The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life book club questions

1. 1.

   The book's title metaphor — wet snow and a really long hill — describes Buffett's approach to compounding. What is your equivalent of wet snow and how long is your hill?

2. 2.

   Schroeder reveals significant personal complications in Buffett's life: the unconventional marriage, the distance from his children, the consuming focus on investing. Does understanding the personal costs change how you think about his professional achievements?

3. 3.

   Buffett spent years investing in the strict Graham style before evolving toward quality businesses. What specific experience or observation most significantly shifted his thinking?

4. 4.

   The Berkshire textile business was a catastrophic capital trap that Buffett held too long out of loyalty to employees. Have you ever held onto an investment past the point where the rational case was gone?

5. 5.

   Buffett built early investor loyalty by being unusually transparent about his approach and results. How much of his subsequent success do you think was enabled by that early relationship with investors?

6. 6.

   The insurance float business is a structural innovation that most investors could not replicate. Does the uniqueness of Berkshire's structure limit the applicability of Buffett's approach for individuals?

7. 7.

   Schroeder had unusual access and still says Buffett was difficult to fully know. What do you think motivates him at the deepest level — is it the money, the game, the scorecard, or something else?

8. 8.

   At what point in the biography does Buffett's wealth become so large that the investment decisions he makes are no longer instructive for individual investors managing smaller amounts?

9. 9.

   The biography covers Buffett's public advocacy for estate taxes and higher taxation of the wealthy alongside his extensive use of tax avoidance structures within Berkshire. How do you read that tension?

10. 10.

    Buffett maintained his single investment focus through personal and market crises that would have derailed most people. What is the psychological structure that made that consistency possible?

11. 11.

    The book describes the early investment partnerships in detail. If you could have been a limited partner in one of Buffett's early partnerships, what would you need to know to commit capital?

12. 12.

    Schroeder said the biography changed her relationship with Buffett — she ended up less admiring of him as a person than she started. Does that honesty make the book more or less useful as an investment education?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.