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How to Use the Armies of the Past?

The life story of Benjamin Franklin perfectly teaches us the importance of an insatiable curiosity and a reading habit to match.

By Curated for YouPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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How to Use the Armies of the Past?
Photo by Henry Be on Unsplash

You can slog through life, making endless mistakes, wasting time and energy trying to do things from your own experience. Or you can use the armies of the past. -ROBERT GREENE

Almost as soon as Benjamin’s Franklin’s (1706- 1790) formal education began, it was over. At eight years old his father sent him to Boston Latin School to prepare for a path towards Harvard. Franklin excelled, jumping a grade in his first year, but due to either financial constraints or his father’s recognition that Franklin’s personality was not particularly suited to a life in academia, he was pulled out.

Franklin enrolled for one more year at a writing and arithmetic academy near his family home. After that, with just two years of formal schooling under his belt, he left to work full time at his father’s candle and soap shop.

But Franklin’s defining characteristic, his insatiable curiosity, endured. What he lacked in academic opportunities, he made up for with his voracious reading habits. As a child, every spare cent he earned went towards books. At one point he became a vegetarian so he could set aside more money to build out his library. Books became the most important formative influence of his life.

At the age of twelve, Franklin decided on an apprenticeship under his brother in the printing business. For the next five years, he gained direct access to hundreds of articles, books, and essays being printed. He would strike deals with the apprentices under booksellers so he could borrow copies, as long as he returned them in good condition. At night he would rewrite his favorite passages, honing his own writing style and testing his ability to form logical arguments.

While he poured over everything he could get his hands on, practical subjects resonated strongest with Franklin. He demonstrated a particular interest in books on science, history, politics, writing, and business skills. He had little patience for memorizing abstract concepts, isolated facts or learning for learning’s sake. And this is where he differed from traditional academia.

Franklin’s thirst for wisdom was based on his interest in experience, skills, and wit that he could interpret and apply to his own life. This mindset helped him develop into the greatest self-taught writer and scientist of his era.

Through books, Franklin taught himself the fundamentals of writing, science, engineering, and diplomacy. He applied these over the course of his life to emulate his favorite authors and develop his own writing style, run a successful printing business, advance our understanding of electricity, invent the lightning rod, and position himself as an accomplished diplomat with a vital role in the American Revolution.

While his reading habits weren’t the only reason for his success in each field, they played a significant part. They helped him reinvent himself across disciplines and master a multidisciplinary approach. But they also helped him establish his core principles – his emphasis on reason, distrust of arbitrary authority, and optimism about education and progress – which shaped his approach in every endeavor.

A lifetime of learning culminated in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 where delegates from thirteen states set out to improve the Articles of Confederation. Franklin was seen as the voice of reason. He was more receptive to the needs of each state and open to the diversity of opinions. His wide-ranging knowledge across subject matter, professions, and geographies helped him find common ground between delegates and resolve key issues facing a young country.

Many of the other delegates felt their integrity was tied to winning arguments and the accuracy of their initial opinions. Franklin stepped in multiple times to urge humility and an open mind, “For, having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.”

Despite heated debates and slow progress for the first two months, over time he imbued these qualities in the rest of the delegates. Franklin advocated for compromise and deemed the Convention a success because they were willing to concede they might be wrong and did not expect the new government to be without faults. The end result was the Constitution of the United States.

What does this story teach us?

Decades of reading, paired with a wealth of personal experience, provided Franklin with an astounding level of practical knowledge and strategies that he could leverage at will. This allowed him to anticipate obstacles facing a new country, navigate conflict with other delegates, and maintain an unwavering sense of perspective. Curiosity was Franklin’s lifeblood, but books were his fuel.

Reading is the great equalizer when it comes to ego. The more you read, the more perspective you build and the greater your awareness of how little you actually know.

This is why, despite a lifetime of incredible accomplishments, Franklin’s ego wasn’t overbearing. He was intensely aware of his own limitations and the power of new information to change his mind.

He held many opinions that were proven wrong. But the difference between Franklin and many of the other delegates was that he didn’t over-identify with his opinions. Reading taught him to keep his mind open and his identity small.

Like Franklin, the greatest strategists in the world have two things in common – an insatiable curiosity and the reading habits to match. Reading accelerates the rate at which you learn – harnessing the power of vicarious experience and a new perspective. The alternative is opting to learn lessons the hard way, at a fraction of speed, through direct experience.

Reading is a means to fuel your natural curiosity, find meaning, and forge connections. It’s foundational to every strategy in this book and it’s how you discover new strategies of your own. If you have the desire to learn, there are lifetimes of wisdom just waiting to be picked up.

Projected over the course of years, reading just an hour each day will transform you into a force to be reckoned with. Not because it provides you with all the answers. But because it’s a catalyst to form new connections, make sense of your own experiences, and build frameworks that will help move you closer to your goals.

Reading helps establish an agile mind – something you’ll need if you wish to coordinate thoughtful action. It puts the armies of the past at your side with a wealth of experience that you can call upon at any moment. This tilts the advantage to your favor in every opportunity or challenge you face.

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