On June 13, 1986 Charles T. Munger delivered the commencement address at Harvard University.
In it, Munger borrows from an earlier commencement address by the late night host Johnny Carson. Carson shared with the graduating class that although he could not not tell them how to be happy, he could share with them from personal experience how to be miserable.
Carson’s prescription for a life of misery?
- ingestion of chemicals to alter mood or perception
- envy
- resentment
Munger adds to Carson’s prescription with four more ways to guarantee a life of misery:
- be unreliable: do not faithfully do what you have promised yourself or others
- learn everything you possibly can from your own personal experience, minimizing what you can learn from the good and bad experience of others, living and dead
- go down and stay down when you get your first, second, and third severe reverse in the battle of life (i.e., if at first you do not succeed then do not try again)
- ignore evidence contrary to your opinion by remaining certain in your views
