“There is no use of reading books and gaining theoretical knowledge because there is no substitute to practical knowledge that comes through experience”
I have been seriously pissed off by this bromide. Amazingly, I have been listening to such remarks quite frequently these days. This belief is nothing but pure ignorance coupled with rationalization for laziness.
First, lets start with what experience you are talking about. “YOUR” experience? Well, let me inform you, as if you don’t already know, that books can provide you with plethora of experiences of other people, who have been through situations – better or worse than you. I am unable to prognosticate any harm that may come by learning through experiences of others.
People don’t want to believe that what took them years of experience to learn can be gained by hours of reading. This sounds like waste of their efforts. Their knowledge is their treasure, something they have toiled for. It is this wrong attitude towards reading that is cause of their troubles. But I would still say that such people may be reformed and made to understand the meaning of reading. There is another group of people who are too lazy to read anything. They feel it is better and more comfortable to disparage those who read. Through their frivolous banter they discourage all kinds of reading experiences.
Most people don’t understand what reading is really about. All their lives they have only read what their parents or teachers have considered necessary, so that they can get good marks and make it through some entrance exams. Let me introduce all such disillusioned to the world of Reading. I categorize reading into two types. First is, what I call, Pleasure reading. This is what people enjoy in their leisure time. Reader may not be interested in gaining any particular knowledge but rather in some titillating story to ease off his/her senses. Then there is this other kind of reading and I call it, chasing the idea. This is actually the most misunderstood kind. A French philosopher once remarked (these are not his exact words though), “When a first foolish or wise idea comes to me, I chase it and let myself be seduced by it until the next one arrives”. Reading books is actually about discovering new ideas. Idea may be a very simple one. In fact a book of thousand pages may provide you with only one simplistic idea, but that idea may change your life forever or the way you look at life. You may ask, why we fail to discover such simplistic ideas on our own? There are many reasons to it but I believe the most important is our ego. We suppress a lot of emotions to satisfy our ego and while doing so we suppress many ideas. Ideas help us build attitude and our attitude towards our goal is what finally determines whether we’ll achieve it or not. This is what I believe. Experience, approach, process are all necessary ingredients of success. But the most important is attitude, which is slowly constructed by metamorphosis of ideas. And there is no better substitute to acquiring ideas than reading books.
Happy Reading!!
I have been seriously pissed off by this bromide. Amazingly, I have been listening to such remarks quite frequently these days. This belief is nothing but pure ignorance coupled with rationalization for laziness.
First, lets start with what experience you are talking about. “YOUR” experience? Well, let me inform you, as if you don’t already know, that books can provide you with plethora of experiences of other people, who have been through situations – better or worse than you. I am unable to prognosticate any harm that may come by learning through experiences of others.
People don’t want to believe that what took them years of experience to learn can be gained by hours of reading. This sounds like waste of their efforts. Their knowledge is their treasure, something they have toiled for. It is this wrong attitude towards reading that is cause of their troubles. But I would still say that such people may be reformed and made to understand the meaning of reading. There is another group of people who are too lazy to read anything. They feel it is better and more comfortable to disparage those who read. Through their frivolous banter they discourage all kinds of reading experiences.
Most people don’t understand what reading is really about. All their lives they have only read what their parents or teachers have considered necessary, so that they can get good marks and make it through some entrance exams. Let me introduce all such disillusioned to the world of Reading. I categorize reading into two types. First is, what I call, Pleasure reading. This is what people enjoy in their leisure time. Reader may not be interested in gaining any particular knowledge but rather in some titillating story to ease off his/her senses. Then there is this other kind of reading and I call it, chasing the idea. This is actually the most misunderstood kind. A French philosopher once remarked (these are not his exact words though), “When a first foolish or wise idea comes to me, I chase it and let myself be seduced by it until the next one arrives”. Reading books is actually about discovering new ideas. Idea may be a very simple one. In fact a book of thousand pages may provide you with only one simplistic idea, but that idea may change your life forever or the way you look at life. You may ask, why we fail to discover such simplistic ideas on our own? There are many reasons to it but I believe the most important is our ego. We suppress a lot of emotions to satisfy our ego and while doing so we suppress many ideas. Ideas help us build attitude and our attitude towards our goal is what finally determines whether we’ll achieve it or not. This is what I believe. Experience, approach, process are all necessary ingredients of success. But the most important is attitude, which is slowly constructed by metamorphosis of ideas. And there is no better substitute to acquiring ideas than reading books.
Happy Reading!!
5 comments:
True. But have you ever wondered why sometimes our thoughts get streamlined because of books. Why it becomes such a humongous effort to think out of the box? Why some really cool inventions and innovations come from the less educated people? Ever wondered why Kavya Vishwanath got panned because she internalised her favorite book?
Ever seen this quote:
"Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. "
Albert Eistein said it!
It's a BOOK, not a BOX. Reading results in "streamlined thinking" is a myth propagated by lazy individuals. I have been reading Amartaya Sen's "Argumentative Indian" over last few days and I am quite convinced that he has ample knowledge, most of which seems to have come from books. The references in his book include ancient texts like Upnishads and Vedas. Needless to say, that his analysis covers wide range of arguments and counter arguments.
That said, I believe what really matters, is the attitude with which a person reads a book. If it is only to fill the void left by lack of experience, then maybe loss of creativity will be an undesirable side-effect. But, as I said in the article, if it is to “chase the idea” then it is altogether different. Here is a quote from advertising guru Paul Arden:
“It does not matter where you take it from, what matters is where you take it to”
I would like to add a few points here and dislodge some prevalent myths.
Myth: Reading is the monopoly of inexperienced and the introverts.
Some people are afraid of being branded as introvert or inexperienced. Though it is impossible for me to statistically assert the number of readers who fall into this category, my point lies somewhere else. We are all imperfect. It is this imperfection that forces us to assess our selves thereby leading to improvements. Advocates of “win by ignorance” strategy are hypocrites whom we all must avoid. If our attitude (towards reading) is right, then fear of branding loses its significance. Again, there are people who read to fill the void left by experience. Though it may be helpful to an extent but if it is done from viewpoint of avoiding real experience then gains will be limited and loss of creativity will be an undesirable side-effect.
Myth: Only people with self doubts read books.
If a person in self doubt is reading a book there are already two positive points about him – One, he has accepted that he has weak point and has analyzed those points. Second, he is working towards overcoming those weaknesses. This perception is at least better than those who prefer to overlook their weaknesses in vain hope that they will vanish or those who keep crying over them.
There is another argument. This one is about rationalization. Recently I visited a friend who was reading a book "Power of Introverts". Even though I judge a book after reading it, in this case I was compelled to make a premature judgment since I knew my friend is an introvert. I felt he is only trying to rationalize his weakness, drawing himself into deeper shell. It occurred to me that if our "selection” of books in first place is dependent on our attempts at rationalization, how are we ever going to read opposing arguments that may break the spell. It is quite evident that reading from the perspective of rationalizing one’s failures or weaknesses is quite dangerous. Thus a person should at all times keep an open mind and focus only on chasing-the-idea.
Here is how I classify various kinds of readers:
1. Pleasure reader
2. Chasing-the-idea reader
3. Experience-void-filler reader
4. Rationalize-my-failure reader
Truth, Pendantic Wisdom and Winners & Underdogs
I generally don't read novels & other such stuff (read story telling blogs).
Not that I ain't got patience or I am egoistic about not reading it, but fascination is something I like to stay away from.
But I must admit, curious reading, especially when one is looking for some solution to the puzzles around him, definitely yields results.
In your lines, I would say there's really no substitute for "Theory of Practicalities"
Your blogs were something which pulled me so deeply in that I started feeling as if I had puposely sat down to read it! They look like an unbreakable mirror that can question the attitude of even the bests (specially self acclaimed ones) by asking them in face, "Is this how you are? Am I right?"
I am not cynical to, but I won't reveal my identity at this point of time - against my will. Please do excuse me for this.
All the Best, and despite knowing that you are an atheist, I wish God may take you miles higher..
- Someone you can rely on
Thank u Mr. SharmaHim
Post a Comment