“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you will visit.” –Dr. Seuss
People don’t read as much as they used to.
This is obvious because there are simply more entertainment options. You used to have 3 channels on a Zenith tube TV that was small with a vague picture.
Now you have gigantic HD TVs with every conceivable TV show and movie at your fingertips. Moreover, everyone has a mini supercomputer in their pocket that contains the entire knowledge of human history, along with a million apps that can waste your time for hours.
The competition for your eyeballs has never been greater.
A study published a few months ago by the University of Florida found that the number of Americans who read for pleasure every day has fallen by 40% over the past twenty years (from 28% in 2003 to 16% in 2023).
The Financial Times has a graph on the percentage of teens who read in their spare time:
I’ll be honest: I didn’t know anyone in my friend groups in high school or college who read in their spare time, but it’s clear that fewer people are reading books than ever before.
This is worrying on a number of levels.
The attention span is getting shorter. People are increasingly getting information from headlines, social media or unreliable sources. The text we read is getting shorter and shorter.
I have conflicting views on what this means for future society.
Reading has had a huge impact on my career.
But I didn’t start reading books regularly outside of class until my senior year of college, when I realized how far behind I was in real-world knowledge.
During my first interview in the financial sector, the interviewer asked what my favorite book was.1 He said many of the other candidates didn’t have one. He wasn’t even looking for a specific answer. The idea was to find someone who enjoyed learning.
I have the job.
Growing up, I wasn’t the kid who read Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal on the weekends to keep up with the markets. I had no idea how the markets worked. The first day of my investment analyst internship, my boss told me to read every financial publication cover to cover every day so I could better understand what everyone around me was talking about.
That was a start.
There were no blogs, Substacks, or podcasts back then, so I started putting together a list of books to read. I asked every portfolio manager, analyst, economist and investment person I came into contact with for their 3-4 favorite investment books. They all made it onto the list.
Each book was marked and dog-eared. Those highlights were then handwritten into yellow notebooks. I still have a stack of those notebooks and a bookshelf full of all the books I consumed:
I read about market history, legendary investors, investment strategies, personal finance, behavioral psychology, business leaders and more. I also started reading fiction, which is helpful for the creative side of your brain.
Reading helped me become a better analyst early in my career. It helped me become a better writer. It’s helped me become a better podcaster. Lifelong learning is the best career decision I have ever made.
But I had no other choice.
Today there is a much better learning environment.
I spoke to a student last week who wanted some career advice. He already knows the exact industry, field and type of company he does and does not want to work for outside of university.
Maybe he doesn’t read as many books as I do, but this guy reads investment blogs, newsletters and podcasts every day. His market knowledge is light years ahead of mine at that stage of his life.
I think about it a lot with my kids.
Their experience in the world is completely different from mine because of technological advancements.
Like most parents, I worry about social media, YouTube, artificial intelligence, and short attention spans.
But I also think about the potential benefits of growing up in the information age. Every child with an internet connection will have an AI teacher in the coming years. It will understand their strengths and weaknesses to a degree that is almost impossible to achieve in the classroom.
The ability to learn has never been easier than it is today.
It’s also never been easier to stare at a screen all day.
I suspect that, like most things in the world today, there will be inequality in learning.
The people who have access to and use all the new learning techniques will thrive.
The people who don’t do that will fall behind.
I just hope that people still make some time to read a book here and there.
It’s a wonderful way to shut out the real world, clear your head and learn.
Further reading:
7 benefits of writing
1I said Band of brothers by Stephen Ambrose. I think it’s still my favorite book to this day.
#benefits #reading #wealth #common #sense