Patrick Collison on X: "Given its status as one of the great American business biographies, I decided to read Titan, on Rockefeller, a couple of months ago. (I also paired it with a little of Tarbell’s history.) Titan is an impressive work, clearly the product of prodigious research. Assorted points" / X

To view keyboard shortcuts, press question mark View keyboard shortcuts Post Post See new posts Conversation Patrick Collison @patrickc Given its status as one of the great American business biographies, I decided to read Titan, on Rockefeller, a couple of months ago. (I also paired it with a little of Tarbell’s history.) Titan is an impressive work, clearly the product of prodigious research. Assorted points that jumped out to me: • Certain periods seem more propitious for the rise of noteworthy figures, at least in business: Carnegie, Morgan, and Rockefeller were all born in a four year span. (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were also born in the same year.) I wonder how much of this is about the culture vs the business opportunities. More generally, I hadn’t appreciated the fervor (as perceived at the time) of the late 19th century. Thomas Mellon: “It was such a period as seldom occurs, and hardly ever more than once in anyone’s lifetime.” • Chernow: “Many people in the mid-nineteenth ce

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