You’ve heard of Warren Buffett, but have you heard of his curmudgeonly partner, Charlie Munger? Munger is notoriously unafraid to bluntly state what’s on his mind, a sort of counterpoint for Buffett whenever they appear together (at ages 99 and 93 respectively).
Munger is also regarded highly for his wisdom, having collected and distilled ideas over the decades. He attributes a great deal of his own wisdom to what he calls “the eminent dead.” Charlie says you can certainly learn from the living, but there are centuries of brilliant minds that have been written about.
Biographies are the best—you can lose yourself in a narrative, learn what shaped the person into who they became, and take some lessons away. And, in spite of never meeting these eminent dead, I’ve learned a great deal from many of them.
I want to call attention to three opportunities I’ve had to learn from these folks over the years.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman with cervical cancer had a cluster of her cells taken without her consent. These cells went on to revolutionize medical science.
Meanwhile, Henrietta's family lived in poverty, largely unaware of her involuntary contribution to medicine.
Her cells are called HeLa cells, and they’re noteworthy because they were the first cells to divide and not die. Instead, they could replicate again and again. This led to the ability to experiment on human cells in ways never before imagined, leading to the HPV vaccine that’s steadily saving thousands of women every year.
HeLa cells have also contributed to the production of the polio vaccine and treatments for cancer, AIDS, covid vaccines… the list goes on. Estimates put the number of lives saved somewhere around 10 million.
On one hand, HeLa cells have led to all those groundbreaking discoveries, saving all those lives over the years. On the other hand, Henrietta and her family were never consulted or compensated, raising serious questions about individual rights and dignity in the pursuit of scientific progress.
Here in the 21st century, we are flying toward the future. Ethical quandaries surrounding intellectual property are cropping up that sound eerily similar to the HeLa story. Perhaps my biggest takeaway from Rebecca Skloot’s well-written book is that our institutions are capable of horribly oppressive behavior, preying upon the members of society least able to defend themselves.
At the same time, our abilities to make breakthroughs often hinge on the contributions of one discovery, which then unlocks a bunch of other discoveries. In this case, progress hinged upon one unwitting participant. As we continue to push the boundaries of what science can achieve, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks stands as a stark reminder that progress will often stomp all over human dignity.
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing gives a gripping account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's failed Antarctic expedition of 1914-1916. Shackleton aimed to cross the Antarctic continent, but his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in ice.
That’s not all that happened to this crew. They faced trial after harrowing trial, up against some of the very worst, most inhospitable conditions on the entire planet. People started losing their minds, began to fight with one another over everything, and had to kill and eat things that I would prefer not to think about right now.
Now, I’ve read or listened to dozens of books on leadership. This is my favorite one. Instead of explicitly spelling out how leadership should work, Lansing simply shows how Shackleton’s handled things, one crisis at a time.
Endurance stands out as a story of resilience. Faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, Shackleton managed to maintain morale while making sure everyone got what they needed to stay alive. He showed (and the author shows us) that leadership isn’t about not failing, but it’s about what happens when things go wrong.
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Robert Caro tends to really dive into a project. The Power Broker is a 66-hour long audiobook, and that’s not a typo. I didn’t attempt to read this one.
If The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of a victim of society who had unknowingly saved millions of lives, and Endurance gave us an example of unbreakable leadership and resilience, The Power Broker brings us in an altogether different direction.
Caro gives us a comprehensive biography of Robert Moses, the public official who arguably shaped modern New York City more than any other individual. An urban planner and public official, Moses was a master of acquiring and wielding power.
His ambition and drive led to a mind-blowing amount of building projects, the scale of which is hard to grasp. But his relentless “bulldozer” approach ultimately displaced hundreds of thousands of residents and often marginalized vulnerable communities.
Moses’s story is a masterclass in the nuances of political power and its effects on urban development. His tale shows how one person, armed with ambition and political savvy, can shape the destiny of millions.
However, as this book goes on, it becomes clear that this is a powerful cautionary tale.
Time and time again, we see Moses’s ambitions get the better of him, and in spite of his own belief that he was doing unambiguous good, a reader can see how the lust for power subsumed everything else.
With literal trillions of dollars being invested in infrastructure in the US and worldwide, cities are transforming everywhere. We should look to Robert Moses’s life as an inspiration and a warning. It’s an inspiration because one person really can make a dramatic impact on the world through sheer force of will and persistence, but it’s a warning because those very same traits can be unbelievably destructive.
and I worked on a piece specifically about infrastructure’s future, and the impact on AI and emerging technology. You might enjoy reading that later on:Takeaways
Henrietta Lacks had her cells taken without permission, and those cells saved ten million lives. Sir Ernest Shackleton gave a masterclass in resilience and leadership against all odds. Robert Moses leveraged unbridled ambition to both build and break New York City.
Each of these “eminent dead” has their own lesson to impart.
When you go through life, you make a lot of mistakes, but you can sometimes avoid making some of them by studying the lives of others. That means that even a more sordid tale like that of Robert Moses can have tremendous value.
I like to gather wisdom. I believe it helps me to prepare for unexpected changes in the world. Insights like these are timeless, and change is a constant throughout history. As we grapple with a rapidly changing world, their stories help us navigate the complexities of ethical considerations, leadership challenges, and the wielding of power in an ever-changing landscape.
Progress and power come with their own set of ethical, social, and personal responsibilities. It’s up to us to figure out how to navigate through these challenges while still trying to do some good.
Love the way you share a resource and give us your take on what you're sharing. And, as always, your graphics are a great addition.
"I like to gather wisdom. I believe it helps me to prepare for unexpected changes in the world. Insights like these are timeless, and change is a constant throughout history. As we grapple with a rapidly changing world, their stories help us navigate the complexities of ethical considerations, leadership challenges, and the wielding of power in an ever-changing landscape.
I’ve really enjoyed your posts and absolutely love a well written biography. I’ve listened to and read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks several times, it’s one of the best books of its kind that I’ve ever read or listened too. You’ve also inspired me to possibly take another crack at TPB.