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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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It makes my blood boil when I see people spout off about lessons from their experience or history without context. Most are not believable at all and are leveraging fake credibility. Also so good to see someone else mention life path dependence. Many people seem to ignore this.

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Completely agree with concept instantiations as well. I see this as calibration. I think of it as gathering data points and using them to calibrate what reality looks like and what I could reasonably expect, given my own abilities and situation.

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Something interesting I've noticed about very successful people is that often they were on a fast track early and it still took them a LONG TIME to fully realize their success. It made me realize that for most people it's a very long game.