Shahab says pick up a book and it may pick you up too
Two years ago, I started really reading books. Not enforced school reading – but under my own steam. And I think you should too.
Mid 2019, I’m lying-in bed, watching interesting, well informed YouTubers. I was a self-improvement junkie convinced of my grades-based averageness. These you-can-be-better YouTubers were my gateway to becoming more rounded, improving – and I wanted in.
But where did they get this from? It turns out – they let it slip – that most of their self-improving gusto and insight came from books.
Reading to reach the pinnacle of human existence – or to paraphrase Abraham Maslow: “productivity book actualization”.
I picked up a book. Here’s some lessons I learned.
1. “The Life Paradox”
Reading books taught me that life, aka humans and the world, is a lot more complicated then I thought. I don’t know what I thought life was before. Maybe I didn’t really understand it all that much. But reading showed me humans are messy and complicated, making a complicated and messy world. We are deeply flawed and we mess up personally and globally. However, reading can make that mess easier to navigate. It can both frighten and reassure. Through reading history, psychology and, indeed, fiction, we can become more self-aware, get better at not believing our own bullshit, and try not to repeat the mistakes of past civilizations.
2. Be more skeptical
Reading taught me it’s very hard to know 100% objective truth. With the rapid rate of new studies and flow of information, two contradictory findings can be published within a week of each other. It’s hard to know what’s true! With the idea in mind that an abundance of information should make you less certain of your opinions not more, I was able to wear my views more loosely, and approach life from a place of curiosity not certainty.
3. Reading humility
Before I started to read, I considered myself articulate and good with words. I used to have a false confidence about myself in debates. I used to think I was a well-above-average writer. After reading more, my articulacy, my writerly abilities and my debate skills have improved. But I also found out that’s what I want to continue improving. I now understand there’s loads of wisdom out there and so plenty I could be wrong about, including opinions I currently hold. Reading has made me much more willing, even excited, to admit I’m wrong.
4. Reading input improves output
My reading-expanded vocabulary makes me better able to articulate my thoughts verbally and on the page. It also made me better at analyzing and understanding different concepts, which in turn let me commandeer these concepts for my own thoughts.
5. Reading makes me better with people
The most surprising benefit is last: reading taught me to approach my fellow humans open to learning and curiosity, to be unsure of what I knew and to always seek more knowledge and more answers, and to question that knowledge. Hence better conversations. Through practice, I’ve learned to try to learn more about other people, to understand them and to do less of the talking, more of the asking. This helps me learn more, debate more, and even to write for an audience that I hold in my imagination.
There, some ways reading changed me. I hope you try it too – starting with my little article.
