Farnam Street – How to Read a Book

You know how to read a book. You probably learned how in elementary school.

But do you read optimally?

Do you get the most out of every hour you invest in a book?

If you’re like most people, the answer is “not even close.”

And, there is a huge opportunity to become more skillful at reading, retention and understanding.

If you’re a knowledge worker there is no better investment.

You are paid to use your brain — it pays to make your brain as powerful and high performing as possible.

Imagine making better decisions just a few times a week… What would that mean for your career? Your life?

Most people go through life without getting any smarter. But the consistently successful — they get smarter, day in and day out.

You can too.

Billionaires Charlie Munger & Warren Buffett estimate that they spend 80% of their day reading.

To paraphrase Buffett, reading for understanding is like compound interest. It builds upon itself to become exponentially more powerful over time.

But to read effectively we need to do more than the simple cover-to-cover style reading we learned in school.

We need to do the mental work required to hold an opinion.

This can be challenging and it’s not something most of us were taught. But the reward to hard work is true insight and practical wisdom.

While there is nothing wrong with easy reading, it’s not the kind of reading that will help you go to bed smarter.

We all want an edge. At work. At home. Inside our own minds.

Going to bed smarter, every day, is the ultimate edge. It’s exponential and it continues to sharpen with time.

The fastest route to your edge is to master the best of what people have already figured out. That is what Farnam Street is all about.

There are many ways and reasons to read. In this course we focus on reading to gain an edge: the wisdom and insight needed to advance in the face of today’s challenges.