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This week's Commonplace essay took two weeks to write, because it deals with something a little more ... philosophical. Don't read history for lessons. Read it for concept instantiations instead. I dive deep into what that actually looks like:

commoncog.com

Don't Read History for Lessons

Learning from history is often problematic — history is context and path dependent, and it doesn't repeat itself. But what if there is a better way to read history, one that sidesteps these problems?

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Cedric Chin

@ejames_c

Replying to

@m32420932

This is a great question. A little bit of both. When encountering a new concept (e.g. 7 Powers), I make it a point to go hunting for instantiations of each, not allowing myself to believe that I understand it until I've collected enough examples.

8:12 AM · Jul 6, 2022TweetDeck

Replying to

and

But you also notice unnamed concepts if you read enough business stories, especially if it's about many companies from the same industry. For instance, there's this thing in many founders's stories where they learn how dangerous it is to launch a second business ... the hard way.