The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
, Biography, 2008
An authorized biography that joins Buffett’s personal relationships to his business decisions and, at his instruction, prefers the less flattering account when versions conflict.
About the book
Published in 2008 with Buffett's cooperation and access to his files, family, friends, and associates, the biography follows his investing and business career alongside his relationships, habits, public image, and inner-versus-outer-scorecard philosophy.
Reading perspective
Drawing on Buffett’s cooperation and records, Schroeder sets relationships and business decisions alongside one another. The book gives readers material for considering how a life story can illuminate investment judgment without reducing it to a simple success narrative.
What you’ll learn
Test success stories against contrary accounts
When accounts conflict, an unfavorable version deserves consideration instead of automatic preference for the subject’s account. That approach invites scrutiny; it does not establish that the harsher account is true.
Look beyond a troubled institution
The Salomon and LTCM episodes can prompt questions about how leverage, derivatives, and ties among institutions may extend financial strain beyond one firm. They are historical cases, not investment guidance or a forecast.
Editorial sources
Book guidance draws on these sources; Founders evidence determines the ranking.
Why it ranks here
Reading rank #78. First covered in Episode #100. 20 scored evidence components. 10 Founders episodes. Coverage Score 161. Praise on record: David says Snowball is amazing.
Explore evidence and score breakdownOpen timeline
How the Coverage Score works
Reviewed Founders evidence adds points: a dedicated episode, a qualifying reread, explicit praise, or a reference in a later episode. Repeats of the same kind in one independently recorded discussion count once, including reviewed reused passages. Genuinely new qualifying discussion adds points. The score measures coverage, not quality.
Sources: official Founders episodes — #100, #101, #145, #152, #173, #182, #191, #221, #236, #410
The largest contribution to this Coverage Score is Cross-episode reference · Secondary recommendation (49 points).
Original Founders sources
- Warren Buffett (The Snowball) — The episode is a dedicated read-through of Alice Schroeder's The Snowball, covering Warren Buffett's life, ideas, and business career.
- Warren Buffett (The Tao of Warren Buffett) — David refers to Snowball as Warren Buffett's biography covered in the previous week's episode.
- William Randolph Hearst — Host references Snowball, the Warren Buffett biography from Founders Number 100, to introduce the inner/outer scorecard concept applied to Hearst.
- Katherine Graham (Washington Post) — David says he thinks he covered Snowball, the Warren Buffett biography where he first encountered Katherine Graham's story, on Founders No. 100.
- Louis B. Mayer (MGM Studios) — David identifies Founders #100 as the first Buffett biography.
- Warren Buffett (The Making of an American Capitalist) — David credits this earlier Buffett biography (Founders 100) as the source of the inner/outer scorecard idea.