Why We Should Still Read Books To Grow as Professionals
Reading instructive books may take more effort than listening to podcasts or watching TED Talks — but that’s what helps us learn more effectively
I sit on my balcony on a clear Montana summer morning. I take a sip of grapefruit juice. Then I return to Jay Samit’s 2015 book Disrupt You!, a book on entrepreneurship that I’ve been reading off-and-on for about a week. After a few pages, I lean back and stare off at the white tipped mountains — and then up at the soft blue sky.
I reread the last line of the chapter:
“The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that the successful ones know that the most unprofitable thing ever manufactured is an excuse.”
I smile.
The quotation reminds me of when I worked as a manager at Target in 2005 as a 21- year-old. My store manager offered me similar advice then. It was pretty good advice.
I take another sip of grapefruit juice.
Then I vaguely remember a previous line from the book. I flip through the pages. I scan the paragraphs. I find it on page 27:
“Disruption isn’t about what happens to you; it is about how you respond to what happens to you.”
I underline it. And nod.
Then I flip to the next page of the book and begin the next chapter.
If we really think about how to effectively read — that is, getting the most out of our time spent reading — we may recognize that reading is far from a simple process. As illustrated above, it demands more than gobbling words, sentences, and paragraphs with our eyes. It involves stopping and starting. It involves rereading, reflection, note taking, and even skipping parts of books. When we read, we employ purposeful habits — both mental and physical — as we digest wisdom from the pages.
In today’s busy world, we often resort to TED Talks, podcasts, and audiobooks to streamline our learning. Clearly, these resources help us squeeze education into our hectic lives. This can be wonderful. However, we may not want to overlook the art of reading. Reading has some serious advantages built into it. We can sometimes forget these advantages when dazzled by the newest conveniences and fastest technology.
Ultimately, reading books can help us propel our learning in ways that podcasts and TED Talks cannot. Several factors contribute to this:
Reading books takes more time — and that’s a good thing
Clearly, reading books takes more time than listening to a podcast or an abridged audiobook. In the modern fast-paced world, it may seem disadvantageous to spend long periods of time doing anything. After all, why read a book for an hour every day for a month when we can listen to a podcast for 20 minutes a week? And, why read a book in two weeks when we can listen to an audiobook in five hours?
Podcasts and TED Talks may expose us to new concepts at a faster pace — and this seems great — but it is not without its dangers. It can prompt some important questions: Does “quicker” learning necessarily mean “better” learning? Are we sacrificing the quality of material for the quantity of material? Are we actually truly internalizing and applying the wisdom from TED Talks? Or are we hastily consuming data that we will soon forget?
Reading books can increase the odds of actually remembering what we learn and applying that learned material. After all, reading takes more time, allowing us to absorb the ideas more patiently. Since reading unfolds over days and weeks, a writer’s ideas percolate in our minds for longer. We steep in their concepts, point-of-view, and arguments for longer. We can internalize them for longer, live with them for longer, and apply them to the world around us for longer — which can ultimately help us more effectively grow from that knowledge.
As Robert Greene outlines throughout his 2013 book Mastery, mastering a subject takes strategy and time. Learning does not happen through osmosis. It takes work. This point may seem obvious — but it’s often overlooked. The experience of reading can ensure that we are patient with our time as we learn. Patience may be a difficult pill to swallow in today’s quickly moving world, but it acts as a key educational ingredient that is naturally cultivated through reading.
Getting intimate with an expert
We may also forget that reading a book offers a very different experience from listening to a podcast or watching a TED Talk. Unlike spoken and visual media, reading intimately places us inside the mind of an author — presumably, an expert author. The words on the page transport us into an expert’s knowledgeable headspace.
Since reading requires such intimate time with the ideas, the ideas can spend more intimate time with us. As a result, we remember concepts more fully — and we remember the author more fully — after spending such intimate time with them. The ideas stick to our bones with more staying power. Therefore, if we really want to emulate particularly successful individuals and learn what they know, we may want to visit their books to really crawl inside their heads.
When we read, we’re in the driver’s seat
To some extent, we have more control over our learning experience when we read. When I led you through my Montana balcony reading experience, did you notice how I actively control my movement through Samit’s book? I control my own experience to help me get what I wanted from the text. This control can be advantageous. Unlike podcasts and TED Talks, reading can proceed in our own time. We are not necessarily at the mercy of a speaker or a presenter. We are not tethered to their pace. Instead, we can put down the book, think, reread a paragraph, and flip back to a previous section — all before moving forward again. Technically, we can do this when we listen to a podcast or watch a TED Talk — that is, rewind, pause, or rewatch — but we often don’t.
Books encourage us to patiently move through ideas on the page. This movement unfolds mentally but also physically. As such, we can physically make the text our own. We may want to underline passages, write blurbs in the margins, or dog-ear interesting pages. This active physical activity mirrors our active mental activity. Moreover, it makes it easier to revisit and reread the text in the future. In short, reading books give us the option to physically interact and make a text our own. Podcasts and TED Talks rarely afford us these material luxuries.
Conclusion
Learning through podcasts, TED Talks, and audiobooks is better than not learning at all. We certainly want seize all opportunities to feed our appetite for professional growth. However, we want to feed it strategically. If we are serious about developing ourselves as professionals, we should think about diversifying our learning. In other words, it does not have to be a zero-sum game. Rather than substituting our reading practices with visual and spoken media, we can supplement our reading practices with digital media. If we push ourselves to prioritize reading and complement reading with new media approaches, we will elevate the quality of our learning. We will notice a clear improvement in our professional performance — and others will notice it as well.
