Reading Is Almost Like Cheating

"Reading a book is almost like cheating. One person tries to do it on their own and you get advice from the best person in the world."
(from my tweets, 2015)

Reading was at the center of my life in those years. I tweeted that I had read over 200 self-improvement books in six years. I counted my progress partly by how many books I had finished. I even joked that my "10,000 hours" included about $40 in library fines on eighty-some books.

I read mostly to get better at things, and I still think that's a good reason. But there may be more to it than results. Research suggests curiosity and learning are good for us in their own right.

Curious people live richer days

Psychologists Todd Kashdan and Michael Steger studied curiosity, the desire to explore, learn and seek out new experiences. In a 2007 study, they asked people to keep daily diaries for three weeks. On days when people felt more curious and did more curious things, they reported more meaning in life and greater satisfaction. Curious people also tended to report more meaning and well-being overall.

Curiosity seems to work like an engine for a good life. It pulls us toward new experiences, new ideas and new people, and those experiences give life texture and meaning.

Learning keeps the mind sharp

Learning also seems to protect the mind. In 2014, psychologist Denise Park and colleagues ran a study called the Synapse Project. They assigned older adults to spend about 15 hours a week, for three months, either learning a demanding new skill, digital photography, quilting or both, or doing more passive activities like listening to music and watching movies.

The people who learned new, challenging skills showed improvements in memory that the passive groups didn't. The key seemed to be real mental effort: not just staying busy, but stretching to learn something hard.

Readers may even live longer

One study suggests reading books might be good for your health. In 2016, Avni Bavishi, Martin Slade and Becca Levy at Yale analyzed data from more than 3,600 older adults followed for twelve years. People who read books had about a 20 percent lower risk of dying during the study period than people who didn't, and even modest reading, up to about half an hour a day, was linked to a benefit. The link held even after accounting for education, income and health.

It's an observational study, so it can't prove that reading causes longer life. But it's a striking finding, and the researchers suggested that the deep engagement books require may be part of the reason.

Learning from the best

My old tweet captured something real about books: they let you borrow the thinking of people who spent their whole lives on a problem. A few hours with a great book gives you access to the hard-won lessons of someone you might never meet.

Even my own heroes knew this. At one point I was putting most of my time into art and letting my reading slip. Then I learned that Vincent van Gogh was a passionate reader, filling his letters with discussions of the books he loved.

What the philosophers said

Aristotle opened his Metaphysics with a simple line: "All men by nature desire to know." For him, the wish to learn isn't something we have to force. It's part of what we are. Exercising it is part of living well.

Centuries later, the French essayist Michel de Montaigne took a humbler approach. His personal motto was a question: "Que sais-je?", "What do I know?" Montaigne spent his life reading, reflecting and writing his famous Essays, not to prove how much he knew, but because he never stopped being curious about how much he didn't.

Put those two together and you have a healthy attitude toward learning: a natural hunger to know, paired with the humility to keep asking.

How to bring more learning into your life

• Read a little every day. Even 20 to 30 minutes adds up to dozens of books a year.
• Learn something hard. Like the Synapse Project participants, pick a skill that stretches you, not just one that fills time.
• Follow your curiosity. When something sparks a question, chase it for ten minutes. Small explorations keep curiosity alive.
• Learn from your failures too. As I tweeted back then, some of your most valuable skills come from what goes wrong.
• Ask Montaigne's question. Once a week, ask yourself, "What do I not know yet?" and choose one thing to explore.

Today's reflection

I once believed reading was mostly a shortcut to success. I still think it can be. But I've come to see it as something more: one of the most reliable sources of joy, meaning and growth available to anyone with a library card.

So today, open a book, or start learning something you've always wondered about. You'll be getting advice from some of the best people in the world. And you might find that the learning itself is part of the happiness you were looking for.

Sources

• Kashdan, T. B., & Steger, M. F. (2007). Curiosity and pathways to well-being and meaning in life: Traits, states, and everyday behaviors. Motivation and Emotion, 31(3), 159–173.
• Park, D. C., Lodi-Smith, J., Drew, L., Haber, S., Hebrank, A., Bischof, G. N., & Aamodt, W. (2014). The impact of sustained engagement on cognitive function in older adults: The Synapse Project. Psychological Science, 25(1), 103–112.
• Bavishi, A., Slade, M. D., & Levy, B. R. (2016). A chapter a day: Association of book reading with longevity. Social Science & Medicine, 164, 44–48.
• Aristotle. Metaphysics, Book I.
• Montaigne, M. de. (1580). Essays.