From the pinnacles of power by Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers
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April 13, 2009, 7:33 pm

Power Point: Be a healthy skeptic

“When I call Charlie with an idea, and he says, ‘That is really a dumb idea,’ that means we should put 100% of our net worth into it. If he says, ‘That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,’ then you should put 50% of your net worth into it. Only if he says, ‘I’m going to have you committed,’ does it mean he really doesn’t like the idea.”

–Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) CEO Warren Buffett in Marc Gunther’s cover story in the April 27 issue of Fortune. According to Buffett, his investing partner Charlie Munger is a committed skeptic. So when Munger suggested investing in an electric car company called BYD, Buffet figured it had to be a good pick. The story explains why Buffett is banking on this obscure Chinese car company and a CEO who drinks his own battery fluid.–Jessica Shambora

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Pattie SellersPatricia Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Can Meg Whitman Save California?", Melinda Gates ("The $100 Billion Woman"), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). And she has broken ground with insightful pieces on career management issues such as ego ("Get Over Yourself!"), and "Charisma: Do You Need It? Can You Get It?" Pattie chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. And she has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" cover package since its launch in 1998. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big consumer brand companies.
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