Came the following question after I revealed my 2022 reading list yesterday:
What did you think of Roadside Picnic?
I’ll answer, but only because the underlying idea is so valuable, or at least has been so to me.
Roadside Picnic a scifi novel written by two Soviet guys in 1971. I read it because it was the inspiration for the movie Stalker, which is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Both Stalker and the original Roadside Picnic talk about The Zone, a mysterious place that obeys its own dangerous and strange rules, and that grants you your ultimate wish if you can make it to the heart of the place.
Earlier this year, I planned to create a guide to the business side of copywriting called Copy Zone, using The Zone as an organizing conceit.
I knew all I needed about The Zone from the movie, but I decided to read the book because— well, because that’s the super valuable core idea:
If you find somebody whose writing or film or stand up comedy you like and respect, then follow any allusions they make or references they use.
If they talk about a book or science paper or inspirational talk that was influential to them, look it up and read it, watch it, listen to it while you wait for your waffles to toast.
More generally, go to the original source, or as close to it as you can stand.
You can call this basic principle, Marcus Aurelius, not Marcus Mansonius.
Mark Manson became a big star a few years ago when he wrote The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.
He then had to write an article, Why I Am Not a Stoic, in response to many people who accused him of simply taking ideas from stoic philosophers and regurgitating them as a light summer read, complete with a curse word in the title.
Mark Manson’s fun and easy and accessible book is good for Manson. But it’s not good for you, or it’s not good enough for you. At least the way I look at it.
I am personally not interested in stoicism. But if I were, I would go and read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and not The Subtle Art of Using “Fuck” in Your Title.
The way I see it, there’s value in sources that are old, difficult, or unpopular. You can even call it easy value.
Rather than having to come up with a shocking hot take on the exact same news that millions or billions of other people are discussing right this afternoon, you can get a new perspective, by digging into something that was written a few decades, a few centuries, or even a few millennia in the past.
Maybe you don’t agree with me. That’s fine.
But maybe you suspect I’m on to something. In that case, you might want to get on my email list. Partly to read the articles I write, and partly to keep an eye out for references and allusions I use, so you can look up these original sources yourself, and get a valuable new perspective that few other people around you have.
In case you’re interested, click here to sign up.