While we find cave paintings in places like the South of France that date back 10,000 years or more, the birth of literature and recorded stories in the western world, that is, writing for purposes other than accounting or legal codes, begins surprisingly recently-About 4600 years ago, perhaps with the Kesh Temple Hymn or another document from that time.
Over the centuries, things like the the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the the Iliad, the Aeneid, and so forth, are copied and recopied by hand, at enormous monetary and human cost, taking scribes years of their lives and costing the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars in today's currency for a single book.
Humans make mistakes, and after centuries and centuries, manuscripts of the same story, with the same origin and author, exist, which have differences in them, ranging from the minor and easily explained (homophones confused, etc.), to the results of intentional alteration.
Because no laboratory experiment can be conducted to determine the original state or meaning of a text, classicists holding two copies of a Homeric Hymn or of Prometheus Bound in their hands, are forced to rely on a methodology called Lectio Difficilior Potior, which is Latin for "The more difficult reading is the strongest."
This is a decision that trades not on the unknowable past of the text, but on the knowable and surprisingly consisted variable of human nature.
The idea is simple: People are more likely to alter a text which says something they don't want to hear into something that they do want to hear. So, once they've considered every manuscript, done all the archaeology they can, and tried to explain changes as based on mishearing, or copying a nearby line by mistake, or all other variables, if classicists are left with two different readings of a history of Rome:
Classicists consider the second reading stronger, because it is easier to explain why the Romans would change a text to say something they wanted to hear than to explain why they would change it to lambaste their civilization.
People are so desperate to hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see, that they will alter history and literature and memory. They have been doing it since the literal beginning of history. To get the truth, you have to be smart enough to undo what they've done, and strong enough not to do it again.
The world of entrepreneurship is full of hard realities and hard truths. Going to bed at 2:30AM, waking up at 4:30AM again, with your girlfriend or wife groaning because "it's the middle of the night and why is your alarm going off?!"-because it's do or die this week if you want to get funded. It's 12 hours in the car to hit every single supplier for your hustle, or to pitch your idea door-to-door to as many companies as you can reach in a day. It's losing money and failing again, and again, and again-working 3-4 hours a day after getting home from work, and, at the end, having less money than you would have had if you stuck your slow lane earnings into a savings account (for now).
An entire industry, worth billions, has arisen because of this. It's an industry that exists to tell entrepreneurs what they want to hear, rather than what's true. They do it through outright lies. They do it through half truths, truths that sting just a bit, so they feel real, but that don't take in the full measure of what's out there. They do it through isolating you from "haters" and "naysayers" to tell you their brand of truth. They do it through pseudoscience, through rituals, through seminars, through books and YouTube channels. But they do it for you-To make you feel good, feel powerful, feel like you've achieved something in the night you just spent watching or yelling or reading and not taking action.
Lectio Difficilior Potior: The truth, the the thing of most authenticity and most value is usually the thing that's the hardest to hear and hardest to do. It's the thing that hurts, the thing that deflates, but, in the end, it's the thing that people have no motivation to say except to help you. People get so upset and and lash out on FLF when their nascent business idea or an initial plan is picked apart-They've committed to this idea, or this team, or this goal, and they're only looking for affirmation, just like they always got from the gurus and seminars and books. Just like they'll never get from their customers.
The reality of entrepreneurial success is not waiting for you to watch on HBO, or in a book, or at a seminar.
Until you hear and live out the hard things, it's not waiting for you at all.
Over the centuries, things like the the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the the Iliad, the Aeneid, and so forth, are copied and recopied by hand, at enormous monetary and human cost, taking scribes years of their lives and costing the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars in today's currency for a single book.
Humans make mistakes, and after centuries and centuries, manuscripts of the same story, with the same origin and author, exist, which have differences in them, ranging from the minor and easily explained (homophones confused, etc.), to the results of intentional alteration.
Because no laboratory experiment can be conducted to determine the original state or meaning of a text, classicists holding two copies of a Homeric Hymn or of Prometheus Bound in their hands, are forced to rely on a methodology called Lectio Difficilior Potior, which is Latin for "The more difficult reading is the strongest."
This is a decision that trades not on the unknowable past of the text, but on the knowable and surprisingly consisted variable of human nature.
The idea is simple: People are more likely to alter a text which says something they don't want to hear into something that they do want to hear. So, once they've considered every manuscript, done all the archaeology they can, and tried to explain changes as based on mishearing, or copying a nearby line by mistake, or all other variables, if classicists are left with two different readings of a history of Rome:
1. Rome is an empire of great faith.
2. Rome is an empire of great filth.
2. Rome is an empire of great filth.
Classicists consider the second reading stronger, because it is easier to explain why the Romans would change a text to say something they wanted to hear than to explain why they would change it to lambaste their civilization.
People are so desperate to hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see, that they will alter history and literature and memory. They have been doing it since the literal beginning of history. To get the truth, you have to be smart enough to undo what they've done, and strong enough not to do it again.
The world of entrepreneurship is full of hard realities and hard truths. Going to bed at 2:30AM, waking up at 4:30AM again, with your girlfriend or wife groaning because "it's the middle of the night and why is your alarm going off?!"-because it's do or die this week if you want to get funded. It's 12 hours in the car to hit every single supplier for your hustle, or to pitch your idea door-to-door to as many companies as you can reach in a day. It's losing money and failing again, and again, and again-working 3-4 hours a day after getting home from work, and, at the end, having less money than you would have had if you stuck your slow lane earnings into a savings account (for now).
An entire industry, worth billions, has arisen because of this. It's an industry that exists to tell entrepreneurs what they want to hear, rather than what's true. They do it through outright lies. They do it through half truths, truths that sting just a bit, so they feel real, but that don't take in the full measure of what's out there. They do it through isolating you from "haters" and "naysayers" to tell you their brand of truth. They do it through pseudoscience, through rituals, through seminars, through books and YouTube channels. But they do it for you-To make you feel good, feel powerful, feel like you've achieved something in the night you just spent watching or yelling or reading and not taking action.
Lectio Difficilior Potior: The truth, the the thing of most authenticity and most value is usually the thing that's the hardest to hear and hardest to do. It's the thing that hurts, the thing that deflates, but, in the end, it's the thing that people have no motivation to say except to help you. People get so upset and and lash out on FLF when their nascent business idea or an initial plan is picked apart-They've committed to this idea, or this team, or this goal, and they're only looking for affirmation, just like they always got from the gurus and seminars and books. Just like they'll never get from their customers.
The reality of entrepreneurial success is not waiting for you to watch on HBO, or in a book, or at a seminar.
Until you hear and live out the hard things, it's not waiting for you at all.
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