Investor Thinking Frameworks
Capital allocation frameworks and investment mental models from the world's most documented investors — packaged as .md skill files for AI.
Investing is a discipline of thinking, not just allocating capital. The investors who've compounded wealth over decades — Buffett, Munger, Lynch, Dalio, Wood — leave behind a body of documented reasoning: letters, interviews, frameworks, and heuristics that describe exactly how they evaluate risk, price conviction, and hold through volatility. This collection captures those patterns as downloadable .md skill files for Claude, ChatGPT, and any LLM. Use them when stress-testing a thesis, evaluating capital decisions, or building a personal investment operating system informed by the people who've actually done it.
How investors think
- Margin of safety — accept only opportunities where the downside is mathematically bounded
- Circle of competence — decline anything outside your demonstrable expertise, however tempting
- Inversion — work backwards from failure modes before forward from success
- Long-term orientation — measure outcomes in decades, not quarters
- Contrarian conviction — the best returns come from non-consensus bets that prove correct
Frameworks in this category
Warren Buffett
Value Investing & Long-Term Thinking
Charlie Munger
Mental Models & Latticework Thinking
Ray Dalio
Principles & Radical Transparency
Peter Lynch
Invest in What You Know
Naval Ravikant
Wealth, Leverage & Clarity
Paul Graham
Essays, Startups & Doing Things That Don't Scale
Howard Marks
Second-Level Thinking & Market Cycles
George Soros
Reflexivity & Radical Uncertainty
Peter Thiel
Contrarian Thinking & Monopoly
Cathie Wood
Disruptive Innovation & Conviction
Michael Burry
Contrarian Research & Asymmetric Bets
Carl Icahn
Activist Investing & Value Extraction
David Tepper
Macro Timing & Distressed Conviction
Ken Griffin
Systematic Edge & Organisational Excellence
Stanley Druckenmiller
Concentrated Bets & Macro Awareness
Jim Simons
Quantitative Edge & Pattern Recognition
Bill Ackman
Concentrated Activism & Public Narratives
Seth Klarman
Margin of Safety & Patient Capital
John Bogle
Index Investing & Costs Matter
Nassim Taleb
Antifragility & Tail Risk
Masayoshi Son
300-Year Vision & Contrarian Capital
Bill Gurley
Industry Structural Analysis & Cycle Skepticism
Fred Wilson
Sustained Public Thinking & Thesis-Led VC
Mary Meeker
Pattern Recognition & Internet Macro
Aileen Lee
Founder-First VC & Unicorn Pattern Work
When to use these frameworks
- Evaluating a major capital allocation decision (personal or business)
- Stress-testing an investment thesis for blind spots
- Building a long-term investment strategy from first principles
- Weighing career decisions with long-compounding effects
- Pricing risk in a new venture or acquisition
Start here
Warren Buffett
Value Investing & Long-Term Thinking
Adjacent thinking
Frequently asked questions
Which investor framework is best for beginners?
Start with Warren Buffett or Peter Lynch. Both codified their approach deliberately for teaching — Buffett through his annual letters, Lynch through his books — and their frameworks translate cleanly into 'rules for making better investment decisions' rather than requiring quant background.
Are these useful if I'm not investing in stocks?
Yes. Investor frameworks are really capital allocation frameworks — they apply to any decision where you're committing scarce resources to an uncertain outcome. Hiring, career bets, business investment, and personal time budgeting all benefit from inversion, margin of safety, and circle of competence.
Can these frameworks replace a financial advisor?
No. These are thinking tools that help you reason better about your own decisions. They're not personalised advice, don't account for your specific tax or legal situation, and shouldn't substitute for professional guidance on material financial decisions.
Do you update these frameworks as these investors' thinking evolves?
Each framework is a snapshot of documented public thinking. We version them and update when major new material emerges — e.g., if a shareholder letter introduces a substantially new mental model we hadn't captured.
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