Bridget C
Bridget C
Jul 23, 2017 · 2 min read

I don’t think Buffett started doing this when he was rich. I think he started this when he started his company back in the 1960s and probably built up. Only because getting 500 pages of new material into the house every day in the 1960s was a lot harder than it sounds. The average annual report in those days seems to have been about 20 pages — with only a dozen pages which would have been valuable. The average nonfiction book even with notes was probably between 200–300 pages. He could be getting a several newspapers and magazines but they also are a lot of advertising and not as much print.

As someone who was buying books in the 1970s finding 9 -12 new nonfiction books every week, week after week, was not as easy as it would be today. (My mother joined the History Book Club just because she’d read through the local library’s history section in about three years.)

I agree he has to be a speed reader but also an efficient reader — which means he picks out relevant information a lot faster than the rest of us.

But I think if you keep a personal time diary for several weeks and keep it honestly, you’ll find that you’re on the internet more than you think and therefore you’re reading more than you think. The question is how much of your reading do you translate into learning.

I think improving the usefulness of your sources and then questioning whether what you read means anything to you, your life or to anyone you know helps you become a more efficient reader.

When you finish reading an article, do you question yourself on what you’ve read? Do you give yourself a quiz? (No, btw for the most part I don’t- do as I say, not as I do. ; ) ) Do you ask yourself how what you just read relates to something personal or some subject you know very well? Do you check any of the sources in the article?

If I do that, I find what I read is stickier.

One warning. I didn’t have to do any of that for years. For years, my memory kept a great deal of the information I read and actually pulled it out when I needed it. But I’m in my late 50s now and my memory is now iffier. So I’m always looking for ways to get it back.

So if you don’t need this now, plan ahead for the day when you might.

And if you never need it, how wonderful for you.

    Bridget C

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    Bridget C