The 8 Interviews That Will Make You a Better Investor
Learn from the best: the 8 most important interviews in the history of investing
If you want to think like the best, start by listening to how they actually think.
That was the mindset I adopted at the very beginning of my journey as an investor - long before I ever became a professional.
It always seemed obvious to me:
If a small group of people managed to consistently outperform in one of the most competitive environments in the world, there had to be something worth studying.
Not their stock picks. Not their market calls.
But the way they think.
Gray hair. Decades of experience. Battle-tested across cycles.
I’m not talking about internet gurus selling certainty and shortcuts…
I’m talking about the true legends of investing.
So I went straight to the source.
I read every book I could find.
Watched every interview available. Paused, rewound, took notes, revisited.
Over time, this turned into more than 1,000+ hours of deliberate learning - absorbing frameworks, mental models, and decision-making processes that don’t show up just anywhere.
And something became clear:
The best investors don’t rely on IQ alone. They rely on clarity of thought, relentless discipline in their process, and an almost obsessive respect for uncertainty.
This article is the result of that journey.
I’ve selected the 8 most valuable interviews I’ve ever come across for those who want to become better investors.
More rational. More consistent.
And, over time, far more successful.
The link to each interview is right below its title.
Note: #6 and #8 are my personal favorites (and there’s a special bonus at the end of the article).
1. Howard Marks at Talks at Google (2015)
↳ Why most investors will never beat the market - and what to do about it
If you could only watch one interview on this entire list, it would be this one. Marks doesn’t talk about the market today. He builds, piece by piece, the framework that has guided him for five decades: second-level thinking, risk as something inherently subjective, and the structural impossibility of consistently predicting the future.
Buffett said that Marks’ memos are the first thing he opens when they arrive. After watching this, you’ll understand why.
2. Charlie Munger at Michigan Ross School of Business (2017)
↳ The rational investor: how to think better, decide less, and win more
Munger rarely gives long interviews. This one is an exception. In 90 minutes, he covers rationality as a moral duty, how to build a thinking system that doesn’t depend on genius-level IQ - but on avoiding stupid decisions - and why the best investors are, above all, lifelong learners.
This is almost the video version of Poor Charlie’s Almanack. For anyone who hasn’t read the book, it’s the best possible entry point.
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3. Li Lu at Columbia Business School (2006)
↳ The minority report: how to invest with conviction when everyone disagrees with you
Li Lu is the only external manager in whom Charlie Munger placed his own money outside of Berkshire. He almost never gives interviews. This 2006 lecture is the rarest available window into his investment process.
Li Lu brings a near-academic approach: he scans a company until he finds value where no one else is looking, then acts with absolute conviction. The central theme is that being a value investor means being comfortable as a minority - and acting on facts, not on consensus opinion.
4. Joel Greenblatt at Talks at Google (2006)
↳ The magic formula: how to buy great businesses at bargain prices - systematically
Greenblatt created the Magic Formula - a systematic method to buy excellent businesses (high return on capital) at low prices (high earnings yield). The premise is deceptively simple, and that’s exactly the simplicity most people ignore.
This talk is the best introduction to the topic because Greenblatt teaches how the market consistently misprices assets for emotional reasons - and how the discipline to follow the process beats human judgment most of the time.
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5. Warren Buffett at the University of Florida (1998)
↳ The only lecture you need: moats, integrity, and the art of doing nothing
Considered by analysts worldwide to be the best lecture Buffett has ever given. In 90 minutes with MBA students, he dismantles the circle of competence, explains the integrity test, rebuilds the owner-of-a-business philosophy from scratch, and uses See’s Candy as the most instructive moat example ever given in public.
There’s nothing new here - he admits it himself. But the way he constructs each argument live, responding to questions, is unmatched.
6. Peter Lynch at the National Press Club (1994)
↳ Your edge on Wall Street: why the individual investor has an advantage no fund can buy
Lynch managed Fidelity’s Magellan Fund for 13 years with an average annual return of 29.2% - more than double the S&P 500. He retired in 1990 at age 46. This 1994 lecture is one of his rare post-retirement public appearances.
The central argument: individual investors have a structural advantage over professional managers. You see consumer trends before Wall Street analysts. The key is using that knowledge with discipline.
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7. Seth Klarman at Goldman Sachs (2015)
↳ The price of being wrong: capital preservation as the foundation of every return
Klarman is the most publicity-averse manager in value investing. He runs the Baupost Group with $30 billion AUM and is the author of Margin of Safety - the most expensive investment book in existence (physical copies sell for $1,999, you can buy it here). Finding him on video is rare.
This interview is the moving version of his thinking. The focus isn’t finding a bargain - but understanding the price you pay for capital preservation when you’re wrong.
8. Tom Gayner at Talks at Google (2014)
↳ Compounding character: what separates a great investor from a great analyst
Tom Gayner is the CIO of Markel Corporation - often called “the next Berkshire Hathaway.” His long-term compounding track record is one of the most consistent outside of Berkshire in recent decades.
This lecture is different from the others: he doesn’t focus on grand concepts - he focuses on the daily process of an investor who evolved over decades. The four pillars he describes are operational, not philosophical.
A quick note before our bonus interviews/lessons:
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🎁 Bonus List:
Three videos that belong on every investor's list:
These three videos didn’t fit neatly into the main list - but they belong on your watchlist just as much.
One explains how the entire economy works in 30 minutes.
One teaches investing from the absolute basics in the best way ever done on camera.
And one is the single greatest lecture on human irrationality ever recorded.
Together, they form the foundation that makes the 8 interviews above easier to absorb.
9. Ray Dalio on Economics (2013)
↳ The machine: a 30-minute guide to how every economy in history has worked
This 30-minute animated video is the best macro framework ever produced for free. Dalio explains credit cycles, debt deleveraging, and monetary policy with a clarity that no academic paper has matched. It’s the context every value investor needs to understand the environment in which companies operate.
Over 45 million views (!!!). Required viewing at some of the world’s top investment funds. The fact that it’s free and still largely ignored by retail investors is itself a lesson in human behavior.
10. Bill Ackman on Financial Principles (2012)
↳ From zero to investor: everything you need to know about finance, explained with a lemonade stand
Ackman uses a lemonade stand to teach everything a serious investor needs to know: what owning a share means, how to value a business, what a balance sheet tells you, why return on equity matters, and how to think about risk. In under 2.5 hours, starting from zero.
There is no better on-ramp to financial analysis on all of YouTube. Ackman is one of the best teachers in the business, and this is him at his most accessible. Watch this before reading any financial textbook.
11. Charlie Munger on Human Behavior (1995)
↳ 25 ways smart people destroy their own wealth - and how to stop
This is, without question, the single greatest lecture on human irrationality ever recorded. In 1995, Munger stood before a Harvard audience and methodically dismantled 25 cognitive biases that cause intelligent people to make terrible decisions - particularly in investing.
This is the original source. Not a summary, not a book adaptation, not a podcast interpretation. The actual speech, in Munger’s voice, with his cadence, his examples, and his particular brand of ruthless clarity. Everything that was later written in Poor Charlie’s Almanack grew from this moment.
These videos won’t hand you stock picks - but they will sharpen how you think, which is far more powerful.
The best investors rely less on fancy tools and more on clear thinking, sharp questions and a deep respect for uncertainty.
If any of these interviews challenged your thinking or sparked a new insight, I’d love to hear it.
Hit reply or drop a comment - let’s keep the conversation going.
Thank you for reading this far.
Cheers,
Jimmy
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Great talks, thanks for sharing
I would add Mohnish Pabrai to the list. He has many talks on his YT channel that are extremely informative.