← Book library

Value & great businesses

What I Learned About Investing from Darwin

Pulak Prasad

Investing is avoidance first - reject almost every company, buy very few great ones, and almost never sell them.

Start reading →

Chapters

10
  1. Chapter 01Oh, to Be a BumblebeeAvoid the few mistakes that can ruin you; you don't need to be brilliant, just hard to kill.Read this chapter →
  2. Chapter 02The Siberian SolutionBreed your portfolio for one trait - genuine business quality - and most other good things follow.Read this chapter →
  3. Chapter 03The Paradox of McKinsey and Sea UrchinsTruly great companies stay great far longer than chance predicts - don't assume every winner must soon fade.Read this chapter →
  4. Chapter 04The Perils of a PavlovianDon't drool at every bell - reacting reflexively to news and price is how investors get trained into mistakes.Read this chapter →
  5. Chapter 05Darwin Ate My DCFA spreadsheet full of decimals is a guess in disguise - judge the business, not the false precision.Read this chapter →
  6. Chapter 06Bacteria and Business Replay the TapeAsk if a company's success would repeat if you replayed the tape - real quality is repeatable, luck isn't.Read this chapter →
  7. Chapter 07Don't Confuse a Green Frog for a GuppyTwo things can look alike yet be totally different underneath - don't mistake a surface pattern for real quality.Read this chapter →
  8. Chapter 08Birds and Bears Bare an AberrationDo very little - most action in investing is a cost, not a contribution.Read this chapter →
  9. Chapter 09Eldredge and Gould Dredge Up Investing GoldGreat returns come in rare bursts after long, boring stretches - you must hold through the stillness to catch them.Read this chapter →
  10. Chapter 10Where Are the Rabbits?A truly great business compounds like rabbits multiplying - don't sell your best just because it's up.Read this chapter →

This is my own plain-English understanding of the book’s ideas, in my own words with my own ₹ examples, laid out against the book’s real chapters so you can relate the two. It is not the book and reproduces none of its text - if it helps, please buy the book. Not affiliated with the author or publisher. The author is not SEBI-registered; nothing here is investment advice.