I’ve got this great email from a reader:
You’ve noted you’ve received a lot of critics regarding your harsh opinion on nonfiction. If you care to read, I’d like to share my (wonderful) experience with nonfiction in the last year or so. Reading has been a very intrinsically valuable hobby for me, in the sense that I am gaining a lot of immediate pleasure and knowledge from it, and its impact on my immediate goals and projects is secondary. Here is a partial list of what I’ve read in the last year:
The Great Reset by Richard Florida. This book kicked off a lot of my thinking about various cities and economies and impacted my decision to accept a job offer in New York City over one in Wisconsin. It also gave me a framework for thinking about such economic decisions as purchasing a home v. renting, what further education to pursue, etc.
Effective C++ by Scott Meyers, Code Complete by Steve McConnell, Design Patterns by the “Gang of Four.” This adds up to well over 1500 pages, but has been a crucial investment as a junior C and C++ developer hired with limited software experience. My manager will vouch.
The Life and Death of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. If I only read one book in the last year, I would want this to be the one, and I think every transplant to New York would benefit from this. It has turned upside down my understanding of cities, neighborhoods, and their economies. My reading has impacted everything from where I spend my leisure time and what I observe in my neighborhood to how I spend my leisure time to my political beliefs and activism regarding urban and economic justice. I have become more politically active in my district. I am also giving a second thought to eventually raising children in New York City.
Again, partial list. I think it would behoove you to point out that reading nonfiction is not always the most effective way to reach a goal and it can be used as a procrastination mechanism as much as any form of over-preparation. However, it can be an extremely rewarding and enriching activity, and in some cases concretely impact performance toward a goal. You should encourage your readers to exercise this nuanced judgment.
Best,
Dan
Thanks Daniel, It’s great to see that people have different opinions, that’s what makes this world interesting in the first place. I believe my message didn’t get though the way I wanted, so here’s an attempt to fix: I don’t think reading is bad, actually it’s a good use of time, but very often is better to spend that time producing something, not reading about it.
It’s true that some books can make you a better professional, but only if you read them at the right time. I have bought books that I then never read because I just didn’t know what to do with the new knowledge. For me, creating stuff it’s the new way to learn new things.
That said, a book is often the best way to get introduced to new topics. Before I started to do iphone development, I had to read several books to learn about the new language, but after a couple of them I had to stop reading and start creating something.
Here’s an idea: if you love reading books, consider taking notes of things that you’ll be doing differently after you’ve finished reading it, and then act on them.