In the 1984 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter, Warren Buffett describes his and Munger’s suprising strategic plan for finding their big investment ideas, saying: “Using my academic voice, I have told you in the past of the drag that a mushrooming capital base exerts upon rates of return. Unfortunately, my academic voice is now giving way to a reportorial voice. Our historical 22% rate is just that—history. To earn even 15% annually over the next decade (assuming we continue to follow our present dividend policy, about which more will be said later in this letter) we would need profits aggregating about $3.9 billion.