Warren Buffett: Why Productivity Advice Is Bullsh*t

Mr. Buffett, I've heard that one of your ways of focusing your energy is that you write down the 25 things you want to achieve, choose the top five, and then avoid the bottom 20. I'm really curious how you came up with this and what other methods you have to prioritizing your desires. Well, I'm actually more curious about how you came up with it because it really isn't the case. It sounds like a very good method of operating, but it's much more disciplined than I actually am. If they stick fudge down in front of me, I eat it. I'm not thinking about 25 other choices. So I don't mean to ... Charlie and I live very simple lives. We know what we do enjoy, and we now have the option of doing it pretty much. Charlie likes to design buildings. I mean, he's no longer a frustrated architect. He's a full-fledged architect now, and we both like to read a lot, but we ... I've never made lists. I can't recall making a list in my life, but maybe I'll start. You've given me an idea. Thank you. Charlie? Well, what's really interesting on the subject of Warren's operating methods, you can see happening here. We didn't know when we started out this modern psychological evidence to the effect that you shouldn't make a lot of important decisions when you're tired, and that making a lot of difficult decisions is tiring. We didn't also know as well as we now do how helpful it is to be consuming caffeine and sugar when you're making important decisions. What happens, of course, is that both Warren and I live entirely on autopilot in terms of the ordinary decisions of life. We're just totally habitual, so we don't waste any decision-making energy on that stuff. We're ingesting caffeine and sugar. It turns out, under the modern evidence, this is an ideal way to sit where Warren sits. He didn't know that. He just stumbled into it. Well, when we write our book on nutrition, we promise it to be a huge seller. I cannot remember an important decision that Warren has made when he was tired. He's never tired. He sleeps soundly, and he doesn't waste time thinking about what he's going to eat. Why did you say that he took what he's always eaten? His style turns out to be absolutely ideal for human cognition. It looks peculiar, but he stumbled into something very good. You can write the foreword to my next book. Okay. Andrew. Thank you.