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Comment by pokoleo | Hacker News Reader

I had a chance to read the letter - I went from knowing nothing about Buffet's businesses to knowing a lot, very quickly.

On a related note, I wonder if Gates writing this praise was spurred by something, maybe some news about Buffet. He's relatively senior (84), and has been running Berkshire for a while now. Maybe he's getting ready to give up the reins.

In fact, he builds up the reputation his menagerie of "very experienced people" to run individual businesses - I wonder how they will run things when Warren isn't around.

While you're at it, take some time to check out the Berkshire Hathaway site. It directly services what they're trying to do: provide investor information.

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

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"I wonder if Gates writing this praise was spurred by something" - it was likely spurred by criticism in the economist:

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21645746-warren-buffe...

Criticism was valid. Why not name a successor? Otherwise, the Economists's review read more like a critique of Yellow Submarine - I mean, "Worst Beatles Album" is hardly a critique, and more of a "worst of a great bunch" type of commentary.

Could be. From the end of the letter:

"Both the board and I believe we now have the right person to succeed me as CEO – a successor ready to assume the job the day after I die or step down."

He talks about this in lots of annual letters. Reality is that Berkshire Hathaway undoubtedly has (a perception of) the lowest bus factor of any holdings group and Buffett has been priming for years to prevent shares tanking when he inevitably passes or steps down.

Aside: to those who enjoyed reading this annual letter I recommend "The Essays of Warren Buffett" — an arranged collection of edited previous letters by theme (though they are all also freely available online).

Love it - one of the world's richest people, and his site is built using Word

as far as we know, it could be written in emacs org mode.

  <meta name="GENERATOR" content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18828">

Well, then they've gone to some lengths to make it look like it's not.

> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18828">

A website is a marketing operation. BerkshireHathaway don't really need to do marketing because they're more a legal entity for the purpose of organising things efficiently rather than a business with customers.

The marketing of that website is that they don't waste money.

It's all part of the image. Buffett gets a lot of miles out of the (authentic or not) aww-shucks folksy homespun image. He can do questionable deals and still not have his integrity questioned, and it's disarming in negotiations, in which, Buffett is as tough as they come.

The image is a funny mix of contrasts. In the 90s, he was living in a $100-200k home that he had lived in for 30 years and drove a pickup truck or crown Vic. But he travelled in a Gulfstream!

One makes him money, the other's are expenses.

Yes, but he calls the jet "The Indefensible" :).

Someone of his position shouldn't be waiting in line and taking off shoes at the airport every time he needs a meeting. He owns dozens of companies.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewstibbe/2011/09/22/warren-...

Similar to the personal websites of scientists. They are generally a tour-de-force of content over style.

> I wonder how they will run things when Warren isn't around.

Most probably Ajit Jain would take over as CEO. A significant part of the investment portfolio is already handled by two other managers.

It's funny to see Geico ad at the bottom of the http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ great marketing

There has been a lot of talk recently of him naming Charlie Munger as his successor. I think this letter may have been a handoff of sorts. He may make a specific announcement at the meeting.

He sometimes jokes about it but Charlie is 91.

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