So my take in this is that yes, some parts of Secret History make more sense if you’ve read Elantris and Warbreaker, but; Elantris and Warbreaker are relatively hard sells for the more casual reader, kind of hard to get into, in my experience.
I’ve found that giving new readers Secret History first, pulling back the Cosmere curtain just a little, gives them a reason to want to read Elantris and Warbreaker.
Yes, they do! They both take place in the same universe, called the “Cosmere”, on different planets. There are several other works of Sanderson’s that are also in this universe, though not everything he’s written. You can read most stuff as standing on its own perfectly fine, but the further you get into the books, the more connections start to appear.
Sanderson has a page on his website explaining some more for newcomers: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/what-is-the-cosmere/
If you are reading Mistborn with the intention of continuing on to Sanderson’s other Cosmere works afterwards, I would highly suggest reading Mistborn: Secret History after you finish The Hero of Ages. I like to say it’s like a “Nick Fury showing up in the post-credits scene of Iron Man” moment, where you really first get a glimpse of how the various different stories and series are connected.
I’ve found that hot and active sorting do not create the most enjoyable feed experience for me. I currently have my sorting set to top>6 hours, which I like much better. It means my feed does not change that much over time, so if you’re opening Lemmy frequently for a couple of minutes of browsing, it doesn’t really work. But I generally only come here during my commute, so twice a day for a longer period of browsing, and it works really well for that.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to claim my way is the only or even the best way! A thousand debates have been had over the “correct” Cosmere reading order, and I personally think there is basically no “wrong” order.
I’ve just found that the people I know who started with Mistborn, often struggled to get into Elantris and/or Warbreaker. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that they are not as breezy a read as Mistborn. And that telling them “it’s a shared universe! You just gotta read these two other 600-page books before that starts mattering” is kind of a hard sell.