My reading journey
I am not completely sure why, but a few months ago I decided to read more. In this essay I won’t be talking about why I decided to read more, but more about the experience. However, I will also mention that this is not caused by some kind of existential crisis, but rather curiosity and a strong desire to know.
My reading before
I have always preferred to read informationally1 mostly online and found it to be very practical considering that I am a tech person. Mostly, I would look up for answers and best practices accompanied by some Youtube videos online. There were couple of books that were behind my shoulders like Perfumer2, The Art of War3, and others for productivity, psychology, etc. These were mild readings, because I have always thought that practical knowledge is more important. Was I wrong?? I think so…
Reading for the last couple of months
In this section, I am going to reflect changes that happened to me after.
Change 1: Concentration
The number one change that happened in the beginning was an ability to concentrate, ability to track multiple points, articulate them, and derive more conscious decisions. It’s important to mention that I never had issues with any of the mentioned, but I have observed a considerable change that should be mentioned as the first bullet point.
Change 2: Ideology
I have been reading pretty intensively (like 2-5 books a week) and visited areas like Philosophy (Kant4, Nietzsche5, Lao Tzu6, Bruce Lee7, etc.), Business (Explosive Growth8, Good to Great9, etc.), Marketing (Contagious10, Letting go of the words11), Psychology (Man’s Search for Meaning12), Media (Flat Earth News13), Behavioral Economics (Predictably Irrational14), etc..
By Ideology, I mean my stance on what I am doing, where I am doing it, how I am doing it.
It’s really hard to summarize, but to make a point, it mostly means a somewhat concentrated awareness of my physical and virtual location (law of the nature4), my life goals (logic4), and my style (ethics4) in the realm of the changing world and time.
Change 3: Understanding
Understanding has been another ability that I saw an improvement on. My outlook, as it has been broadened by the minds that wrote the books I read, now can look at things from different perspectives and even though I cannot have every view, I am more aware than I was before.
Again, to make it simple, I started paying more attention to people’s opinions, things happening around me, and pretty much everything, because, for the most part, I can relate it to something I have read before.
Change 4: Detachment from bias
It’s very important to share this point. We live in a daily routine of expectations and analogies, which is not necessarily bad. However, for one trying to do something unordinary in the shortness of life15 or simply live a more conscious life, ability to withstand the expectation, stay away from bias, and derive reason or gut feeling based judgement is quite vital to align with your true desires.
Change 5: Other
There is a whole bunch and I will edit this article as I explore and have time to write.
Conclusion
My point is simple: read more.
I am not a fanatical writer, so, I am not putting every thought down in a blast of articles. The expectation from my journey though is to apply the knowledge I obtain in my social capacity, although the points above already prove it happened to some extend.