Bob Bruner

University Professor at University of Virginia, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and Dean Emeritus of Darden School of Business

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

@ATabarrok Richly deserved!

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

See my new blog post, "An End-of-Year Reflection on "Declinism" and Some Suggested Readings" https://t.co/8nOrEuZOD6

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

See my new blog post, "Recommended Books for 2024." I highlight ten items worth your attention. https://t.co/tlBURhk53u

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

See my latest blog post, "The Unbearable Lightness of Forecasting," in which I reflect on the challenges of determining whether recent events amount to an "inflection point" in history. See https://t.co/LymIIEE5eW

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

See my Veterans Day blog post, "What Can We Learn from Veterans?" in which I discuss three lessons: mission focus, self-restraint, and getting the details right as a basis for getting big things right. https://t.co/CESVmT1Viy

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

See my new blog post, "How Should We Teach Capitalism?" https://t.co/JDaxkdOFkR In it, argue that a high-engagement teaching approach affords a positive way through challenges posed by capitalism's complexity, dynamism, and fraught issues.

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

See my new blog post, "Is Capitalism Broken?" https://t.co/p3YMt9o9oc

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

Today, I posted this essay at my blog, "What is Capitalism? Why Definitions Matter" See https://t.co/xLxc8K6hFQ

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

See my recent blog post, "Book Recommendations on the History of Capitalism." https://t.co/5Ehk29ejTr

[Rob Henderson @robkhenderson]

"When Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world at the turn of the twentieth century, created free libraries across the United States, cities with those libraries had 7 to 11% higher patent rates than comparable cities without Carnegie libraries." https://t.co/yThi6vzWSB

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

See my new blog post, The Importance of Reading...And My Recommended Books for 2023
https://t.co/4qhL1ZQ2qN

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

As Mark Twain allegedly argued: to start the day effectively, begin by “swallowing the frog”—doing the less palatable stuff first, clearing the desk for more enjoyable tasks.

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

Personally, I suck at efficiency (doing things quickly). Here’s my coping mechanism and process for maximizing efficacy (doing the right things):

1) Wake up at least 1 hour before you have to be at a computer screen. E-mail is the mind killer.

2) Make a cup of tea (I like pu-erh) and sit down with a pen/pencil and paper.

3) Write down the 3-5 things—and no more—that are making you most anxious or uncomfortable. They’re often things that have been punted from one day’s to-do list to the next, to the next, to the next, and so on. Most important usually = most uncomfortable, with some chance of rejection or conflict.

4) For each item, ask yourself:

– “If this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?”

– “Will moving this forward make all the other to-do’s unimportant or easier to knock off later?”

5) Look only at the items you’ve answered “yes” to for at least one of these questions.

6) Block out at least 2-3 hours to focus on ONE of them for today. Let the rest of the urgent but less important stuff slide. It will still be there tomorrow.

7) TO BE CLEAR: Block out at least 2-3 HOURS to focus on ONE of them for today. This is ONE BLOCK OF TIME. Cobbling together 10 minutes here and there to add up to 120 minutes does not work.

8) If you get distracted or start procrastinating, don’t freak out and downward spiral; just gently come back to your ONE to-do.

Congratulations! That’s it.

This is the only way I can create big outcomes despite my never-ending impulse to procrastinate, nap, and otherwise fritter away my days with bullshit.

If I have 10 important things to do in a day, it’s 100% certain nothing important will get done that day. On the other hand, I can usually handle 1 must-do item and block out my lesser behaviors for 2-3 hours a day.

[Daniel Vassallo @dvassallo]

Believe it or not, house affordability hasn't changed much in the last 40 years.

What got inflated was people's desire for bigger and more luxurious homes. The median new house today is almost 1000 sqft bigger than 40 years ago.

Price per sqft, inflation adjusted:

[George Mack @george__mack]

In 2001, Warren Buffett gave a talk at the University of Georgia.

He asked them the most Warren Buffett question ever:

• If you could invest in a friend and get 10% of their income for life -- who would you pick?

Once the students answered the question, he then asked this:

• Why would you invest in that person?
• What character traits do they have?

Now they have a list of character traits to adopt.

Shortly after this, Buffett asked:

If you could short a friend's earnings, who would you pick and why?

Now you have a list of character traits to avoid.

----

1. Do not think this thought experiment is only about money.

You can use it for whatever currency you value.

E.g. Happiness coin

If you could get 10% of a friend's happiness, who would you invest in and why?

If you could short someone's happiness, who would you pick and why?

You can run the same thought experiment with Fitness coin, Friendship coin, Romance coin, etc`

2. This thought experiment is genius because it hacks a bug in life's video game:

Humans are terrible at self-awareness.

But we are great at spotting things in other people.

E.g. If your friend is in the wrong relationship, you can realize in 10 minutes what may take them 10 years.

Daniel Kahneman summarised his book on cognitive biases with the following:

“The premise of this book is that it is easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than our own.” - Daniel Kahneman

3. Nuance - It has to be purely from merit.

Buffett says it can't be because someone will inherit a large sum from their parents.

It has to be based on their behavior.

E.g. If you want 10% of someone's fitness coin, it's not because of incredible genetics -- is because of the actions they take.

[Bankable Insight @BankableInsight]

The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. - Thomas Jefferson

[Bob Johnson @RJVoices]

Just finished narrating “The Panic of 1907, 2nd Edition: Heralding a New Era of Finance, Capitalism, and Democracy” by @Bob_Bruner and Sean D. Care for @ascent_audio Back to my finance roots! #nonfiction #business #audiobook #narrator

[Bob Bruner @Bob_Bruner]

In my new article, "Financial Crises and Collective Action: Why so Hard to Mobilize?" I argue that collective action can be thwarted by market inefficiencies, risk intolerance, information asymmetries, incentives, ideologies, and interests. For more, see https://t.co/eXFxa7Ea2o

[International Banker @IntBanker]

Financial Crises and Collective Action: Why So Hard to Mobilize?

By Robert F. Bruner (@Bob_Bruner), Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, Dean Emeritus of the Darden School of Business (@DardenMBA), University of Virginia

https://t.co/bwZ9BUUErd

[Chris Edmond @chrisedmond]

It is just mind-blowing that for all the journalistic chatter about "greedflation" the correlation between firm-markups [profit margins] and industry-level inflation is basically zero.

[#Randy @RandyResist]

“Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.

But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.

We are at our best when we serve others.”

Credit: Ira Byock