Munger Archive Search

In his own words · Incentives

“We want to win the bass fishing tour, whereas pension fund consultants sell tackle. We're not interested in selling tackle, we're interested in catching bass.”

— Charlie Munger · Whitney Tilson's notes, Wesco Financial annual meeting, Pasadena, May 7, 2003 (Q&A, 'Pension Fund Consultants') · 2003

Verified. Sourced to Whitney Tilson's notes, Wesco Financial annual meeting, Pasadena, May 7, 2003 (Q&A, 'Pension Fund Consultants') · 2003.

His doers-vs-sellers point (he framed it as 'Warren and I').

More Munger on Incentives

“Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.”
Poor Charlie's Almanack
“Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.”
The Psychology of Human Misjudgment (Poor Charlie's Almanack) · where he said it ↗
“Perhaps the most important rule in management is, 'Get the incentives right.'”
The Psychology of Human Misjudgment (Poor Charlie's Almanack) · as recalled · where he said it ↗

From the FedEx night-shift example in the Misjudgment essay; wording varies slightly across editions.

“Well I think I've been in the top 5% of my age cohort all my life in understanding the power of incentives, and all my life I've underestimated it. And never a year passes, but I get some surprise that pushes my limit a little farther.”
The Psychology of Human Misjudgment (Poor Charlie's Almanack) · 1995 · where he said it ↗

First given as a 1995 talk; the canonical wording is the expanded Almanack version.

All incentives quotes