The reproduced 1996 Practical Thought About Practical Thought discusses a rustic who wanted to know where he would die so he would never go there. Munger presents an example rather than claiming to have invented the joke. The first-person wording on this page is a circulating recasting; this source gives the thought in third person.
“All I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there” Popular first-person recasting of an unnamed rustic’s joke used by Charlie Munger; exact origin unconfirmed. · Verbatim: “You must also think in reverse, much like the rustic who wanted to know where he was going to die so that he’d never go there.”
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The reproduced 1996 Practical Thought About Practical Thought discusses a rustic who wanted to know where he would die so he would never go there. Munger presents an example rather than claiming to have invented the joke. The first-person wording on this page is a circulating recasting; this source gives the thought in third person. Reproduced 1996 talk ↗
The original publication of this exact wording has not been established; no public-domain status is asserted.
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Fact-check
Often misattributed
Munger’s use of the example is documented; the joke’s original creator and this first-person wording are not.
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Wording and contextCharlie Munger
The reproduced 1996 Practical Thought About Practical Thought discusses a rustic who wanted to know where he would die so he would never go there. Munger presents an example rather than claiming to have invented the joke. The first-person wording on this page is a circulating recasting; this source gives the thought in third person. Reproduced 1996 talk ↗
✓Munger’s use of the example is documented; the joke’s original creator and this first-person wording are not. Reproduced 1996 talk ↗
Context
The setting behind the words
Munger introduces the rustic while urging listeners to consider a problem backward as well as forward. The joke illustrates avoiding a bad outcome by first identifying it. Turning that third-person illustration into first-person advice removes the story’s distinction between speaker and example. Reproduced 1996 talk ↗
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Charlie Munger trained as a lawyer and became Warren Buffett’s long-term investing partner at Berkshire Hathaway. He also chaired Wesco Financial and the Daily Journal Corporation. His public talks combine business examples with psychology, mathematics and lessons about practical judgment.
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Charlie Munger. Attribution discussed in Reproduced 1996 talk. Source and limits described above.
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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘All I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there’?” Last verified 9 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/all-i-want-to-know-is-where-im-going-to-die-so-ill-never-go/