To read or not to read, that is the question
It was outside our usual hangout spot, Prashanth and I were having a conversation. I took a sip of of coffee and started.
“Jee,” This is how I usually address him. “I’m currently reading this leadership book. It is really difficult for me to get through this book”
“Why are you reading this book?” he asked.
“I felt I’ve spent too much time reading fiction. Everyone at work are reading these leadership and non fiction books. So I picked up one”
“You don’t need leadership books to teach you leadership. In fact, what you’re learning from this book, I learnt from Harry Potter.
Dumbledore taught me that you should stay away from power if you think it’ll corrupt you. Cornelius Fudge taught me that if a leader takes too long to act on difficult news, they will be replaced. Umbridge taught me that you can’t always use power to get your way, in the end it’ll get you into trouble.”
I took a pause. The following happened inside my head.
Having lived by Harry Potter, I was mad at myself for missing this. Indeed, there’s so much to learn from everyday things around us. Not just fiction books, even movies and everyday interaction.
I started getting into this habit of reading these famous ‘books’ because everyone around me we reading them. These fascinated me and I feel they’re definitely useful but something told me that this is not for me. It was just too hard. For a long time, I couldn’t figure out why.
This above conversation helped me figure out why. I’m not a well read person. I don’t know a lot of fancy terms, I never use any famously known technique. Most of my knowledge is through my experiences and my interaction with people.
However, I have observed few people who read a lot. They sound extremely knowledgeable and you can keep listening to them. Especially those who are young and well read, you awe at them for their knowledge. I personally feel that a few things can only be taught through experiences. Even if you’re well read, the application of that knowledge requires to understand people. Books may not be the shortest way to understand people.
Function knowledge vs experiential knowledge
Here’s how I see functional knowledge. You learn from the books and apply in the real world. While reading the books, one very important thing is usually missing — Context.
Very seldom can books transform you to the writer’s mind and give you context and perspective on where the writer is coming from. Your vantage point while reading the book might be slightly different from that of the writers. Hence, the things that worked perfectly well for the writer might not work so much for you. You will beat yourself up thinking you haven’t applied the solution the right way when in fact, it might not even be the solution for your situation.
Experiential knowledge is different. You learn without even realising that you’re learning. You learn from different situations, different people and you’re always aware of the context. The lessons you learn are always contextual. More importantly, you learn from people.
Sometimes, you can’t explain why you’re naturally good at something. You would naturally know things but you wouldn’t know what they’re called. For example, I’ve never heard about servant leadership until very recently but I’ve always operated with the principles of servant leadership. I have no idea where I picked it up. To me, servant leadership is not a new concept but just a new name to something that I’ve always been naturally doing.
Do not think you just ‘naturally know’ things. You know them because you saw someone else practice them. You know them because you saw the application in a movie, read it in a story or heard someone talk about it. The knowledge stuck on to your subconscious and it will come to you know when you need it the most.
Maybe I should just stop reading these books —
“I’m not saying you should stop reading these books” Prashanth continued, bringing me out of my thoughts. “Continue reading if you enjoy them. It’s just that, you don’t need to read these books to learn about leadership. You’re a natural leader”
I smiled. Nothing is natural.
Thanks to amazing conversations like these and many more experiences that I chose to put myself through, I’m learning and picking up new abilities. Till date the most valuable leadership lesson that I’ve got out of a book is this:
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities” — Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
