Professor and value investor Sanjay Bakshi (@Sanjay__Bakshi) offers insights on the power of mental models, multidisciplinary thinking, reading, and acquiring worldly wisdom.
On this episode of The Knowledge Project Podcast, I interview one of my favorite people: Sanjay Bakshi.
Sanjay is one of India’s most recognized finance professors. He teaches a course entitled Behavioural Finance and Business Valuation at the Management Development Institute. And while he probably doesn’t want me to mention this, not only is he an amazing teacher; he is also a skilled practitioner. He is one of the most successful investors you will ever meet.
In this interview, we talk about a host of things, including:
- Why Sanjay has built an impressive anti-library, yet prefers to read on a Kindle
- How to develop a multi-disciplinary approach to learning so you’re building breadth as well as depth in your knowledge
- The clever mental trick Sanjay uses to keep an open mind about problems he’s working on
- How he teaches his students to seek multiple perspectives when learning something new, and how it impacts their retention and understanding
- How mental models transformed Sanjay’s investing strategies and spilled into other areas of his life as well
- How Sanjay filters the deluge of information that’s coming at him every day to focus on the details that are most important.
- What the most sustainable business models look like and the characteristics they share
- Whether it’s advantageous to be more intuitive or data-driven in business, and how to develop those traits
- Which book Sanjay reads three times a year and finds new pearls of wisdom every time he cracks it open
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Books mentioned during the interview
- Peter Bevelin, Seeking Wisdom
- Laurence Endersen, Pebbles of Perception
- Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto
- Peter D Kaufman (ed.), Poor Charlie’s Almanack
- Berkshire Hathaway: Letters to Shareholders
- Guy Spier: The Education of a Value Investor
Farnam Street links
