Readers' Folly
Intro
The following discussion is aimed solely at reading nonfiction materials.
Fiction reading is for recreation, it's purpose is fun. Not so, for nonfiction. True, encountering meaningful new information can be exhilarating. But if that is your only motivation, I suggest a roller coaster ride instead.
Reading nonfiction is ephemeral. Use it or lose it is a cliche that fits perfectly.
The Revealing Ratio
How much time do you spend reading vs taking action on that information?
A 1:1 ratio of action to reading means that on average you spend an hour trying to actively incorporate new information into your life for each hour spent reading. Stated another way, that would make you a 100% Active-Reader.
However, most people are hovering at 0%! I call them Passive-Readers.
How about you? Is there room for a more action orientation toward your reading?
The Readers' Fallacy
The sad truth is that a great many intelligent people judge themselves (and others) by how many books they read each year.
The Readers' Fallacy is to believe that having read a stack of books once, years ago, somehow equates to knowledge of the topics covered .
If you doubt this, here is a challenge. Think of a “great” book you read last year. Now take out a piece of paper and write down all the information you still retain. Go ahead, take your time. If you manage more than a few lines, congratulations. For extra marks, verify. How many of your hard earned facts were actually in that book?
No matter how meticulous the highlights or even marginalia, a just-read book begins its descent into oblivion the moment it is closed.
Most avid readers can remember only few vague impressions from any cherished book after a single year has passed? Unless they have re-read it. But that seldom happens for the true bibliophile, who yearns to read more books each year. Setting record after record … of loss.
We are obsessed with the acquaintance with information over the accumulation of information.
But it gets worse. Even accumulation is dangerous, as it can easily lead to clutter, stress, and overload.
The Cure
Fortunately, there is a cure. And if implemented immediately, could lead to a successful recovery from Readers' Folly ... and likely will yield future success as a knowledge worker.
Ready? Just make a rule for yourself that for every hour of nonfiction reading, you'll put in another hour to assimilation that knowledge.
1 by-product is to more carefully choose your reading material. If you are not willing to expend that extra effort, perhaps your reading selection process is sub-optimal.
I suggest that we "serious readers" could learn from gardening. At its most basic, gardening consists of 2 tasks:
Remove the weeds and
Nurture the desired plants.
To apply the metaphor to reading, we would benefit by:
Weeding: Stop dead-end time wasters, like
compulsively researching rabbit holes of increasing little value
continuously monitoring topics of diminishing interest.
Nurturing:
Accumulating without process yields clutter, akin to fertilizer, but without any beneficial value.
Instead, lovingly assimilate recently acquired information into a growing knowledge base.
As interests wane, you naturally quit reading about discarded interests. As you examine your life goals, you will see gaps that you want to fill in with new reading.
By proactively connecting new information with your prior knowledge, you confirm and augment previous learning, and, just as important, uncover conflicts between new and old data, forcing a reevaluation of your mental positions. Leading to more targeted reading for resolution.
Take Time To Smell The Roses
This takes place over time, allowing the luxury of aligning the jigsaw pieces of your changing life goals, interests, and assimilated bits of knowledge into a good, then better, fit.
There is no need to lament the "lost" time spent assimilating topics now abandoned, they were a necessary learning experience.
Action is valuable because it inevitably leads to greater knowledge about how a topic fits into your future.
It all starts with a recognition that:
"Nonfiction reading time can be a total waste or it can be the foundation for a successful future."
— Oran Kangas
So, which type of reader do you chose to be? An Active-Reader or a Passive-Reader?
Your future will be affected, and possibly determined, by that choice.
There, I’ve had my say. What say you?
Tags: Reading, Nonfiction, Active, Passive, Assimilate, Knowledge, Future.