Henry Oliver

Late Bloomers, Jane Austen and The Reader's Quest

Author

Paolo Salvetti
January 22, 2025

Two things truly excite me: tech and literature.

What I like about tech is the massive spectrum of possibilities it has unlocked for humanity. It breaks down barriers, opening up opportunities and shifting the dynamics of social class.

Y Combinator’s Garry Tan on how tech changed his family’s life.

Similarly, literature transforms perspective. Just as tech can lift people beyond their circumstances, literature lifts readers from their point of view, allowing them to understand experiences outside their own.

Here is a great example:

Journalist James Marriott, in a conversation with Henry Oliver, mentioned that before reading Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet, he had been told what it was like to be a teenage girl - constantly subjected to invasive and unwanted sexual attention. However, it was only after reading the novels that he truly began to grasp what that experience entailed. While the words he might use to describe his knowledge didn’t change, his understanding of what it meant was completely transformed.

James Marriott in conversation with Henry Oliver

BIO
Why Henry Oliver?

I spend a lot of time thinking and reading about writing and literature, so it’s no surprise that Henry Oliver caught my attention the first time I came across his work.

What struck me is that it’s hard to find writers who talk about literature and have a perspective that isn’t completely removed from tech and talent. Most tend to stick to one or the other or have a pretty gloomy take on technology.

That’s what makes him stand out.

Most of his writing is on The Common Reader. Still, he recently wrote a book about late bloomers (people who found success later in life) and regularly contributes to other outlets and blogs.

Topics: Literature, Talent, Writing

One of his best essays on The Common Reader.

It ties back to literature as a unique means of offering a fresh perspective, suggesting that immersing oneself in books can serve as a remedy, allowing individuals to step away from the pervasive negativity of media and societal discontent.

“We will not think or argue our way out of modern culture’s pessimism. We will have to imagine our way out. We live, as Robert Graves said, in a web of language. The bigger our web, the bigger our world. In the philosopher Richard Rorty’s words (paraphrasing Percy Shelley), imagination sets the bounds of thought: imagination breaks the path that reason follows. To insist on yourself, you must discover yourself through the acquisition of new language and new ideas. The bigger your imagination, the bigger your world. And the easier it will be to avoid the pessimistic contagion.”

In this essay, Henry Oliver explores the concept of "opsimaths": individuals who begin learning later in life or continue learning throughout their lives.

I like how he challenges the traditional notion that significant achievements are reserved for the young, highlighting that many people realize their potential and achieve success at various stages of life.

“We are not very good at knowing how to assess people who have not yet succeeded but who might become impressive later on. Why do some people show no sign of their later  promise, and how can we think about the lives of those late bloomers who had precarious journeys to their eventual flourishing?

This is not something unique to one profession or period of time. It is becoming much more recognised that some people bloom later for inherent reasons, not just because of external circumstances. We ought to find this less remarkable than we do — and feel less of an instinct to explain it. It is, in fact, quite normal.”

I like this piece as it goes deeply into talent.

He explores the concept of mimesis - the tendency to desire what others have - and its impact on behaviour and innovation.

A great example is how Larry Page, co-founder of Google, balances conformity with independence. It makes a strong case for how innovation arises from nurturing one's inner self and imagination, fostering creativity, and reducing the constraints of mimetic desire.

“Mimesis is the idea that we want what other people have, and that wanting drives our behaviour. Mimesis garnered credibility when Peter Thiel (who invested in Facebook because of mimesis) revealed he was inspired by the French historian and philosopher Rene Girard. To many people working in technology, the idea of mimesis is inextricably Girardian.

Girard’s fundamental insight is that we want what others have, in order to become more like them. All desire is a desire for being someone else. But, the more confident we become in our model, the less confident we become in ourselves. This frustration turns our model into a rival. Rivalry leads to violence, violence unifies groups against each other, until a common enemy is converged upon, who is sacrificed to end the dispute.”

Wondering who some of the most famous late bloomers in history are? Here’s a comprehensive, though non-exhaustive, list.

Audrey Sutherland is definitely my favourite: she solo explored and kayaked the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia in her sixties, seventies, and eighties. Before that, she had never explored in artic waters before.

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Enjoy Henry Oliver’s writing & see you next week! 🙂