This year, I’ve read roughly twenty biographies and autobiographies about entrepreneurs in media—broadcasting, publishing, and cable. I didn’t plan to read so many books about this industry; it just happened as I followed my curiosity. As I read about one entrepreneur, I learned about competitors or business partners I wasn’t familiar with, so I found books on them too. Almost every book led me to at least one other person I wanted to learn more about.

Before I read all these books, I had zero understanding of media. I didn’t know its history, how people made money, or how it has impacted other industries and society. Now, I’m far from a media expert, but I have a working, high-level understanding of the industry and the strategies used to build large media companies. Reading books about numerous entrepreneurs back to back (mostly) helped me see the industry from different perspectives by way of each entrepreneur’s journey. This gave me a clearer picture of the industry and an understanding I wouldn’t have if I’d read about only one or two media entrepreneurs.

I gained lots of value from this media deep dive, and I want to mimic it in the future, but more intentionally. Next time, I’ll do a few things differently. The main thing is to start with a desire to understand a specific industry—and a clear reason why. Ideally, I’d be highly motivated to understand the industry to help me solve a specific problem. The other thing is to research the major players who helped create the industry and try to find books about them. Entrepreneurs who help build an industry in the early days and achieved outsize success are likely to have done business with, employed, or be connected to other entrepreneurs in the space.

Reading the life stories of multiple entrepreneurs in an industry feels like a major hack. I can’t wait to find out what the benefits are when I’ve studied several industries this way.