Thread by @kyleschen

(1/n) Reading books is overrated as a way to succeed in our careers.

Because of this, they are way underrated as a source of deep fulfillment and tools to think.

Hoping you're willing to think about this with me.
Some semi-random thoughts/observations:

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by @kyleschen view original on Twitter

I liked @sonyaellenmann 's response to this

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by @sonyaellenmann view original on Twitter

I love reading books and I think I'm a better human bc of having spent so much time with good books. I'm not sure how much better off my career is bc of books though.

There are countless quotes about how important reading is to success. They make for great quotes because we can all pick up a book--and picking up a book usually feels good.

Warren Buffett is a famous example, but he spends much more time reading newspapers and studying financials of individual companies than reading books.

Rockefellar didn't read much beyond the Bible. Cornelius Vanderbilt mostly just won by beating up people.

Steve Jobs mostly learned by going on walks with people.

(These are all me remembering biographies, so sorry if I'm wrong.)

Investors (especially VCs) and writers/consultants gain more from reading than entrepreneurs (and just about anyone else) because their work benefits from being able to impress people with their wide-ranging and novel understandings of the world.

(So, for investors, I think reading books is more helpful for raising money and increasing deal flow than it is to making investment decisions. @sacca did real well without reading a lot of books. [If I'm remembering is @tferriss interview correctly.])

In @taylorepearsonme 's most recent newsletter, he says he's been finding it more valuable to read source papers than the books reporting on them.

(It's good, btw: taylorpearson.me/newsletter/ )

I believe @patrick_oshag also said something along those lines in a newsletter a while ago and has recently been talking about how conversation has become increasingly important as a way to learn

BTW here's his epic tweetstorm about reading books:

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by @patrick_oshag view original on Twitter

There are a lot of incredibly smart people giving away their ideas for free online--and willing to have conversations about them. Academic papers easy to find. There are online courses for all sorts of things.

There are just a lot of paths to learning.

I'm reading a marketing book right now (Storynomics) and it's worthwhile, but I think half the value is in me sitting and thinking about marketing ideas in a semi-guided way for extended periods of time.

One famous writing quote from Charlie Munger: “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time – none, zero.”
There are plenty of people who "win" without being wise, though. (And sages who don't read.)

Munger also said: “We read a lot. I don’t know anyone who’s wise who doesn’t read a lot. But that’s not enough: You have to have a temperament to grab ideas and do sensible things. Most people don’t grab the right ideas or don’t know what to do with them."

Reading too many books without deep thinking and practice makes it impossible to follow one of Munger's most important rules:

"Take a simple idea and take it seriously."

The point is: Books are incredible and reading them is good for us. They're just better for our souls than our careers--but only if we don't go to them for pillaging.

"Reading" and "learning" describe a ridiculously huge variation of activities, and it's important to pay attention to what we're actually doing when we're reading.

PS - @BrentBeshore recently said he learned more about business from Howard Marks and Buffett letters than any book
Marks: oaktreecapital.com/insights/howar…
Buffett: berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letter…