📖Warren Buffett

Focus on Few Areas

🌿 Intermediate★★★★☆

Deep expertise in a few areas beats shallow knowledge across many.

💬

We have a very small field. We don't try to be good at everything.

— 2007 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting，2007

🏠 Everyday Analogy

Just like a master in martial arts novels who excels by honing one skill to perfection, rather than being a jack-of-all-trades, the same principle applies to investment. Focusing deeply on a few familiar industries is more likely to lead to success than blindly spreading investments far and wide.

📖 Core Interpretation

It is better to be highly specialized in a few areas than to have superficial knowledge across many. Depth is more important than breadth.
💎 Key Insight：Buffett doesn't try to understand every industry or technology. He focuses on consumer brands, insurance, banking, and utilities — sectors with predictable economics he's studied for decades. This narrow focus gives him an information advantage over generalists. You don't need to understand everything; you need to understand a few things deeply.

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❓ Why It Matters

Charlie Munger: "Find one or two things you are truly good at, and go all in."

🎯 How to Practice

Select 2-3 industries you genuinely understand and commit to mastering them, resisting all other temptations.

🎙️ Master's Voice

You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.
Buffett has made most of his money in just a handful of industries: insurance, banking, consumer brands, and railroads. He became the world's greatest investor not by knowing everything, but by knowing a few things very well and sticking to them.

⚔️ Practical Guide

✅ Decision Checklist

  • Have I spent 10,000+ hours studying this industry?
  • Can I spot a good deal faster than most analysts?
  • Do I have proprietary insights in this sector?
  • Would industry insiders respect my analysis?

📋 Action Steps

  1. Choose 2-3 industries to master deeply
  2. Read every annual report in your chosen sectors
  3. Build a network of industry contacts
  4. Track your prediction accuracy in your focus areas

🚨 Warning Signs

  • Spreading attention across too many sectors
  • Chasing the latest hot industry
  • Believing you can master any industry quickly
  • Ignoring your track record by sector

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

✕Diversification enhances safety - but spreading investments into areas you don't understand can be more dangerous.
✕Focus means missing opportunities – and it is right to miss the ones you don’t understand.

📚 Case Studies

1
Avoiding Dot-com Bubble (1999)
Insurance, Consumer Goods, Finance
✨ Outcome：These are all fields he has a deep understanding of.
2
Focused Investing During 2008 Crisis (2008)
Decades Without Investing in Tech Stocks
✨ Outcome：Until fully understanding Apple's consumer goods attributes

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