Hey, I am not currently working and I think I am at this point unemployable/retired (am 41). When I used to work, I was a consultant (‘06-‘21), so had ample time to do my things on the side, reading being one of them. Even when I had a rare full-time job (‘21-‘22) I managed to maintain the pace of reading. It’s not that hard to put aside an hour or two per day to read. It’s an investment in yourself and it can be a lot of fun watching yourself visibly grow year on year.
I am always baffled that people are happy with the knowledge and skills they got out of college and the first few years at work and are pretty much done with it and closed to learning. I am equally baffled that all learning should be towards some end goal – like how it will affect your CAGR, or social standing or some other tangible gain like a degree or certificate. Learning is joyous and reading the perfect way to pick brains of people who otherwise would have no interest to sit with you or are long dead. Also books have durable knowledge (most others sources deal with information that’s relevant for near-term)
You have to first cultivate the interest and nurture your curiosity to learn about various things, phenomena, people, places and times and be ready to go down rabbit holes to sate that curiosity. I can’t imagine reading some of the books i read now when I started out. I would have snored right through the first paragraph but the stuff I read prior to what I am reading now has set the latticework for the stuff am reading now to be relevant and even thoroughly enjoyable.
Start reading whatever interests you – if you have kids get them started as well on whatever interests them. It could be comics, simple fiction, literary classics or whatever floats your boat. Once the habit is formed, the cue → routine → reward loop will take over and you are set for life. This thread started as a part of the “reward” loop – being able to review a book and put it out closed the loop. But of late, I am reading lot more than I am reviewing (almost a 15-20 book gap now) because I have started the painful note-taking process which takes 6-8 hours at least per book (lot of thinking, recollecting and ruminating involved). Now that the habit loop is sustaining without the reward, I have been able to tweak it to add extremely hard business of note-taking. I see this as a creation of durable knowledge of my own – for myself in the future, for discussing with my son (9 now) and for the rest of the world that can benefit from it. Everything we strive to create must be relevant over the years
I know this is a very roundabout answer to a direct question but there are no direct answers – if you are not able to make time, then reading is probably not a priority for you right now. Making it a priority should be your first priority.
| Subscribe To Our Free Newsletter |
