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Well, we certainly look at them and we we we don't think of whether we should be in tech companies or not or that sort of thing. We we are looking for things where we we do get into the durability of the competitive advantage and whether we think that our opinion might be better than other people's opinion in assessing the probability of the durability so to speak.
Uh but the truth is that uh I've watched Bill told me early on, Bill Gates told me early on, you know, that that I think I was on all the and he suggested I turn to Google. But the trouble is I I saw that Google was was uh was skipping past all the Vista and then I wondered if anybody could skip past Google.
So and I saw at Geico that we were paying a lot of money for something that cost them nothing incrementally. uh we've looked at it and [clears throat] you know I made a mistake in and in in in not being able to come to a conclusion where I really felt that that at the present prices that that the prospects were far better than the prices indicated and uh uh I didn't go into Apple because it was a tech stock in the least.
I mean that I went at Apple because I made certain came to certain conclusions about about both the intelligence was with the capital would be employed but more important about the value of an ecosystem and how permanent that ecosystem could be and what the threats were to it and a whole bunch of things and uh that didn't I don't think that required me to you know take apart an iPhone or something and figure out what all the components were or anything it it it was more it's much more the nature of consumer behavior and some things uh strike me as having a lot more permits than others.
But the answer is we'll miss a lot of things that or I'll miss a lot of things that that I don't feel I understand well enough. And there's there there is no penalty in investing if you don't swing a ball that's in the strike zone. as long as you swing at something at some point and you know eventually that you find the pitch pitches you like and that's the way we'll continue to do it.
We'll try to stay within our circle of competence and and uh Charlie and I generally agree on on uh sort of where that circle ends and uh what what kind of situations where we might have some kind of an edge in our reasoning or our experience or something that uh where we might evaluate something differently than other people.
But the answer is uh we're going to miss a lot of things. Charlie, yeah, we have a wonderful system. If one of us is stupid in some area, so is the other. And of course, we were not ideally located to be high-tech wizards. You know, how many people of our age quickly mastered Google? I've been to Google headquarters.
They look to me like they're It looks like a kindergarten. A very rich kindergarten. Yes. No, it's it's impressive what they've done. And uh like I say at the Geico, we were paying them a lot of money uh at the time they went public and and and all three of them, the main characters, Eric, and Sergey, uh they actually came and saw me, but they were more in talking about going public and the mechanics of it and various things along that line.
But it wasn't like what they were doing was a mystery to me. The mystery was how much competition would come along and how effective they would be. Uh, and whether it would be a game where four or five people were slugging it out without making as much money as they could if one company dominated. Those are those are tough decisions to make.
You can have industries where there's only two people in it and they still aren't very very good because they beat each other's brains out. And that's one of the questions in the airline business. It's is a better business now than it used to be, but but used to be suicide. So, uh and you know that the competitive influ competitive factors are are extraordinary in in airlines and how much better business is it with with uh four people operating at 85% capacity than it was at with seven or eight operating in the mid70s and with more planes around.
Those are tough decisions. Well, I should have had some insight into because Geico was a heavy user very early on. So, here we saw value in something at at that time. I have no idea what we're paying per click now, but but we were paying 10 or $11 a click for something that had no cost of goods sold and we were going to keep doing it.
I mean, we could see that. So, uh I should have had more insight into that. Now, whether Bing was going to come along or other people were going to take away the market, that's another question. whether you had sort of a uh first user advantage that would be uh would prevail and there is a lot of technology to it.
So so somebody could have come along with a better technological product and I would not have had any insights into that. I certainly had insights into the benefit to the user. I think uh blazer surgeon or something like that. I think it may have sold for 60 or 70 bucks or something of the sort and messtheloma.
I mean that I don't know what it brings now but just imagine having something every time you just hit a click you know the cash register run somewhere out in California. So it it was an and is an extraordinary business and and it has some aspects of a natural monopoly. I mean it uh it's very easy for me when I go to the computer.
I I' I've worked with Google before and but I'm looking for information for the annual report. I used to have to mail away to federal agencies or go down to the public library and now I can get it in 10 seconds. So it's it's a hugely valuable device which the other guy pays for. The the uh user on the computer doesn't the answer is we missed it.
And I knew the fellows they came to see me before they did. Sergey and Larry came to see you. Yeah. And actually Eric did too. Another stock that you mentioned over the weekend saying you you should have known it early on was was Google Alphabet, the parent company of Google, because you knew how much they could charge you when it came to Geico.
Yeah. Here we were at Geico paying them. If you're looking up auto insurance on Geico, you know it you've got an interest in auto insurance. I was a very directed way of talking to people. So the the real question in my mind, I'd seen all the Vista before. I used to play bridge on all the and what I didn't know was whether there'd be more entrance.
I didn't know enough about technology to know whether this really was the one that would stop the competitive race and all that. I uh but I should have done Google too. You [snorts] say that Silicon Valley and a lot of the things that happen there, it's not really your field of expertise, but you've been around and you've seen how a lot of things happen, particularly with how Washington can have an impact.
Uh, the reason shares of Apple were down earlier this year was in part because of the iPhone, but probably also in part because the fang stocks overall were under pressure because of Facebook, the trouble it got into, the potential for regulators coming into this arena. What do you think broadly about some of these regulatory issues, some of these privacy issues, or do you even consider it?
Well, I No, I think about that, but basically, I like good news that isn't or bad news that isn't going to last. and and and I'm saying that as one of them, but I mean bad headlines don't bother me. I mean, I had bad headlines when I bought that stock right after two or three months after Pearl Harbor.
And you're going to have bad headlines for a long time. So, uh I am not worried about we made the most money when there's been some temporary bad news. I mean, over time now, you got to be sure it isn't permanent or something of the sort, but but if people get excessively worried about about uh you know, people changing their taste and what they drink, they're going to drink 64 ounces of something or other and and and uh uh carbonated soft drinks have lost share.
They gain share just steadily for I don't know how many years, frankly, forever. But then uh but bad news does not scare me. Well, we avoided the tech stocks because we felt we had no advantage there and other people did. And I think that's a good idea not to play where the other people are better. But you know, if you ask me in retrospect what was our worst mistake in the tech field, I think we were smart enough to figure out Google.
Those ads work so much better in the early days than anything else. So I would say that that we failed you there and we were smart enough to do it and didn't do it. We do that all the time too. Yeah, we were their customer very early on with with Geico, for example, and we saw I don't these figures are way out of date, but I as I remember, you know, we were paying them 10 or $11 a click or something like that.
And anytime you're paying somebody 10 or 11 bucks every time somebody just punches a little thing where you got no cost at all, uh you know that that's a good business unless somebody's going to take it away from you. And uh so we were close up uh seeing the impact of that. And incidentally, if any of you don't have anything to do in your hotel rooms tonight, just just keep punching progressive or something and you don't really do that.
The thought just happened across my mind. But you know that is you know you've never seen a business almost never seen a business like it where and and I think for lasic surgery and things like that I I think the figures were you know 60 or 70 bucks a click with no incremental no cost. So and I knew the guys I mean they actually designed their prospectus.
They came to see me and they a little bit after the original one when they went public a little bit after Bergkshire even. So I I had plenty of ways to ask questions or anything of the sort, educate myself, but but I blew it. Uh and uh we blew we blew Walmart, too. When when it was a total cinch, we were smart enough to figure that out and we didn't.
Yeah. Yeah. Figuring out execution is what counts. Anyway, well, and I could be making two mistakes on IBM. I mean the the you know the it's harder to predict in my
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