Read More to Know Less

It’s easy to watch 50 movies a year.
It’s hard to read 50 books a year.
Reading is one of those things that everybody wishes they did more.

Books can change the world as well as yourself.

Imagine if people from two completely different cultural backgrounds read books about each other’s history and culture.
They would better understand what it means to be “them”.
Conflicts would end.

Imagine if all parents read books about teenagers’ psychology and all teenagers read books about how challenging it is to be a parent.
They would learn about each other’s struggles.
Family members would live in harmony.

Imagine if we all read books about the influence of our own ego on our actions.
We would learn who the real enemy is.
And we would change.

We often talk about things we don’t know as if we were experts.

We say, “If you start that diet, you’ll get sick!” without knowing anything about nutrition.
“Languages are best learned when we’re kids!” without knowing anything about language acquisition.
“Don’t travel to that country! People are bad there!” without knowing anything about the country.

It’s normal to form quick judgments.
We do it because we don’t know enough to realize how much we don’t know about a subject.

Books change that.
They make you discover how little you know.
And you suddenly want to listen more than you speak, so you can learn more.

Then, the more you know, the more you want to know, so you pick another book and read.

The ocean of knowledge gets more profound the more you go into it.
Reading becomes addictive.
You find yourself in a never-ending cycle that makes you grow.

A short blog post like this one can only scratch the surface of a subject.
But when you’re reading a book, you consume long-form content and dig deeper.

Feed your brain with short articles and tweets and you’ll stay in shallow waters, where judgment is quick and opinions are cheap.

Read books and you’ll dive into the abyss, where you’ll discover the most amazing things.

I hope this will inspire you to start reading or to read even more.