For Learning Benefits
“The more you learn, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you will go.” – Dr. Seuss
People don’t read as much as before.
This is obvious because there are many options for entertainment. In the past, you had 3 channels on a tiny Zenith tube TV with a crappy picture.
Now you have huge HD TVs with imaginable TV shows and movies at your fingertips. And everyone has a mini-supercomputer in their pocket that contains a wealth of human history information and a million apps you can use to while away your time for hours on end.
The competition for your eyeballs has never been greater.
Research published a few months ago by the University of Florida found that the number of Americans who read for fun every day dropped by 40% over last 20 years (from 28% in 2003 to 16% in 2023).
The Financial Times has a chart about the percentage of young people who read in their spare time:
I’ll be honest, I didn’t know anyone in my friend groups in high school or college who read in their spare time, but it’s clear that fewer people read books than before.
This is about several levels.
Attention spans are getting shorter. People get most of their information from articles, social media or unreliable sources. The text we read is getting shorter and shorter.
I have conflicting opinions on what this means for society going forward.
Reading has had a huge impact on my work.
But I didn’t start reading books regularly outside of class until my senior year in college when I realized how far behind I was in real world knowledge.
At my first interview in the financial industry, the interviewer asked what my favorite book was.1 He said many other candidates did not have it. He didn’t even want a specific answer. The idea was to find someone who enjoys learning.
I got the job.
Growing up I wasn’t the kid who read Barron’s and the Wall Street Journal on the weekends to keep up with the markets. I had no idea how the markets worked. On the first day of my internship as an investment analyst, my boss told me to read the entire financial book backwards every single day so I could better understand what everyone around me was talking about.
That was the beginning.
There were no blogs, Substacks or podcasts back then so I started compiling a list of books to read. I asked every portfolio manager, analyst, economist and investor I met for their 3-4 favorite investment books. They all get on the list.
Each book was highlighted and dog-eared. Those highlights then fall into the hands of the yellow legal pads. I still have a stack of those notebooks and a bookshelf full of all the books I devoured:
I studied market history, famous investors, investment strategies, personal finance, behavioral psychology, business leaders and more. I also got into reading fiction, which is helpful for the creative side of your brain.
Reading helped me become a better analyst early in my career. It has helped me become a better writer. It has helped me become a better podcaster. Becoming a lifelong learner is the best decision I have ever made.
But I had no other choice.
Today is the best learning environment.
I spoke with a college student last week who was looking for career advice. He already knows the industry, the line of work and the type of firm he is working for and he doesn’t want to work for it right out of college.
Maybe he doesn’t read as many books as I do but this kid devours investment blogs, newsletters and podcasts on a daily basis. His knowledge of the market is light years beyond mine at that stage of life.
I think about these things a lot with my children.
Their experience of the world is completely different than mine because of technological advances.
Like many parents, I worry about social media, YouTube, artificial intelligence and short attention spans.
But I also think about the potential benefits of growing up in the information age. Every child with an internet connection will have an AI tutor in the coming years. It will understand their strengths and weaknesses to a degree that is almost impossible to achieve in the classroom.
Learning has never been easier than it is today.
And it has never been easier to waste your time staring at a screen all day.
My guess is that, like most things in today’s world, there will be an imbalance in learning.
People who can access and use all new learning methods will succeed.
People who don’t do it will be left behind.
I hope people will still have time to read a book here and there.
It’s a great way to shut out the real world, clear your head and read.
Further reading:
7 Benefits of Writing
1I said Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. I think it is still my favorite book to this day.
