Why Read?

Every successful person I have studied has had a phase in their life where they consumed an immense amount of knowledge. Most of them did it young, ages 12-18. I wanted to level up my brain and see the world like they do, so I have spent a lot of my time in university devouring books.

• Algorithm for choosing books: Find someone you admire, and read what they recommend.
• When you read someone's source material, you will be surprised how often you catch ideas they got from those books.
  • Tolkien got inspiration for Middle Earth from the Prose Edda and Beowulf.
  • Peter Thiel and many tech entrepreneurs got ideas from The Sovereign Individual.
  • Warren Buffet profusely cites The Intelligent Investor as the source for his entire investment philosophy.
• You can read the same lines that inspired generational thinkers.
• I remember watching lectures by Jordan Peterson explaining parts of The Bible. He would choose a few lines from the Bible and turn it into hours of meaningful insights and life lessons. How did he do this? He simply knew more, he had way more knowledge to connect, he saw parallels no one else could see. He mentioned Dostoevsky, Jung, Nietzsche and religious texts that other psychologists (his profession) haven't studied as much.
• I was shocked by the amount of scientists who cited literature and philosophy books as their inspiration. These are seemingly outside of their domain, some would call it distractions.
• You choose:
  • Learn only from your immediate experience.
  • Read the carefully crafted thoughts of the most intelligent people to walk the Earth.
• I just can't get over the fact that I might read something 30 years from now and have an epiphany. There is no way I will let that happen, I need to know it now so I can go forth with my life without regret.
• You can develop a one-of-a-kind brain. Develop a stack of ideas that is unique to you. This is a massive investment for your life.
• Will you get stuck in an infinite loop of reading? No, I am confident you can exhaust your curiosity, and eventually reach a point where the only reasonable next step is acting on what you have learned.
• Knowledge is cumulative and it will converge towards a coherent worldview.
• Reading doesn't just give you trivial knowledge, it clarifies your thinking. You don't need to remember everything, it will refine your intuition and improve your subconscious judgement.
• If you don't look back at yourself 6 months ago and think you were dumb you aren't learning enough.
• Never look at someone and wonder why they know more than you, the simple reason is because they spent time consuming knowledge you haven't touched.