Micro Misconcepts

A weekly upgrade for your misconcepts in under 5 minutes.

Date 8th August 2025

Issue# 005

When reading harms you more than it helps

You know that feeling when you're racing through a book just to tick it off your list and tell others you've read it? That's not learning - that's playing a different game.

We've bought into a beautiful lie that reading automatically equals growth. Society reinforces this daily with your friends subtly boasting about how many books they've read this year. What nobody talks about is how this humble activity has morphed from a genuine curiosity to learn into a discrete status game.

If you find yourself racing through books to hit arbitrary targets, compelled to tell others how many books you've read so far, or it dawned on you that you've read dozens of books but struggle to explain their core misconcepts, you've fallen into this trap.

If this sounds familiar, don't worry—you're in excellent company. Philosophers have been identifying this very human tendency to confuse motion with progress for centuries.

Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer advised us to read what's valuable, not what's popular:

"The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. - A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."

An opportunity cost assessment

Schopenhauer has indicated an important feature of life - life is a series of opportunity cost decisions.

At its best, reading updates your misconcepts by introducing knowledge you didn't previously have. But this activity also comes at an opportunity cost - you could be using that time and mental resource on something else (or reading something else for that matter).

When you consume information that barely shifts your thinking, you're not just wasting time—you're actively choosing it over other activities that can help you compound towards your life goals.

Reading thoughtfully is a skill - It's not just about what you should read, but also what you should avoid reading. Not all books deserve the same level of resource investment because your life is too short, your time too precious.

If your goal is to impress, keep reading any and every book to make your list of "100 books I've read this year". If your goal is to update your misconcepts so they serve you, read thoughtfully.

The question isn't how many books you can consume this year. It's how deeply one powerful idea can reshape how you see the world. When you find that idea, give it the attention it deserves.

Read fewer books, but make sure they change you more.

Thanks for reading!

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MICRO MISCONCEPTS

Misconcepts 005 - When reading harms you more than it helps

Micro Misconcepts

When reading harms you more than it helps

Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer advised us to read what's valuable, not what's popular:

An opportunity cost assessment

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