书籍 — 文稿

M10:00

我叫 Eric Tweedy，来自 Pennsylvania 的 Shavertown。

My name is Eric Tweedy from Shavertown, Pennsylvania.

M20:03

再次感谢你们办了这么一场很棒的会议。

Thanks again for another great meeting.

在去年的会议期间，我太太在城里的一家店里买了一本叫《Buffettology》的书，作者是 Buffett 先生以前的儿媳妇。

During last year's meeting, my wife picked up a copy of a book called Buffettology at one of the shops around town that is written by Mr. Buffett's former daughter-in-law.

这本书写得非常好，也很有意思，而且它试着梳理 Warren Buffett 的投资方法。

A very well-written book, very interesting, and it attempts to outline the Warren Buffett approach to investing.

我的问题是，我不知道两位先生是否熟悉这本书的内容，或者读过这本书；如果读过的话，能不能评论一下，你们觉得它是不是对这种投资方式的一个很好的概括。

My question is, I don't know if either of you gentlemen are familiar with the content or have read it, and if so, if you could comment on if you think it is a good outline of that type of investing.

我的第二个相关问题是，我想请 Buffett 先生谈谈，你当初为什么会买下 Massachusetts 那家最初的纺织厂？那是不是代表了你更早期的一个阶段——当时你更像是一个严格遵循 Graham 风格的价值投资者，而不是你现在这种投资风格？

My second question related to that, I wonder if Mr. Buffett could comment on why you bought the original textile mill in Massachusetts and if that represented an earlier phase when you were more of a strictly Graham-style value investor versus your current investment style?

M10:58

可能最好的一本——我是说，最能代表我观点的书，是 Lawrence Cunningham 编的那本，因为他基本上就是把我说过的话整理了一下，排得更有条理——他把我多年里说过的话汇总起来，而他整理出来的那本书，最能代表我的看法。

Probably the best— I would say that the most representative book on my views is the one that Lawrence Cunningham has put together, because he essentially has taken my words and rearranged them in a more orderly— he's taken them from a number of years, and what he has put together there best represents my views.

另外，网上还有我们大概二十年的 annual reports，或者说还不止这些，再加上 Fortune 上的文章，各种各样的材料都有。

That, uh, and we've got 20 years of annual reports or so, or more, on the internet, plus articles in Fortune, all kinds of things.

所以，这大概也算是我的一点偏见吧，不过我还是愿意认为，我自己对这些观点的阐述，会比别人改写之后的版本更好一些。

So, uh, it's probably, uh, a bias I have, but I would— I like to think that I laid out those views as better than somebody who's rewriting them.

不过，这个——这个判断就由你自己来做吧。

But that, that's— I'll let you make that decision.

不过我确实觉得，Larry 在这件事上做得非常好——他把很多这些报告按主题重新整理了一遍，这样读起来就比一年一年地去翻要容易多了。

Uh, but I, I, I, I do think Larry's done a very good job of, of taking a number of those reports and, and rearranging them by topic, uh, in a way that makes it a lot easier to read than trying to go through year after year.

而且实际上，很快你也会有一本关于 Charlie 的书可以读。

And actually, you'll have this book about Charlie pretty soon to read too.

不过，我们在这些会议上已经说过我们要说的话了，我们在 annual reports 里也说过，我们就是原原本本地讲了我们在做什么。

But we've said what we've said in these meetings, we've said in the annual reports, we've said exactly what we do.

有些书呢，我会说，它们试图把这些内容拿去加工一下；因为人们总是在寻找某种机械式的方法，或者公式之类的东西，所以它们可能会想让人觉得，除此之外还有什么秘密，但我觉得多半并没有。

And some of the books, I would say, try to take that, and because people are looking for mechanistic things or formulas or whatever it may be, they may try to hold out that there's some secret beyond that, but I don't think there probably is.

那，Charlie 呢？

And Charlie?

M32:33

你读过那些书。

You've read the books.

嗯，我是翻了翻。

Well, I skimmed them.

那本书。

That book.

我觉得我们这些年所做的事情——其实并没有那么难做，也并没有那么难解释。

I think what we have done all these years is— it wasn't all that hard to do, and it's not all that hard to explain.

可话说回来，我觉得很多人就是没弄明白。

All that said and done, I think a lot of people just don't get it.

就像 Samuel Johnson 那句很有名的话说的：我可以给你一个论证，但我没法给你一种理解。

As Samuel Johnson said famously, I can give you an argument, but I can't give you an understanding.

嗯。

Hmm.