Unwanted thumbnail

I thought that reading was a recipe for success. It took me 6 years and 100 books to realize that I was wrong.

Everybody recommends reading. Do you want to be a better reason, do you want to be person of value, then read a book.

With my little experience in reading(100+ books in 6 years), I concluded that sometimes reading does more harm than good.

It gave me knowledge, which is a must in every field. It also gave me dopamine, creating an illusion that I was getting better, when in fact I was just unloading the soon-to-be-forgotten information to my brain. I study computer science, the topics are very dense in this field. So every time I faced doing something, I felt the need of “reading” about the topic. After finishing one book, I needed another book before I could feel comfortable starting the thing. Then another. Then another.

I was just using books to make myself feel better. To hide the fact that I was not progressing. In the, my mind was processing information all the time. It was “busy”. But not productive.

I am not saying reading itself is bad, but being stuck in “learning cycle” is. Unless I apply the knowledge from the books to real problems, then it is mental entertainment

100 books were not total waste either, at least they made me to reflect at things that I am doing. I still read several pages a day. Now my approach is different though. First I approach the problem myself, then find the knowledge to fix the problem.

Side Effect of 100 books