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by kmacdough
407 days ago
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> Read practicing philosophers. When you want to learn swimming, learn from swimmers turned coach, not someone who stood by poolside and watched 10000 swimmers (like Jim Collins did) I think "turned coach" is incredibly key here. Being a part, or even the head, of a successful business is not sufficient. It is necessary to test those key insights/theories across the widest possible landscape. Across wildly different businesses with wildly different models, founders and internal cultures. Only then is it possible to meaningfully separate which insights are truly general, and which are heavily contingent on specifics. The books the author critiques are primarily self-centered stories of success, which don't take sufficient meta-analysis of the context. Not that these stories aren't valuable, but only with a sufficiently robust knowledge of textbook business and economics to take each story sceptically and in context. Given the consistency with which I've been recommended many of these exact books, I consider the Authors criticism necessary and well founded, if perhaps a bit narrowly focused. |
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I agree but think "turned coach" is necessary but not sufficient. Being a successful practitioner doesn't require fully and deeply understanding all the key elements which contributed to their success. Many do but certainly not all. Even among those able to introspect and analyze, that doesn't mean they have the skills to teach it to others which requires high-level skills in observation, communication, and adapting to the student's context.
So, I think the best case coach is someone who successfully and repeatedly did it, who understands the key elements of doing it successfully, and has repeatedly taught others to be successful. Even determining that is challenging because successful practitioners turned coach tend to get the best, highest-potential students. In the case of a coach who never did it, if they get even one successful enough student, the reputation effects can quickly compound into getting their pick of the best students.
Further complicating the process of identifying a great coach for you is the meta aspect that student success isn't solely dependent on the quality of the coach or teacher. Student ability, drive and other elements are huge factors. Serially successful coaches are probably demonstrating their ability to identify those innate traits in student selection as much as their teaching ability.