Loved the article 👏 - it goes to the pile to "re-read" a few months later too!
There is a somewhat similar phenomenon in certain "niche" music or film genres, where a mainstream player is *really* good at showing what that niche is capable of, yet at a later stage are neglected and deemed as unimaginative. Despite the fact that those people would not have arrived to that situation otherwise.
I'd add that the closer you get to the last 10%, the more you need to change strategies (IMHO).
a) Look less distilled learnings, and instead look at primary sources. Whether those are one step up the abstraction curve (instead of reading Munger, read Seneca) or whether that means you need to start generating your own firsthand insights from experience. It made me chuckle a few weeks back when a commenter on Byrne Hobart's Substack said something to the effect of "Byrne, how do you find the time to read so much when there is so much wisdom available in newsletters?". Not that there aren't a ton of great newsletters these days, but many fewer really offer synthesis or insight.
b) Learn how to get insights from adjacent fields. Likely the reason why the names you listed are all somewhat polymathic.
Love it. And the mentor line continues to grow, too.
I think the perception of the difference in knowledge depends on the point of view. From the mentor's perspective, the gap may seem smaller than from the student's.
I worked for an international company. An American-born colleague moved to our Latin American office for a few years. He was back here at our HQ in the states, hosting a group of folks from Latin America. He was speaking to them in Spanish to coordinate the day. I speak a little bit of Spanish and was able to pick up bits. I commented to someone from Argentina that the American spoke Spanish very well. He replied "No. Not so well."
It's a matter of perspective. He was certainly better than me. But from a native speaker POV, not so much.
My point is not about unlearned mentors, but about perspective. A novice sees the difference as being greater than it might seem from a learned person.
An interesting related phenomenon is when you learn that these mentors are more complicated than you thought. Buffett’s trades in silver, the real, airlines, and Japanese trading companies all seemed like a departure from what he’d historically done—the real person is always a bit more flexible than the stripped-down mental model we have in mind.
Loved the article 👏 - it goes to the pile to "re-read" a few months later too!
There is a somewhat similar phenomenon in certain "niche" music or film genres, where a mainstream player is *really* good at showing what that niche is capable of, yet at a later stage are neglected and deemed as unimaginative. Despite the fact that those people would not have arrived to that situation otherwise.
Fantastic, this is spot-on.
I'd add that the closer you get to the last 10%, the more you need to change strategies (IMHO).
a) Look less distilled learnings, and instead look at primary sources. Whether those are one step up the abstraction curve (instead of reading Munger, read Seneca) or whether that means you need to start generating your own firsthand insights from experience. It made me chuckle a few weeks back when a commenter on Byrne Hobart's Substack said something to the effect of "Byrne, how do you find the time to read so much when there is so much wisdom available in newsletters?". Not that there aren't a ton of great newsletters these days, but many fewer really offer synthesis or insight.
b) Learn how to get insights from adjacent fields. Likely the reason why the names you listed are all somewhat polymathic.
Love it. And the mentor line continues to grow, too.
I think the perception of the difference in knowledge depends on the point of view. From the mentor's perspective, the gap may seem smaller than from the student's.
I worked for an international company. An American-born colleague moved to our Latin American office for a few years. He was back here at our HQ in the states, hosting a group of folks from Latin America. He was speaking to them in Spanish to coordinate the day. I speak a little bit of Spanish and was able to pick up bits. I commented to someone from Argentina that the American spoke Spanish very well. He replied "No. Not so well."
It's a matter of perspective. He was certainly better than me. But from a native speaker POV, not so much.
My point is not about unlearned mentors, but about perspective. A novice sees the difference as being greater than it might seem from a learned person.
An interesting related phenomenon is when you learn that these mentors are more complicated than you thought. Buffett’s trades in silver, the real, airlines, and Japanese trading companies all seemed like a departure from what he’d historically done—the real person is always a bit more flexible than the stripped-down mental model we have in mind.