Only Read Things You Don’t Know
I used to feel guilty for skipping parts of books.
I’d find myself glossing over paragraphs that felt too familiar. My mind quickly recognized old concepts and moved on, searching for something new. For a while I thought I was a lazy reader inspired by momentary novelty or intrigue.
But recently, as I’ve been reading more and encountering similar ideas expressed by different people, I’m changing my mind.
Books are meant for learning new things
Your brain “skipping” repetitive ideas is actually doing you a favour. Quickly spotting new information is advantageous for learning.
That’s because the point of reading is to accumulate knowledge.
As you read more, you’ll undoubtedly be exposed to repeated ideas. That’s evidence that your knowledge bank is building. The pool of things you “know” is large and growing.
If you start to see the same things again and again, you’re either (a) hitting on fundamental truths (like in the sciences) or (b) you’re seeing the current “common way” of interpreting things or of doing things.
Staying on the cutting edge
The latter is important to be aware of.
The “common sense” of today will quickly become obsolete tomorrow.
There are many things people believe right now that are either wrong, or, will become wrong as the world changes.
Quickly exposing yourself to new ideas is the best way to stay ahead of the curve and make sure that you’re not buying into ideas that are near the end of their life (or perhaps, ones that were untrue to begin with).
While everyone else is still repeating the old ways, you leave yourself free to stumble on something new.
Skipping saves you time
Time is precious.
There are so many books out there, you could spend the rest of your life reading and still not finish them all.
Don’t spend your time re-living facts or ideas you’ve already absorbed. Trust that you can call those dormant facts to mind when you need them.
You’ll save precious time.
Ideas are meant to be acted on
Most books spend a lot of time showing example after example of how their ideas apply in the world.
If you find these helpful, or if they spur ideas, that’s great.
But if they don’t, then stop.
One reason they do this is to help you, the reader, put the ideas of the books into practice.
But ideally, the best way to put ideas into practice is to put the book down and pick up a pen.
Plan for the scenarios where you’ll use the new ideas. Think about the steps you need to take and when you’ll take them.
Then, hold yourself accountable (one way is by writing about your personal journey to implement them).
A zero guilt philosophy
I don’t feel bad anymore about all the abandoned-halfway books on my bookshelf.
I’ll get back to some of them because I know they have more to give.
But for others, I learned what I needed. And for that, the author achieved their goal.
