Warren Buffett has long argued that clear writing and clear thinking are inseparable and that the blank page is often the toughest test of an investor's understanding.
Buffett Says Writing Exposes Fuzzy Investment Thinking
In a 1995 appearance at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, recorded for the PBS program "Warren Buffett Talks Business," the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK) (NYSE:BRK) chairman told students, "There is nothing like writing to force you to think and get your thoughts straight."
Buffett said the discipline of drafting Berkshire's annual shareholder letter exposes when his own thinking is fuzzy. "Every year, when I write the report, I get these [writing] blocks. The block isn’t because I ran out of words in the dictionary. The block is because I haven’t got it straight in my own mind yet," he explained in remarks later collected in books on his speeches.
Plain English Letters Aimed At His Sisters
To keep his prose simple, Buffett clarified in a CNBC interview in 2019 that he imagines he is writing directly to his sisters, Doris and Bertie, aiming for plain English instead of Wall Street jargon. His goal, he has written, is to give them the information he would want if their roles were reversed, a mindset that has helped make his letters widely read beyond investors.
Buffett also ties communication directly to economic value. "The one easy way to become worth 50% more than you are now… is to hone your written and verbal communication skills," he has told students, arguing that even strong analytical talent goes to waste if people "can't transmit it."
Other Business Leaders Emphasize Clear Writing Too
Other American business leaders have echoed that view. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos replaced most internal PowerPoint decks with dense six-page narrative memos, saying writing "forces better clarity and rigor in thinking" and that good documents are written and rewritten until the logic holds up.
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