{"id":5515,"date":"2018-06-29T10:47:59","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T22:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nzibs.co.nz\/?p=5515"},"modified":"2018-06-29T14:48:29","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T02:48:29","slug":"the-way-you-read-books-says-a-lot-about-your-intelligence-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.nzibs.co.nz\/writing\/the-way-you-read-books-says-a-lot-about-your-intelligence-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way You Read Books Says A Lot About Your Intelligence,\u00a0Here\u2019s\u00a0Why"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.74″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]<\/p>\n

\n
\n
This is why the smartest people in the world own tons of books they don\u2019t\u00a0read.<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

If you love to read as much as I do, walking into a bookstore as an adult feels exactly like walking into a candy store as a kid.\u00a0<\/span>The shelves are lined with the wisdom of humanity, insights that each author has spent years refining. It\u2019s all right there at your fingertips, condensed into a format that you can curl up with.\u00a0So naturally, you pull out your credit card or press the \u2018Buy Now\u2019 button.<\/p>\n

\n

And the books pile up. On your shelves. In your bedroom. In your car. Maybe even your bathroom. As the books pile up, so does your guilt. Guilt at not reading all of the books you buy. Guilt at not finishing the books you start.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If this describes you, I have good news for you.<\/p>\n

\n

Even if you do not have the time to read them all, overstuffing your bookshelf or e-reader is good for you.
\n<\/em>\u2014\u200a<\/em> Jessica\u00a0Stillman<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As I will explain in this article, for people who actually put in the time to read and learn how to learn, unread books strewn across the house might actually be a sign of intelligence rather than the lack of it. Not only is having tons of unfinished books around a sign of smarts, it also puts you in great company. I finally let go of my own guilt when I did a deep dive into the reading habits of luminary entrepreneurs and informally surveyed my most successful friends.\u00a0Most of them only read 20 to 40 percent of the books they purchase. Many of them were reading over 10 books at once.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, one of the most avid readers in the tech scene and a self-made billionaire entrepreneur estimates\u2026<\/p>\n

I maybe start half the books I get, and I probably finish a third of the books I start. And that works out to finishing 1\u20132 books per week.
\n<\/em>\u2014\u200a\u00a0<\/em>Patrick\u00a0Collison<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s going on here? As I\u2019ve studied the reading habits of others\u00a0in addition to the enormous changes in our knowledge society, I\u2019ve become convinced that our new times call for new ways of searching for, filtering, consuming, and applying knowledge in order to improve our lives. The explosion of information in different mediums and formats, research tools to find the best information, and new apps to consume the information don\u2019t just call for more reading. These call for new ways of reading.<\/p>\n

Getting lost in fiction the old-fashioned way is still a big part of my reading life, but when I am reading to learn rather than to relax, I now use a variety of shortcuts and strategies to choose what books to buy and how to read them. What follows are the smartest non-fiction reading hacks I\u2019ve come across from world-class entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

Smart reading hack 1: View books as an experiment<\/h4>\n

My friend\u00a0Emerson Spartz, a successful serial entrepreneur and investor who has read thousands of books, makes a compelling case that buying a book is an experiment. On the cost side, you\u2019ll need to spend about $15 and some time. But on the upside, a book can change your life. That\u2019s a pretty good bet!<\/p>\n

What we know about experimentation is that the more \u201csmart\u201d experiments you perform, the more likely you are to find a\u00a0breakthrough experiment that changes everything. The most eminent scientists and successful companies are\u00a0typically the ones who perform the most experiments.<\/p>\n

In my experience, I need to research, purchase, and explore 10 books before I find one that I consider to be\u00a0breakthrough knowledge. Inherent in being a good experimenter is being OK with the losses. Therefore, remember that every time you purchase a book that turns out to be a dud, you are just one step closer to a book that will change your life.<\/p>\n

Smart reading hack 2: Do Fractal\u00a0Reading<\/h4>\n

We\u2019ve reached an inflection point as a knowledge society. The metadata that books generate (i.e., author interviews, author presentations, book summaries, reviews, quotes, first and last chapters, etc.) is often just as valuable as the book itself. Why?<\/p>\n