| Sunday, 16 November 2025 |
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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Welcome back to another Sunday with First Principles–hopefully a languid and sunny one for you.
However, I find myself at a loss for a suitably interesting introduction today. Even the ideas I had jotted down for a rainy day like this seem oddly forced.
I am not killing myself over it though, because I realise that sometimes you need to go “fallow” for a while.
I will leave you with this wonderful photo from Ner.lu, one of the cafes we have added to our post-lunch walk-and-coffee routine. It’s impossible to find a seat, which is okay since we do to-gos, but they offer wonderfully curated coffees from estates and roasters all over India that change every week.
Here’s everything we have for you in First Principles this week:
1. Lessons from Buffett
2. Theme of the month: Mythology 📚
3. Shades of the Earth 📸
1. Lessons from Buffett
On Monday, 10 November, Warren Buffett wrote his final letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. He is 95.
For a newsletter around First Principles thinking, it would be awfully remiss not to talk about the letter. But it also seemed borderline disrespectful to attempt to annotate or explain something that is so simple, powerful, and timeless.
The letter spoke to me of classic, old-fashioned values. Plainspeak. Friends and friendships. The opportunities from staying put. How serendipity requires time and how connections are revealed in retrospect. Of mistakes, humility, and humbleness. And loving what you do. Of children, even if they are beyond retirement age too. Of course, compounding. And working long hours from offices. Of aging and anti-ageism. Time intervals in decades. Making as few decisions as possible. FIRL, not FIRE. Wealth and envy. Perverse incentives. Nurturing and protecting your independence. Kindness. Pragmatic patriotism.
I will urge you to read the entire letter (it won’t take more than 5–10 minutes) before proceeding.
Warren Buffett’s final letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (pdf)
Buffett started writing them in 1978, as a 48-year-old.
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