When Warren Buffett sat down for a television interview in 1985, few could have imagined that decades later, his words would resonate even more strongly in an era of algorithmic trading and speculative mania. Buffett’s resurfaced old TV interview, now going viral on X (formerly Twitter), is a reminder that his investment playbook hasn’t changed in four decades. The principles he articulated then — the primacy of temperament, the separation from market noise, and the discipline of valuation — remain the intellectual backbone of modern value investing.
At the core is his famous rulebook: “The first rule in investment is don’t lose. The second rule is don’t forget the first rule, and that’s all the rules there are.” He immediately links this to buying securities “for far below what they’re worth” and doing it across a group of such opportunities. That’s classic Benjamin Graham-style margin of safety: if you pay much less than intrinsic value, the odds of permanent capital loss shrink dramatically.
Temperament over IQ
But what makes Warren Buffett’s approach distinctive is that he says the key edge is temperament, not IQ.
“It’s a temperamental quality, not an intellectual quality… You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd, because this is not a business where you take polls. It’s a business where you think.”
In an age where markets are dominated by noise, sentiment and social media hot takes, this clip hits a nerve. Buffett argues you’re not right because “a thousand people agree” or disagree – you’re right only if your facts and reasoning are right. That’s a quiet rebuke to momentum-chasing and FOMO-driven trading.
Owning businesses, not tickers
He also draws a sharp contrast between owning businesses and trading tickers. Most professionals, he says, obsess over what a stock will do in the next year or two, using “arcane methods” rather than thinking like business owners. For a true value investor, the test is simple:
“If you’re making a good investment in a security, it shouldn’t bother you if they close down the stock market for five years.”
To him, the ticker is just a price feed to be checked occasionally for extremes. “Prices don’t tell me anything about a business,” he says; only business figures do. His ideal process: value the business first without knowing the price, then check if the market quote is “way out of line” with that value.
Why Omaha, not Wall Street?
Buffett’s decision to stay in Omaha, far from Wall Street, is not an eccentric quirk – it’s a risk-control mechanism. He likes the “lack of stimulation” because overstimulation leads to shortened time horizons:
“A short focus is not conducive to long profits… The less static there is in that intellectual process, really, the better off you are.”
That distance also underpins his discipline about staying within his circle of competence. He openly admits he has never bought a technology stock in 30 years because he doesn’t understand them. The technological revolution “has gone right past” him – and he’s fine with that. In his analogy, the stock market is like a pitcher throwing thousands of balls daily. You can watch for months or even years:
“There are no called strikes in this business… You can sit there and watch thousands of pitches, and finally you get one right there where you want it, something that you understand, and then you swing.”
For most professionals, he says, boredom and client pressure make that level of patience almost impossible.
The viral appeal of this old interview lies in how contemporary it feels. In a world obsessed with quarterly earnings, algorithms, factors and trading signals, Buffett dismisses academic complexity – “to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail” – and returns to a simple but psychologically hard framework:
Know what you understand, value it carefully, ignore the noise, wait for your pitch, and above all, don’t lose money.
Watch the interview here-
Read all Stock Market news here
Key Takeaways
- Temperament is more crucial than intelligence in investing.
- Successful investing requires separating oneself from market noise and focusing on intrinsic value.
- Patience and discipline are vital; the best investments come when you wait for the right opportunity.
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
