Utility vs Entertainment
After reading two books about the same legendary car company, I https://mylesmarino.com/posts.htmlwas struck by their different purposes. One, John D. Rockefeller's Secret Weapon, was incredibly useful. I filled it with highlights and notes. The other, An Autopsy of a Merger, was far more entertaining but less practical for my current needs.
The difference lies in their approach. An Autopsy of a Merger is a narrative, focusing on the people involved and their reactions to a massive corporate merger. It's built on interviews and detailed accounts of conversations, which gives it a compelling story arc. However, this narrative focus made it a far cry from the tactical, hard-hitting insights I found so valuable in The Secret Weapon.
You could argue that this is simply a matter of timing. I'm currently focused on growing a company, not managing a billion-dollar merger. Maybe in a few years, one book will prove more useful than the other for a different reason.
The Allure of Entertainment
There's also the matter of how I found each book. The Secret Weapon is an obscure, out-of-print book that I stumbled upon by accident. It has no special status, and I've never heard anyone else talk about it. In contrast, An Autopsy of a Merger is well-known, especially in finance circles. Owning this rare, out-of-print book carries a certain prestige, and saying you read it, even moreso.
So why is the less useful book more popular? The answer is simple: it's more entertaining.
When we look at media that endures for decades, it seems to need two key ingredients. First, it requires utility to get initial traction and draw people in. But to last for generations, it must have a strong dose of entertainment. This entertainment value is what makes people return to the work and feel comfortable recommending it to a wide audience.
This holds up when you look at some of the oldest texts. Many ancient myths and religious stories had a core of utility…for example, "don't anger the gods" or "live a virtuous life." However, it was their vast entertainment value that made them stick. The stories were compelling, made the storyteller sound wise, and became a kind of status symbol. This is why the most prolific writers in business or tech are often great entertainers, not just useful communicators.
A Final Thought on Value
Ultimately, the marketplace often values entertainment more highly than pure utility. More people are drawn to something entertaining than something merely useful. This isn't a new phenomenon, but it highlights a potential pitfall for non-fiction books, which are supposed to be factual and insightful. When they lean too far into entertainment, they risk losing their practical value.
It's important to know what you’re getting into. Believing a book is educational when it's primarily entertainment is just as problematic as thinking something is useful when it's only meant to be a fun read.
An Autopsy of a Merger has lasted because its narrative style makes it an easy and interesting read for anyone. That doesn't mean it lacks use, but its primary strength is its story. It offers a definitive compilation of one of the largest mergers in history, which is certainly valuable. But I wonder if people will still be talking about it in 50 years. Will it remain a finance classic, or will it be lost to time, much like its more practical but less famous counterpart?
