#3 — Why it’s smart to read “dumb” books
As a kid I used to love reading. I remember one time when we went camping and I brought a whole collection of books and then when my dad came to join halfway the vacation he brought a fresh crate of reading material and took the old ones back home. I went through them like crazy, just because I enjoyed the time spent on reading them.
The Joy of Reading
What I used to love about reading was that it felt like a story happening in your head. It takes you along for the ride but still leaves enough space for your fantasy and imagination to get to work as well. Sometimes, when watching the movie of a book later you can feel weirdly surprised by a character they portrayed completely different from how you imagined them. I used to read all types of books, but the goal of the reading was mainly just for entertainment. It was a nice way to relax and a fun hobby.
Later, I guess I started to get more busy. You spend less time climbing trees. You spend less time waking up on a Sunday morning and feeling like the whole day of free time is ahead of you. You spend less time just doing what you feel most like doing at that exact moment in time. Everything is so planned out and goal-oriented. Reading as a hobby got less place in my calendar, but that’s okay because it got replaced by a ton of cool other new experiences and hobby’s. And those are also important. :)
Relaxation vs Work
Recently, however, I have kind of rediscovered reading again. I found a few books that really tickled my interest and I was excited again to sit down and read in my free time. They were books that aligned very much with the things that I am currently most intrigued by and curious about. The topics were on the theory-heavy side and the books were all non-fiction. I love the feeling of getting smarter, but I was going through the books SO slowly. After every two pages I just wanted to take a break and process the information for a bit. It was almost like my relaxation from studying was also studying. It started to feel more like working instead of relaxation and I noticed myself making less time for it.
Reading in your free time is something you do for yourself, and only yourself. No one is going to judge if the book you read is not high-brow enough. If you feel like people might look at the cover and form an opinion about you based on that, get your ass our of your booty: people have other things to do. Read whatever you feel like reading! That will also create a positive association to reading in your brain, which later has a positive impact on your “smart” reading.
Follow Your Curiosity
I guess what I want to say it that it’s okay to read a book just because you enjoy spending time on it. Not everything you do, needs to have a direct impact on the growth of your personal knowledge base. On the other hand however, if you spot a nicely written non-fiction book about a topic that interests you, don’t hold back! You do you.
The “smart” books currently on my wish list:
- The Doors of Perception — Aldous Huxley
- Something deeply hidden — Sean M. Carroll
- Predictably irrational — Dan Ariely
- Futurama — Fanta Voogd
- The Enigma of Reason —Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier
- Thinking Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman
- The Undoing Project — Michael Lewis
- The Precipice — Toby Ord
- The Alignment Problem — Brian Christian
- Human Compatible — Stuart Russel
- Rationality: From AI to Zombies — Eliezer Yudkowsky
