Average Investing Advice | Big Mistakes (Michael Batnick) BOOK REVIEW

Average advice will get you average returns. In this episode, I review 'Big Mistakes' by Michael Batnick, a short investing book that profiles famous investors and the bad calls that shaped their careers. I run through the book’s structure, some of the names featured — including Benjamin Graham, Jesse Livermore, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger — and why I found the core premise more interesting than the execution. While the book tries to distil each investor’s major error into a neat lesson, I came away feeling that many of those conclusions were either too vague or too forced to be genuinely useful. My main takeaway is that this one lands as fairly average advice dressed up with great source material. I dig into why I wasn’t convinced by some of Batnick’s interpretations, especially around whether he properly identified what these investors actually got wrong, and why I’d generally recommend going back to the original books and histories instead. Overall, this was a disappointing read for me and one I couldn’t strongly recommend, finishing with a low rating and a reminder that sometimes the summaries are far less valuable than the source itself. If you got value from the podcast please provide support back in any way you best see fit! Timeline: (00:00:00) Intro (00:02:14) How the book structures investor mistakes (00:03:01) Why the lessons feel vague and inconsistent (00:07:55) Critique of Michael Batnick as the guide (00:13:14) Final verdict and better investing approach (00:17:02) Next reading plans and closing remarks Connect with Mere Mortals: Website: https://www.meremortalspodcasts.com/ Discord: https://discord.gg/Xs9DjsurFq Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/meremortalspods Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meremortalspodcasts/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meremortalspodcasts Value 4 Value Support: Website: https://www.meremortalspodcasts.com/support Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/meremortalspodcast