6. We Are Not Buffett

We are inspired by Buffett, but we are not Buffett. CLEC students often ask: “Buffett also sells stocks — why do you say never sell?” That question assumes CLEC is a simplified version of Buffett’s value investing. It is not. We are inspired by Buffett, but we walk a completely different road. The essential difference between Buffett and CLEC: Buffett is a long-term value investor. Both “long-term” and “value” are required. He buys a company when its share price is below intrinsic value and holds long-term; but when the business model of the company fundamentally changes (not when the price gets too high), he sells. Coca-Cola’s stock has been above intrinsic value for many years and he has never sold; PetroChina, because its business environment changed, he sold; the airlines, because the pandemic fundamentally changed their operating prospects, he sold. Every sale is based on a re- evaluation of the company’s fundamentals. CLEC is different: we have “long-term” but not “value.” What we buy is not an individual stock, not an industry, but the sum of human technology. We do not analyze financials, do not compute intrinsic value, do not assess industry prospects — because what we buy is “America and human technology” itself. The only scenario in which selling is logically warranted is the extinction of human civilization — and in that scenario it doesn’t matter what asset you hold anyway. So in CLEC’s logic, “selling” does not exist as an action. Admitting “we are not Buffett” is not weakness; it is clarity. Buffett reads corporate annual reports, industry research, and economic data every day — he is the world’s wealthiest “stock-market laborer,” using time and intelligence to add value to capital. He does this better than almost anyone else; that is talent. We do not have his genius for business analysis, nor do we enjoy reading financial statements; even if we spent the same time as him, we would not reach his level — it is like an amateur basketball fan training for a lifetime and still not beating LeBron. The gap is not bridgeable through effort.

What is really dangerous is imitating Buffett and ending up walking in the opposite direction: hear “be greedy when others are fearful” and start judging market highs and lows; hear “only invest in companies you understand” and concentrate heavily in a single stock; hear “sell when the business model changes” and equate any price drop with a business- model change, panic-selling on every dip. The result is turning “value investing” into a pretext for short-term trading — and the price of frequent trading is underperforming the broad market. What CLEC inherits is the spiritual core of Buffett — “buy good assets, hold for the long term.” But at the execution layer we have radically simplified: he picks stocks; we pick the index. He sells when the business model changes; we never sell. He needs deep business-analysis skill; we need to analyze nothing. Our investing is “the strategy of abandoning all strategy” — we liberate ourselves completely from the role of “stock- market laborer” and become pure capitalists: let money work hard, and live our lives well.

Key Points

One, Buffett is a long-term value investor who sells when a company’s business model changes, but never because the stock price is too high. CLEC has no “sell” option at all — what we buy is the overall trajectory of humanity and U.S. technology, and only human extinction would constitute a reason to sell. Two, Buffett is a talent. Ordinary people who imitate him often end up over-trading on the other end. Admitting “we are not Buffett” is not weakness; it is clarity — we lack his talent, so we use a simpler method that requires no judgment. Three, what CLEC inherits is Buffett’s spirit of “buy good assets and hold long-term,” but in execution we radically simplify: no stock-picking, no market-timing, no analysis, no operations. What this requires is not skill but faith in the continued progress of human civilization.

6. We Are Not Buffett