☕ saturday mornings - February 5, 2022
cease struggling, optimize reading & become happier
Hi all,
Happy Saturday. I hope you’re having an excellent start to your weekend.
I recently got back from sunny Costa Rica and I’m finishing up a 72 hour fast.
Below is your edition of “saturday mornings”, a weekly recap of what I’ve been pondering, learning, and exploring over the past few days.
Thanks for being here.
Total read time (bolded sections) = 2 minutes
Total read time (all) = 6 minutes
✍️ Quote I’ve been thinking about:
“The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.”
— Neale Donald Walsch
💡 Idea I’m exploring: Getting More Out of What You Read
How can you optimize the time you spend reading to get the highest return on your investment?
Reading a book is a serious time commitment. Yet, 90% of people forget almost everything they read in less than 2 weeks.
I’ll explain why most of the books we read are useless, and how you can buck this trend by using a few simple strategies to maximize the impact of your reading.
Don’t Optimize Recreation
First off, this only applies to non-fiction books that you read to learn something (habits, healthy living, personal finance, etc.)
Reading for recreation is valuable. I read a fiction book almost every night for ~30 minutes. But as it’s for enjoyment, rather than learning, it’s not something you need to optimize. The only litmus test is whether you enjoy it or not.
If you only read for recreation you can stop here. But for those of you who read books to learn, this will be a game-changer.
Why Most Books are Useless
“Information is useless if it is not applied to something important or if you will forget it before you have a chance to apply it.” — Tim Ferriss
“I don’t know anyone who’s wise who doesn’t read a lot. But that’s not enough: You have to have a temperament to grab ideas and do sensible things. Most people don’t grab the right ideas or don’t know what to do with them.” — Charlie Munger
For over two years, I read a ton of “life improvement” books but never saw a huge impact (and have yet to win a Nobel Prize). In fact, I struggled with many of the same challenges before I started reading non-fiction. Weird.
One day I was staring at my bookshelf when a harsh realization hit me: I couldn't remember ideas from books I’d read only a few months ago. Never mind being able to recall the high-impact ideas that I can apply to improve my life.
And here’s the cinch. Most of the problems I’ve faced had answers in books that I had read. But, I had no clue that I had the information available, on my bookshelf, because I didn’t bloody remember that I read it.
I was no better off from reading books, even if they contained the guidance I needed.
Houston, we have a problem.
So, I dug into the research to try to answer my burning question: Why do we fail to profit from most of the information we read?
The reason is quite simple: we either fail to remember information or fail to apply it.
1) Failing to Remember: The Forgetting Curve
“I realized though that I would love a book while reading it and maybe it would still echo with me for a few weeks after but, you know, two years later I couldn't even remember if I had read it or not. And I thought that's really a shame. I remember at the time that book meant a lot to me, why is it now two years later I've forgotten everything?” — Derek Sivers
“Everything not saved will be lost.” — Nintendo “Quit Screen” message
There’s a phenomenon in psychology called the “forgetting curve”. It’s a curve that maps the rate at which the human brain retains information. Research suggests that humans forget 50% of what they learn within an hour and 70% within 24 hours.
As a student, I would get demolished on an exam if I only read through the textbook. Yet this is the strategy I used for so many books.
Key Takeaway: Without a system in place to record information, you will forget what you read.
2) Failing to Apply: The G.I. Joe Fallacy
“Knowledge not applied is like a seed not planted.” — Unknown
The 1980’s G.I. Joe cartoon would end each episode with the same PSA: “Knowing is half the battle”.
While this may hold true in some areas, when it comes to behavioral change, cognitive scientists disagree with G.I. Joe.
The G.I. Joe Fallacy is a false belief that knowing an idea = applying an idea = benefiting from it.
Knowing isn’t half the battle, it’s only a first step. Knowledge means little without application.
For books, understanding an idea is not the same thing as applying it. And often without application, we don’t realize the benefits of our new-found knowledge.
I can read about improving habits, and understand the idea, but if I don’t apply the information it’s about as good as if I never read it in the first place. I’d be better off catching up on the last season of “The Bachelor”.
The G.I. Joe Fallacy explains why so many self-help books turn out to be useless. The ideas sound great, but without actionable next to apply the information, 100% of their content falls flat on its face.
Some people argue that we subconsciously absorb the ideas we read even if we can’t actively recall them. Osmosis of some sort. But, if I’m going to invest +10 hours reading a book, I don’t want to leave it up to chance or my fickle subconscious brain.
Back to square one...
How to Remember
“The right information at the right time is deadlier than any weapon.”
— Martin Connells, Westworld
If I see another “How I Read 100 Books this Week” video, I may go play in traffic.
Reading isn’t a race. It’s not about productivity.
Reading is an area where more isn’t necessarily better. One book understood, remembered, and applied is 10x more valuable than rushing through 50 books.
As I learned the hard way, reading without a plan to remember key information is recreation. You forget almost everything you read within days and can’t review important ideas afterward. It feels productive in the moment, but the long-term impact of your reading is blunted.
Remember, reading more isn’t better if you don’t remember any of it.
Two Simple Ways to Boost Memory
1) Taking Your Time
“The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory.” — Chinese proverb
“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% taking really good notes.” — Thomas Edison
To get value from reading, you have to take your time. Once I stopped trying to read as much as possible, I stopped rushing through books. I had time to take good notes, ponder critical ideas, and flag key passages to re-read.
Develop a plan to record critical ideas as you read. Whatever works best. Then go back and review these ideas.
Ryan Holiday, a best-selling author, has a “back and forth discussion with the author” as he reads. He isolates important passages, questions if the author is correct, and thinks hard about whether he agrees with each idea.
2) Re-Reading The Best Books > Reading New Books
“Learning is rooted in repetition and convexity, meaning that the reading of a single text twice is more profitable than reading two different things once.”
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Stoics believed you should “linger among a limited number of master thinkers and digest their works.” They would read the same book again and again until they understood the ideas and the author’s thought process.
Instead of reading a new book, why not re-read one of your favorites? Perhaps there are ideas you’ve forgotten or concepts that will have a different meaning.
How to Apply
“We cannot become complacent with knowledge and just store it away. It has a shelf life and needs to be used, tested, and experienced.” — Harold Jarche
Once you have the intention to apply ideas from a book, reading becomes an exercise in pulling out the points that are applicable to you.
I keep a notepad by my side when reading and write at the top “Next Steps & Action Items”. Each time I come across an idea I want to test in my own life, I jot down the page number and a brief description.
Professor Laurie Santos from Yale University designed a course on happiness with a focus on application. Each week, she paired a theoretical concept with an exercise to help students put the concept into practice. For example, instead of only explaining the value of meditation, she would challenge students to meditate 5 minutes per day.
Conclusion
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss
“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.”
— Walt Disney
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” ― Harry S. Truman
Reading can be one of the best ways to expand your mind, expose yourself to new ideas, and learn almost anything. It’s changed my life.
Through leveraging these simple tools you can 50x the impact of reading with only 5% more time.
You don’t have to do it for every book, nor would I recommend it. I’m reading “Don Quixote” at the moment and won’t remember a thing one year from now besides how funny it is. Pick and choose your spots.
Before you know it, you’ll be making leaps and bounds in your learning and development each week.
Time is your most valuable resource. Make the most of it.
For Interested Minds...
Science Says This Is the Simplest Way to Remember More of What You Read
How To Take Smart Notes: 10 Principles to Revolutionize Your Note-Taking and Writing
How to Remember What You Read | How I Digest Books | Tim Ferriss
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❓Question for reflection:
What conditions am I creating in order to be happy?
This question has helped me to explore and understand a lot of the rules my brain uses to govern my experience.
Often, without knowing it, we create conditions for us to feel happy.
For example, “I’ll be happy when I lose 10 pounds” or “I’ll feel happy once I get that raise and promotion”. Or better yet “I’d be happy if Tim didn’t get that raise and promotion”.
Yet, the conditions we create are either (i) completely out of our control, (ii) not met, or (iii) met but you automatically replace them with new conditions without noticing. In all three cases, you’re still left delaying happiness to some distant illusory future.
Any condition you create will limit your happiness.
"The greatest illusion," said the mole, "is that life should be perfect.”
— The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy
Things in life are going to happen. They won’t always go your way. The real question is whether you want to be happy regardless of what happens.
It seems silly. Happiness is a positive thing but, without realizing it, we create all these rules and parameters that block us from being happy.
As hard as it can be, I try to remind myself “No matter what happens, just enjoy the life that comes to you”.
And for you Type A’s, there’s well-documented research that happier people make more money, land better jobs, and are more successful in general.
In the end, enjoying life’s experiences is the only rational thing to do.
That’s all for this week’s edition of “saturday mornings”.
Is there anything you do to remember what you read? Let me know!
As always, if you have any feedback or thoughts, I’d love to hear from you. Reply to this email, leave a comment or find me on Twitter @tommy_dixon_
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Have a lovely weekend. You deserve it.
Pura Vida,
Tommy