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I look at the piles of books that I want to read and I despair. It takes me ages to get through one single book. I’m normally reading two or three at the same time. They spark so many ideas that I find myself spending more time taking notes than actually reading.
I’ve observed that I’m reading less and less complex books. We’re living in an age that celebrates data rather than knowledge.
We’re so addicted to instant learning and how-to guides that we forget that real knowledge takes time. What I mean by real knowledge is the type of intellectual excitement and depth that you can only get when you take the time to read and be delighted with the words and the ideas that the author is conveying.
Essays are stimulating because they bring ideas together ideas; novels are nurturing in the way they explore a story from another point of view.
Every time we skim a long article, opt for a three-minute video instead of reading the book, or choose to only read information that we can actually apply, we’re diminishing our creativity and the opportunity to create bridges between unrelated things and oppositional concepts.
Visionaries create connections where people only saw distinct stories before. This revelation can only happen when we’re ready to take on board things that apparently have no practical relationship to what we do.