How reading can help you succeed in life.

He makes time for it.

Buffet once gave students in an investing class at Columbia University the following advice:

"Read 500 pages like this every day," Buffett said to the students, while reaching toward a stack of manuals and papers. "That's how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it."

Well, we can all build up that knowledge.

But are we really doing it?

Warren Buffett says, “I just sit in my office and read all day.”

What does that mean?

He estimates that he spends 80% of his working day reading and thinking.

This leads to what is known as the Buffet Formula:

“Going to bed smarter than you woke up.”

Why is that so important?

We’ve been recording knowledge in books for a long time. That means there’s not a lot that’s new; it’s just recycled old knowledge.

Odds are that no matter what you’re working on, someone somewhere, who is smarter than you, has probably thought about your problem and put it into a book.

Mastering the best that other people have already figured out.

How to make time for that?

Finding the time to read is easier than you think. One way to help make that happen is to carve an hour out of your day just for yourself.

In an interview he gave, Buffett told this story:

Charlie, as a very young lawyer, was probably getting $20 an hour. He thought to himself, “Who’s my most valuable client?” And he decided it was himself. So he decided to sell himself an hour each day. He did it early in the morning, working on these construction projects and real estate deals. Everybody should do this, be the client, and then work for other people, too, and sell yourself an hour a day.[1]

How to make time by eliminating:

• Less or no TV, shows, movies, series.
• Less mail checking
• Less social media
• Less multi-tasking, more focused work

How to use spare time with reading:

“Finding time to read is easier than you might think. Waiting for a bus? Stop staring down the street and read. Waiting for a taxi? Read. On the train? Read. On the plane? Read. Waiting for your flight? Read.” [2]

• Waiting somewhere? Bring a book. Get kindle app and read books on your phone instead of scrolling through Instagram/Facebook.
• Listen to audiobooks while cooking
• Read/audiobook while commuting

Things to keep in mind

• Give Yourself Permission to Quit

Don’t read for the sake of reading. Read to get something out of it.

• Advanced technique to get most out of a book:

1. Read summary first.
2. Key message? Relevant and important for me right now?
3. What are the gold nuggets to look out for?
4. Read Table of Contents
5. Read Introduction: Will it be worth my time?
6. Read Sections where the relevant gold nuggets lie. You Don’t Have to Read in Sequential Order
7. Read the rest of the book if it is relevant and worth the time.

• Read more (a lot more) than one book at a time.

It’s more fun and allows for “interleaving”, making connections between different fields and problems.

• Teach what you learned to others, encourage discussion about it. This solidifies your knowledge.

Can you explain what you know to someone else? Try it. Pick an idea you think you have a grasp of and write it out on a sheet of paper as if you were explaining it to someone else. (See The Feynman Technique)

• Apply what you have learned yourself. Taking action is still key.

How to get started?

1. Take a book you like to read, on your Kindle or a physical book and put it on your pillow.
2. When you go to bed you will be reminded. Just read one page. That’s the goal.
3. If you read more it’s fine too, but only focus on that so you get started.

Over time you will see how it becomes a habit.

This is how you “go to bed smarter than you woke up” and ”become a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.”

— Charlie Munger