Please stop reading books

[locomotiv]

Here's my list of books that I've read since i started reading in August 2022. Some of them are about stock market, but since i discovered that in order to become rich from compound interest you need to skip the first 20 years unless you want to run a mutual fund (it was on my mind for a very long time) and since then i started reading about general knowledge and wisdom about money.
1. rich dad poor dad.
2. inteligentny inwestor. (polish book)
3. inteligentny inwestor XXIw. (polish book)
4. netlifx- to sie nigdy nie uda. (polish book)
5 skuteczny inwestor (polish book)
6.Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements
7. The little book that still beats the market
8. One up on wall street
9. The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing
10. The little book of value investing
11. The Psychology of Money
12. 100 Baggers Stocks That Return 100 to 1 and How To Find Them
13. The Most Important Thing Illuminated: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor
14. Invested: How Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Taught Me to Master My Mind, My Emotions, and My Money
15.Buffettology: The Previously Unexplained Techniques That Have Made Warren Buffett the Worlds richest person
16.The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck
17. Think and grow rich.
18.Everything is f*cked: a book about hope
19.The billion dollar secret
20. Zero to One Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
21. How to win friends and influence people.
22. The Book on Rental Property Investing. How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Intelligent Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing
23. Trump- Never Give Up
24. Richer, Wiser, Happier
25. Mindset. The New Psychology of Success
26. Can't hurt me
27. Good to Great Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
28. Investing for Growth How to make money by only buying the best companies in the world
29. Beating the street
30. The little book about stoicism
31. Your first 100 million dollars
32. $100M Offers How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No
33. The Millionaire Fastlane
34. Building a Storybrand
35. (currently reading) Way of the wolf- straight line selling

I'm 17 years old kid from Poland and I unfortunately (or fortunately) fallen into the trap of constant reading. Some of you would say that it's good but here's the thing. I developed a reading addiction to the point where majority of my time i spend reading (yes, i'm taking notes and im not reading brainlessly. I have a 20 page Word document to which i copy and paste the most important quotes, thoughts and stories from every book and I read the entire document every single day before sleep) I'm basically paralyzed from taking action and i fell like i read just to avoid brainstorming how i could make money. The side hustle that i have is reselling used iPhones and i make around 100$ per week from this which is really decent money in Poland as a teenager. But here's the thing - it's so incredibly passive that i fell like i scam these people. Buy for X and sell for X + margin. I really can't think of anything that i could do beside the most crowded and overrated money printing things like Dropshipping or affiliate marketing. Thanks in advance for your advice but i really do not want to clean someone's windows or mow lawns. So i would like to encourage any of you who are reading this to STOP reading this much or maybe to stop reading at all. I may be smarter than the average kid in my age but it absolutely dosn't matter at all. It's not about reciting the stoic quotes but actually implementing them. And guess what? That whole knowledge and all these quotes that I have in the back of my head absolutely didn't change a single thing in terms of how I make money and how much i make it. Would you like to partner with someone who has made 1000 deals or someone who has read 1000 books?

 

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[ramony]

Reading addiction is one of the wierdest things iv'e ever seen, simply put it prevents you from taking action. I fell into it too.

 

[rjdgreat]

this is the answer.

 

[locomotiv]

this is the answer.

well, i don't remember the last time when i read a book just for the sake of it. It was always my priority to read something that i could use later on. But for now i really don't know what could be my "next Facebook". If i identify any problem i would always need something that i dont have, whether it's team of 30 people or couple of bucks.

 

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[Antifragile]

You are 17.

You are a sponge absorbing new life lessons from what looks like a great list.

What stands out to me is that the list is long for a short period since August 2022.

Is it any wonder you have no time to focus on other parts of life and business?

Perhaps it’s not “stop reading” but “how can I read more intelligently?”

I can tell you that I’ve made millions because of books I read and people I met. Books are the greatest investment of time and money.

But like the laws of nature, you can’t plant a seed and expect a tree to grow in a day…

 

[TimoS.]

well, i don't remember the last time when i read a book just for the sake of it. It was always my priority to read something that i could use later on.

This is exactly what MJ tells you to avoid.

Everybody reads books with the idea of using the knowledge later on in life but till then you will forget most of it.

A better approach is to stop reading books for entertainment. Only grab a book about a specific topic WHEN you face this specific problem or you currently NEED knowledge about the topic.

Nobody is of the opinion that books are a waste of time. Indeed it's the complete opposite. Books are a very valuable form to gather knowledge and learn from other people. But as already discussed there are positive and negative ways in which you can consume the knowledge of books.
1. Read books for the sake of reading books (with the idea of using the knowledge later) <-- reading is a form of entertainment
2. Read specific books only when you need this specific knowledge <-- reading is a form of research

Hope I could help to better differentiate between the two ways of using books

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

You are 17.

You are a sponge absorbing new life lessons from what looks like a great list.

What stands out to me is that the list is long for a short period since August 2022.

Is it any wonder you have no time to focus on other parts of life and business?

Perhaps it’s not “stop reading” but “how can I read more intelligently?”

I can tell you that I’ve made millions because of books I read and people I met. Books are the greatest investment of time and money.

But like the laws of nature, you can’t plant a seed and expect a tree to grow in a day…

100% spot on.

It's not about reciting the stoic quotes but actually implementing them. And guess what? That whole knowledge and all these quotes that I have in the back of my head absolutely didn't change a single thing in terms of how I make money and how much i make it. Would you like to partner with someone who has made 1000 deals or someone who has read 1000 books?

You're being way too hard on yourself. Give yourself some credit.

If you didn't read books like these where would you get your education?

I wouldn't partner with you UNLESS you had this kind of education.

You're not just memorizing quotes, you're training yourself how to think like greats who have come before you.

You're getting advice from successful people throughout time.

That's insanely valuable.

I've read 23 of your 35 books here. Plus over 2,000 more (I may or may not have 20 years on you, though).

I use the knowledge I gained in those books literally every minute of my day.

Keep that thirst for knowledge up.

 

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[MakeItHappen]

I would also recommend you to keep reading books.

Make sure to read them actively. Check out a couple of articles from this blog that write about how to read to get the maximum benefit out of your books: Reading Archives - Farnam Street

Of course, you also should make time for taking action.

 

[Dark Water]

I think it's important to get disciplined about your reading habit, but it doesn't mean to stop reading, or to only read the book that is going to solve today's problem. Per MJ's quote, that's just the best book to read at this moment.

30 mins reading per day, an hour per day, whatever - find an amount that works for you. Maybe 30 mins in the morning with the 'best' book that will help tackle today's goals, and 30 mins at night reading whatever you want.

Maybe you even read 2 hours per day. 3 hours per day. What's important is that you try to be deliberate, set aside the time, and try to split up that time between books that solve immediate problems and books that you want to read for the sake of reading them. And then maybe on a Sunday you can go wild and read all day.

 

[heavy_industry]

Keep reading because that is going to build up your brain.

More specifically, it will develop your focus, empathy, patience, and ability to sit down and work. All of those are critical in business.

It would be advisable to schedule this activity for the second half of the day, when you have finished with school / work.

Reading by itself (without doing anything else), will not result in financial success.
Success is not an immediate result of reading books.

However, just like with physical exercise, reading is one of those lifestyle habits that gradually makes you perform better over the years, which eventually results in more money and improved quality of life.


Go ahead and explore other book genres as well. Develop your imagination. Gain better insight about the world.
Don't become a self-help addict.

 

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[Matt Lee]

I think reading is a lot like marinating chicken.

The seasoning and sauce might not make sense when you just place it on the chicken breast. Like why do you even need pepper or soy sauce? But after a few hours, things start to blend together and the chicken becomes blasting with flavor.

Can you pinpoint which seasoning did the trick? Maybe you could, just as how you only read a book like MJ's every once in a while. But generally, it's a concoction + time.

You will find that maybe a year, two years, or even three years from now, every single book or tidbit of knowledge you consume molds you into the person you become. Something you read a while ago might come in handy today. Idk.

Everything fits perfectly as a puzzle if given enough time. Just don't make reading your only goal and apply the things you learn and I don't think you can go wrong.

I'll hand my cousin a book any day but he much prefers his Ipad

 

[Stepan]

Here's my list of books that I've read since i started reading in August 2022. Some of them are about stock market, but since i discovered that in order to become rich from compound interest you need to skip the first 20 years unless you want to run a mutual fund (it was on my mind for a very long time) and since then i started reading about general knowledge and wisdom about money.
1. rich dad poor dad.
2. inteligentny inwestor. (polish book)
3. inteligentny inwestor XXIw. (polish book)
4. netlifx- to sie nigdy nie uda. (polish book)
5 skuteczny inwestor (polish book)
6.Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements
7. The little book that still beats the market
8. One up on wall street
9. The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing
10. The little book of value investing
11. The Psychology of Money
12. 100 Baggers Stocks That Return 100 to 1 and How To Find Them
13. The Most Important Thing Illuminated: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor
14. Invested: How Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Taught Me to Master My Mind, My Emotions, and My Money
15.Buffettology: The Previously Unexplained Techniques That Have Made Warren Buffett the Worlds richest person
16.The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck
17. Think and grow rich.
18.Everything is f*cked: a book about hope
19.The billion dollar secret
20. Zero to One Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
21. How to win friends and influence people.
22. The Book on Rental Property Investing. How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Intelligent Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing
23. Trump- Never Give Up
24. Richer, Wiser, Happier
25. Mindset. The New Psychology of Success
26. Can't hurt me
27. Good to Great Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
28. Investing for Growth How to make money by only buying the best companies in the world
29. Beating the street
30. The little book about stoicism
31. Your first 100 million dollars
32. $100M Offers How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No
33. The Millionaire Fastlane
34. Building a Storybrand
35. (currently reading) Way of the wolf- straight line selling

I'm 17 years old kid from Poland and I unfortunately (or fortunately) fallen into the trap of constant reading. Some of you would say that it's good but here's the thing. I developed a reading addiction to the point where majority of my time i spend reading (yes, i'm taking notes and im not reading brainlessly. I have a 20 page Word document to which i copy and paste the most important quotes, thoughts and stories from every book and I read the entire document every single day before sleep) I'm basically paralyzed from taking action and i fell like i read just to avoid brainstorming how i could make money. The side hustle that i have is reselling used iPhones and i make around 100$ per week from this which is really decent money in Poland as a teenager. But here's the thing - it's so incredibly passive that i fell like i scam these people. Buy for X and sell for X + margin. I really can't think of anything that i could do beside the most crowded and overrated money printing things like Dropshipping or affiliate marketing. Thanks in advance for your advice but i really do not want to clean someone's windows or mow lawns. So i would like to encourage any of you who are reading this to STOP reading this much or maybe to stop reading at all. I may be smarter than the average kid in my age but it absolutely dosn't matter at all. It's not about reciting the stoic quotes but actually implementing them. And guess what? That whole knowledge and all these quotes that I have in the back of my head absolutely didn't change a single thing in terms of how I make money and how much i make it. Would you like to partner with someone who has made 1000 deals or someone who has read 1000 books?

As Alex Hormozi said: "100 cold calls will teach you more than all books on cold calling," You learn more producing than consuming. And he also said: "It's better to read 1 good book 5 times, that 5 mid books." He reads a book until he can teach by that book.

 

[starttoday123]

Same I understand how you feel, I experienced reading addiction too, I had to really step back and carefully recover for a few months. It’s hard when there’s so much you want to learn to not get completely absorbed

 

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[Kevin88660]

Most books aren’t worth the time compared to google searches.

Do not read for the sake of reading. Read when you want to delve deep into something.

Don’t expect people to tell you what to do. Read biographies of famous/business people/rich people or just your friends and it gives you clues.

Facts and timeline are harder to fabricate.

Study people’s life as a case study and review patterns of success and mistakes.

Be open minded to absurd conclusion from facts.

 

[StrikingViper69]

Your business reselling iPhones that was making you money sounds pretty neat. Why not get back into that, see if you can expand it into other related products, or do a bit more of it and scale it up? Working on that will teach you tons and get you some income.

That will be the best start you could hope for.

 

[SEBASTlAN]

Would you like to partner with someone who has made 1000 deals or someone who has read 1000 books?

Newsflash: you can partner with (or be) someone who has done both

 

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[TeeJay_]

I read a lot, but only in topics that matter to my personal needs. I try to follow the "T" model: 1 main topic, and a couple that are closely related to it.

When I lost my job a couple of years ago, and didn't know in which direction I should go, I didn't know how to deal with anxiety, stress, etc., and it was a big problem for me. I read about those topics, not about space and technology or ancient Rome.

 

[Chet Shen]

I think this COULD apply to mental masturbation too.

I think MJ uses the term self help porn, it's when you read a lot of self help books because you think you are helping yourself and it feels so good to read it, it feels like you're masturbating lol

just make sure that you're reading for the sake of improving yourself and not just mental masturbation, I think I fell for it a lot, especially when I go to Facebook marketplace and want to buy all the self help books, feels nice to read them though

 

[Tomco]

Great advice on this thread, thanks for asking the question @locomotiv, as I was in a similar situation.

I hopped on to self improvement, drafted up a list with check marks on Notion of all the books I wanted to read.

As soon as I read one, I end up adding 3 more to it.

Let's just say by then end of 1 month, I felt hopelessly lost, trying to cram all this information in, taking different styles of notes, trying to maximize what sticks in my brain.

But then I came across MJ's works (luckily) and realized the situation as it was: consuming addiction.

So naturally you'd ask yourself: Shouldn't I consume anything, and just focus 100% on producing? That was what I thought;

I think it's important to get disciplined about your reading habit, but it doesn't mean to stop reading, or to only read the book that is going to solve today's problem. Per MJ's quote, that's just the best book to read at this moment.

I think reading is a lot like marinating chicken.

The seasoning and sauce might not make sense when you just place it on the chicken breast. Like why do you even need pepper or soy sauce? But after a few hours, things start to blend together and the chicken becomes blasting with flavor.

As per the quotes above, if you want to produce something good, you need to learn and use excellent stuff.
But using @Matt Lee's example, be cautious of over seasoning the chicken, masking the true flavors within. Sometimes just some salt and pepper is enough.
Meaning: Don't read 101 books on self improvement. Find the best / classical ones, and re read (and apply) them to fully understand the concepts within.

It would be advisable to schedule this activity for the second half of the day, when you have finished with school / work.

@heavy_industry, do you have some bro science explaining this? As after juggling different times during the day, I found out that reading after a bout of work helped me to relax more...

 

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[twram]

I don't read that much but the books I do always seem to be really influential, my last book was Goggins can't hurt me, I'm pretty sure if I didnt read that I would have quit my running/health fix journey instead of being in a much much better place now