Happy Knowledge Day! (I’m a bit behind schedule). And today I would like to talk about something related to knowledge. Now, I’m gonna be talking about books.
Reading books is considered to be a good habit. And there’s a notion that the more of them you read the wiser you are or the mellower you are. Yet, it might not be the case. You can read piles of things every month and hardly get any further in your life. Of course, it might depend on the books themselves, because there are different books out there and some of them might be rather harmful than useful, but ultimately the thing is that just reading things is, certainly, not enough.
In real life just reading stuff don’t make you any wiser. I mean practically speaking. It’s not that hard to read a book. It’s much harder to align your life with the lessons you have learnt from it, with the powerful insight you’ve got from it. This is what is really challenging. If you just read a book that doesn’t really qualify, especially if you never return to it again, if you read it one single time and that’s it.
We might think that you once we’ve read a novel (or watched a long insightful video or a profound film or whatever) then it’s a bit of a milestone, we reckon that we’ve kind of grown or changed a little bit or something. When, in fact, we’re just deluding ourselves into thinking that we have done. And what normally tends to happen is that you just completely forget these new lessons right the next day and continue to live your life in the same old way often not being aware of it. On the other hand, it might work if we read a few books a month because in this case, we come across the same lessons in almost every book because I believe many books have plenty of similarities. But still, we’re after quantity here, not quality which we ultimately should be after. And I’ll talk about it in more details soon. But, basically reading books just for the sake of reading them isn’t a good idea, unless you’re reading some sort of fantasy or whatever just to chill out from a busy day since having breaks by doing something work-unrelated helps your mind unwind. Otherwise, it’s very likely for the new insight and lessons you’ve learnt from the book to go down the drain.
How to deal with Information Overload
Alright, but how do we make use of the book we are reading, or videos that we are watching or podcasts that we are listening to? How do we make the most of it? And we’re going to discuss it soon, but before we do, let’s talk about information overload. How do we deal with it? There are loads and loads of information out there. And obviously, you can’t consume it all. You need to choose something. And even if you are selective, still, you might be not sure if you have chosen the right book to read for now and if you should have chosen something different? So, choosing the right information from the numerous other suchlike things can be quite a challenge. But here is what you can do. I’m going to share with you three questions which can help you make the right choice. And here are the questions:
-Who am I?
-Where am I going to?
-What do I really need to get there?
Don’t judge the book by its cover
The next point that I wanna make is, don’t always rely on the title. Try to find out what this book is actually about. Read the description of this book or some reviews on it or the beginning of its plot, or just skim through it a little bit, because, obviously, you don’t want to waste your time on books which aren’t really that relevant for you, while there might be much more relevant ones that you could be reading now.
How to really make use of books
Underline the important points, new insights in the book or write them down. And more importantly, try reread your notes the next day and later on try to get back to them once in a while. Also, discuss new ideas you’ve learnt with a friend/friends because when you discuss something new with someone it helps you to internalise these new ideas. When you verbalise new information it’s more likely for it to stay in your mind long. Additionally, you’ll maybe realise that there’s something more to it or to the contrary you’ll be exposed to alternative points of view. Maybe your friend will help you to look at it from different angles. But don’t close yourself up to alternative perspectives, they might make sense. And this actually leads to the last, but not least point.
Warning
Be careful when internalising new ideas, because they might not be that useful. And that’s why ultimately you need to balance your opinion with other perspectives. Looking at the same issue from different angles will help you to have a much bigger picture and therefore be more grounded and realistic.