Books

Social media can often provide a simulacrum of feeling informed by allowing us to consume an endless stream of chatter and observations. But while it is a useful tool for making connections, keeping up with headlines, and picking up clues for further inquiry, there is no substitute for lifelong study built on a foundation of reading books, long-form essays, and reports.

I encourage everyone to set a goal for book reading in a given year. It does not need to that ambitious, but it helps to set a target. For a period of roughly a decade I read around 100 books per year. Due to life circumstances I’ve scaled this down to around 40. But even 10 or 20 would make a difference.

Books are not just a means to obtain information but also have salutary neurological effects. They teach you how to remain focused and structure abstract information. The trick is that you should read what you find most interesting, and not what others necessarily tell you to read.

The quote below is when I knew SBF would be a fraud:

omg this is so cool! never seen anything like it before 😍 keep it up, Alex!