Today I’m privileged to spend time with a famous man: Laurence J. Peter, author of the classic bestseller, The Peter Principle. We’re hanging out together for a few hours in the Seattle area.
Now, if you took the time to find out, you might say I’m lying. A quick internet search shows that Laurence has been dead for just over twenty-three years.
But we’re still spending the afternoon together.
How so?
I’m reading his book.
When I read, Laurence tells me things. And when I underline and write in the margins of his book, I talk back to him. In this way, we’re having a conversation. We’re hanging out.
And I can tell you, I love hanging out with dead guys like Laurence. Dead gals, too. And even living guys and gals who’ve thought through their ideas and worked hard enough to put those ideas into book form. It’s one of the reasons I love to read. Books represent the highest form of thought-power and thought-structure a person can create.
Sure, it’s not the same as face-to-face. I’ve had the privilege of hanging out with several New York Times bestselling authors, even had a chance to work with them. It’s a real treat.
But in certain ways, it’s not near as good as today’s sort of hang-out with Laurence.
Today Laurence is giving me his best ideas, boiled down through hundreds of hours of effort and collaboration into their most well-thought form, permanently fixed in ink on paper. If we had a face-to-face conversation, we wouldn’t cover as solid ground. We’d jump back and forth between one thing and another. Conversation wouldn’t be as clear and to-the-point as it is this way. I couldn’t get Laurence to repeat himself as much as I can by re-reading a phrase in his book. I couldn’t go back and analyze his logic, his supporting arguments, and his overall thought anywhere near as well as I can on paper. I couldn’t remember what was said. It wouldn’t be near as actionable or useful.
There’s something else about the dead guys. Living guys say all kinds of things that just don’t hold up over time. Eventually, their words fade away. But dead guys words stand the time-test. If, long after they’ve said something, their words still hold value, chances are really good that they’re worth a listen. It’s not always true, but a good rule of thumb.
If we want more wisdom, we should hang out with dead guys more often. And the longer they’ve been dead, the better.
