Reading is overrated compared to action | Daily #238

I’ve been reading books less and less throughout the last four years. I go through random books, read what I want, switch to another book when I want, complete it or not complete it. I’m also not an avid reader. I read around read 15-20 books a year for three-four years (not always complete them). Last year I barely read 10 books.

But over the years, I realized it’s just usually a coping mechanism for not actually doing anything with it. I read about something, usually applicable knowledge. Then I don't use it anyway and waste my time.

Reading can improve your understanding and give your more knowledge on certain domains. Or even discover a domain you haven’t had the opportunity to learn about it.

But action always is better than reading. If you want to learn about investing, you shouldn’t start reading about investing first and then invest in something. That’s my philosophy and I can understand others disagree-ing.

Cause they come from the point that previous practitioner's knowledge. They have made mistakes before and thus you can learn from their mistakes instead of repeating them.

But I don’t believe that you can truly understand the mistakes unless you experience them firsthand.

A bad mistake with severe consequences teaches you more than a story written on a few pages. And to get experience that mistake is by action.

The action to willingly practice an art, make mistakes and also make successes.

It’s better for example to write than to read about writing.

It's better to be the one that has written 10 books than the one that has read 10 books.

What about writing first, experiencing your mistakes, reading about the solutions, and going from there.

Sounds a lot more fun to me.