Are You Starting to Read?

Don’t make these mistakes

Photo by Choi sungwoo on Unsplash

We don’t read books because of the benefits backed by Neuroscience. We read because we enjoy reading; we get value from the books.

But how much of that value do you reinvest in your life and work? That will be a brilliant topic to study.

Research in this area suggests that a typical human retains only 10% of what they read.

Now, if that’s the case, you are likely to forget 90% of what you read and studied.

What to do?

Don’t read for the sake of reading

It’s okay if you forget the story from your last novel, but what about the productivity hacks you learned? What about the Mental Models? How to remember them?

That’s where you need to build a robust knowledge retention system.

You need to absorb the subject and store that knowledge in your long-term memory. How?

Don’t read because someone recommends you read

If you are new to reading, you are likely to read one of these 5 books first

• Think and grow rich
• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• The Alchemist
• The monk who sold his Ferrari
• The psychology of money

Now, you might think that you chose to read those books, but that’s not the case. You are a victim of the Network Effect.

Network Effect is a phenomenon where the value of the product or the service increases when the number of people using that product/service increases. — Investopedia

The other 5 books that you are likely to choose might be:

• How to win friends and influence people
• Atomic Habits
• Ikigai
• The subtle art of not giving a F*ck
• The 7 Habits of highly effective people

I’m also influenced by reading these books.

They are indeed great, but more importantly, they are hyped than other books that are equally or exceedingly great.