The idea that: "By reading, you learn through others’ experiences, generally a better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men."

Is so utterly important when lives are on the line that it seems difficult to refute, and I'd be interested to see someone try in fact, but let's take that premise, and add to it: "Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face NOTHING new under the sun." + "Alex the Great would not be in the least bit perplexed by the enemy that we face right now in Iraq, and our leaders going into this fight do their troops a disservice by not studying (studying, vice just reading) the men who have gone before us."

Let's take a jump into the hacker news/YC/Lean Startup milieu and apply the same lesson: You should learn from those who have gone before. Study their decision making processes, study their customers, read whatever you can read to find the people who have done what you are doing.

Chances are the business that you are creating (even if it is going to "disrupt" some industry or another) is still dealing with the same issues that have always been issues. It's going to have HR, marketing, leadership, operations and a million other hassles that are similar to those that have come before. Similar because people haven't changed that much.

If you are a startup person, working 100 hour weeks and learning by doing, you should still find some time to read and learn from the mistakes and triumphs of those who came before. Don't burn the investors cash relearning the lessons that someone else already learnt, save your runway for iterating on the true unknowns of your problem domain.