In Law 7 of the 48 Laws of Power, written by Robert Greene, I read an awesome statement;
Use the past, a vast storehouse of knowledge and wisdom.
Reading about and learning from others experiences will save you countless hours, days, months, and even years of wasting time, energy, and if you want to get real dramatic, your life. Robert Greene writes that if you learn to use the knowledge of the past then you will look like a genius, when your really just a barrower.
Educate yourself and read the writings and experiences of others in your fields of interest. Talk and listen to those who have experience, and take notes.
Tucker Max is right when he says that humans have been recordin history for about 10,000 years……and any adversity or experience you go through, it has been written about.
Of course it is extremely beneficial to experience and learn lessons yourself, but to be efficient and competitive in todays world, learn to use the past and knowledge available to your benefit.
“Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others’ experience.” – Bismarck
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24 March 2008 at 7:22 am
Why anyone would not want to learn from history, I will never understand. After all, who doesn’t want to look brilliant when sitting around with friends watching Jeopardy?
In all seriousness though, you’re 100% correct — read read read read read; besides going out and LIVING, that is absolutely the best way to learn about life.
But particularly with regards to history, however, one can’t simply be satisfied with learning names and dates and significant events and filing that information away. One must constantly be on the look out for situations in which connections can be drawn and have knowledge applied. So often, that’s why I prefer primary sources — those relics from the past tie in perfectly to understanding the political climate, cultural situations, social unrest, anything to bridge the gap and put the situations in proper context. And then, once you go beyond understanding the “what?” and recognize the “why?” the pieces really start falling into place.