4 ms·

This is a bit rambling, but I always find that whole genre of literature ("highly effective habits" style literature) to be really fascinating, mostly because i

This is a bit rambling, but I always find that whole genre of literature ("highly effective habits" style literature) to be really fascinating, mostly because it doesn't totally make sense to me. My thinking has always been that the Gates/Obamas/RBGs of the world didn't overly concern themselves with trying to emulate previously successful people. Not that they didn't take lessons from them, but that it wasn't so overt. No sense of, "if I just imitate these 5 behaviors of Andrew Carnegie I'll be successful". And maybe indeed the problem is that those individuals weren't just trying to be successful for the sake of being successful, which is sometimes the feeling I get from reading articles like the ones mentioned. Obviously, I could be entirely wrong or missing the point of literature like that. And as the article notes, there's some generally beneficial advice in there (living below your means, for example). Still, it seems like if your goal is to become the next Madeleine Albright, you should emulate her by not trying too hard to emulate her!

CM30 9y ago
That's because (like many genres of literature that claim to know the secret to becoming rich and successful), the writers really don't know what makes that the case. So they're taking surface level qualities they see in successful people, and assuming that's at least part of the reason for their success. It's just cargo culting really, like those tribes who build airports out of wood because they think that causes supply planes to land.
- jwdunne 9y ago
  I remember a great comment on HN once about this very subject. They said it's like taking a 1000 people, having them flip a coin and eliminating anyone with tails. Once you're down to ten people, you ask them how they did it, what made them flip so many heads in a row. I think the name of it is called "survivorship bias".

CM30 9y ago

That's because (like many genres of literature that claim to know the secret to becoming rich and successful), the writers really don't know what makes that the case. So they're taking surface level qualities they see in successful people, and assuming that's at least part of the reason for their success. It's just cargo culting really, like those tribes who build airports out of wood because they think that causes supply planes to land.

jwdunne 9y ago
I remember a great comment on HN once about this very subject. They said it's like taking a 1000 people, having them flip a coin and eliminating anyone with tails. Once you're down to ten people, you ask them how they did it, what made them flip so many heads in a row. I think the name of it is called "survivorship bias".