The great Charlie Munger, the investment partner of Warren Buffet, died in late November this past year, just a few weeks short of his 100th birthday. Munger’s clarity of mind garnered him a following that reached far outside the investment world. Fond of boiling down his mental models into concise heuristics, his pithy sayings became known as “Mungerisms.” The aphorism that has had my attention the past few months, or maybe decades, is: “People are trying to be smart—all I am trying to do is not to be idiotic, but it’s harder than most people think. *” Something happened in modernity that Munger picked up in his 30s after a series of personal crushing blows. He noticed that our culture became obsessed with efficiency, focusing…