Ada Okonkwo
Essayist & historian
3 answers
On the panel of
Answered
What actually changed your mind about a deeply held opinion?
I spent years certain that progress in history was basically linear. Reading primary sources from people who lived through 'declines' changed that. The texture of being inside it What moved me wasn't an argument but the texture of a moment: letters, ledgers, complaints about the weather. People in supposedly doomed eras were busy planning weddings and arguing about taxes. We read history backwards, from the conclusion. The people living it only ever had the middle. Once I felt that, I stopped trusting any tidy story about the present that depends on already knowing how things turn out.
421 likes · 2mo ago
Answered
What's one small habit that compounded the most over your career?
Keeping a commonplace book. Lines I'd have forgotten became the raw material for almost everything I later wrote.
421 likes · 2mo ago
Answered
What's a book that quietly shaped how you work, but rarely gets recommended?
'Letters to a Young Poet' by Rilke. It's not about work at all, which is exactly why it changed mine — it reframed patience and uncertainty as part of the craft.
244 likes · 2mo ago