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nsrivast comments on Unteachable Excellence - Less Wrong
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Reading excellence pornography isn't a waste of hope even if the superstars can't teach us how they got there. These books narrate the paths of success stories, letting me know which factors were at least partially involved in the generation of extraordinariness. I can aspire to learn lessons (make early investments, start businesses, respect the role of luck), and as long as I'm 1) mindful of the thousands of others who tried and failed or failed to try and 2) aware that these lessons are not guarantees of success, I can avoid expending unnecessary emotional energy envisioning superstar status.
Yes, but there's a big publication bias at work. You don't read as much from those who did the same things, took the same risks, and lost their shirts.
Picture a bookshelf of got-rich biographies. Hidden behind it is a bookshelf-labyrinth of oops-i-lost-my-house unwritten biographies you can't read. Good advice isn't what the authors did lots, it's what the authors did lots more than the unauthors. You have to figure out what the Warren Buffetts do that the Casey Serins don't.