Philosophy in Real Life

Episode 4: Why You Should Read Fewer Books!

• Carlos Santos Aguirre • Season 1 • Episode 4

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📑 SUMMARY OF THE EPISODE 📑

In this episode, I talk about why you should read fewer books. The obsession with “quantifying wisdom” needs to stop.

We are going to look at 5 tips that, as a Philosophy PhD student and as a student of life, have proved to be insanely helpful!

Tip #1: Read about what is bothering you.
Tip #2: Read books to be changed, not just to get more information.
Tip #3: Study to discover truth, not to confirm preconceived ideas.
Tip #4: Pick the right book for the right season. 
Tip #5 Create a space for learning in your life.

It means a lot when you give like and share the posts or videos with everybody. I want to do this long term, and it will be only possible with your support! Thank you so much!

⏰ TIMESTAMPS⏰

00:00:00 – Brief description of the episode
00:05:06 – Tip #1: Read about what is bothering you.
00:09:22 – Tip #2: Read books to be changed, not just to get more information.
00:14:31 – Tip #3: Study to discover truth, not just to confirm preconceived ideas.
00:18:46 – Tip #4: Pick the right book for the right season. 
00:23:42 – Tip #5 Create a space for learning in your life.
00:26:15 – Summary of the episode 
00:26:50 – Description of next episode: Andrew Tate and the decline of masculinity
00:27:40 – Socials, products, and goodbye

📖REFERENCES📖

Thomas J. Stanley; William D. Danko: The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy

Hector Lavoe – “Te quiero de gratis”/ “I love you for free.”

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Amor y Resentimiento: Una respuesta a los ataques de Nietzsche contra el cristianismo (Spanish Edition)  - Available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Carlos-Santos-Aguirre/dp/B0BMSKNDJ7/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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so I have a confession to make which is an opinion that might not be popular but I do believe that most of the best selling books could be summarized into one chapter because there's so much fluff and so today I would like to discuss why you and I and everybody should read fewer books but better books and I would like to share my experience as a philosophy PhD student with ADHD oh yeah I have that problem too a lot of brokenness going on but you know do not despair because I don't despair let's dive in together in these tips about reading fewer books but better books let's go so welcome everybody to the philosophy in Real Life podcast where we strive to live in the most truthful and loving way possible while I'm asking the wrong philosophies and interpretations of the world I am your host Carlos Santos Aguirre a philosophy PhD candidate from Spain Hola a todos Hola mi gente hello everybody hello my people I hope you're having a lovely day it's still hot in Spain in Madrid well I'm actually right now in Toledo which is one hour away and you know the other day I was really really frustrated you know it's funny cause my wife was next to me she was working and I think I spent four no I spent one hour trying to understand and summarizing and reading carefully 4 pages you know if you are watching this on YouTube 4 pages of this article by Charles Taylor that is one of the readings I'm doing for my dissertation is called justice after virtue I basically spent one our deeply concentrated trying to summarize these are trying to understand these four pages two sheets of paper basically which was ridiculous and not only that but these these four pages I have read these four pages before you know like twice and still I couldn't understand and so I was like oh man and then when I was feeling frustrated it came to mind this the productivity culture you know online and the speed-reading and things like that I'm like come on these people don't understand I'm just done and so anyways now I'm not saying there's there's something wrong with reading books I think there is something wrong wrong with believing that just because you are reading a lot of books you all of a sudden are becoming wiser or transformed from that reading you know what I mean and I don't think that's the case or that's not necessarily the case the case because it's very hard to quantify wisdom I think one thing is to be familiarized with some ideas and a very different thing is to actually deeply understand these ideas in your life but I think that the result of this productivity culture which obviously has many toxic aspects but also good ones I think that it has helped me tremendously many of the tips and books that I've read in the past with time management and things like that but I think that a result of this productivity culture and this whole concept of the speed-reading has become even more popular you know like oh try to read as many pages as possible and things like that and so and something that happens is that then people become overly obsessed with how many books they finish rather than how much their lives are* being changed from reading or on the new information that they are acquiring by reading those books a lot of people are surprised to know this but I'm actually a very slow reader and I also have huge problems with concentration despite the fact that I can get very Spartan with my discipline with regard to technology and things like that when I need to study I was diagnosed as an adult with ADHD so it wasn't as a kid and a lot of people who knows me really well they were like oh I'm not surprised it makes sense I don't know if that was an insult or actually they were glad but anyways today would like just to share five tips that has helped me tremendously in my life and 5 tips that perhaps is helpful for you and about what books to read and how to grow and change as a result of those readings okay so tip #1 read about what is bothering you yes, I repeat to read about what is bothering you I remember when I got married we were really broke man like that was I was 23 when I married my wife that was... 2018 and no no, oh my goodness no that was 2017 when I got married you know and we were really broke and I was like oh man like we didn't have any money for dates anything like that and obviously the financial the economic situation in Spain is not great you know but there was a moment thinking in the living room and I was like oh man I need to learn about money I need to learn how to use it how to use it wisely so that you know we improve our situation so I remember that I was so bothered by the idea that I couldn't even take my wife on a date or that we couldn't organize a date together because money was really tight that I decided no I'm gonna learn about money I'm gonna learn how to make more money and I'm gonna try to improve this situation and so I'm glad that my wife was really on board with that and my wife is actually very risk-averse she doesn't like risk I can be a lot more impulsive as you probably could tell already and and so basically I started reading about money and taking action implementing steps and things like that and compare different people who were helping and so that was that was tough for me you know cause I said oh you know now we have a little bit more money and you are telling me that I cannot spend it and I have to live as broke as before or contain myself or refrain myself and so my wife is usually more sensible than me when it comes to that so as you can see I was reading about money because it was bothering me and so when I was reading this type of books I was reading man like I was like I need to change something about my life and let me think of me and so these books really hit me I remember reading the Millionaire Next Door I don't remember right now the author and I was like man you know they basically study the behavior of people with regular salaries in the United States and the choices they make with their money and how they retire at a great place financially compared to other people who actually make more money per month but spends it all and so they are actually more broke thinking that they can't repay that with their jobs and things like that but anyways so when I was reading that I remember wow you was kidding me like I have many character flaws that I need to at least recognize and get help and so you know cause I would get fever phone oh I oh I want a phone I need a phone oh I need these so I need that and I will get fever of this lust of things you know what I mean the lies of marketing and things like that not that all marketings are lies but most lies are marketing you know what I mean and so anyway so that is an example of that when something is really bothering you you will read and you will read seriously maybe in your case is not money maybe it is climate change maybe sexual ethics maybe it is equality maybe something about reality but start reading start reading about that do not be as scared at times we are scared of trying to read books that we feel like we have no business reading like you know maybe scientific books or maybe more scholarly books but don't be afraid if you are really interested you will be surprised how much your interest and your drive will take you you know in learning so many things becoming more educated will also make you more humble and more for the most part more nuance about things for example I have many friends that were like oh taxes and things like that okay, read this book read that book and so they were like oh my goodness right now I don't know what to make of that things like that cause they realize that their views were actually quite surface level discussions and so once they go to scholars or people who have who are very knowledgeable in different fields then you become wow I actually know very little so that's tip #1 let's move on to tip #2 Read books to be changed and not just to get more information so information alone will not change anything in our lives if you read if you read a book and if after reading a book nothing has changed in your life why did* you read it? you didn't get anything from it you know what I mean unless it was forced unless it was obligatory or compulsory for... you know whatever but one thing I would like to clarify is that when I'm referring to being changed now I'm not just talking about external change but maybe internal change so let's talk about this change that can be internal and the change that can be external for example the internal change when reading a book might be that you start feeling or developing new feelings towards certain things that before you had negative feelings associated with now I will share a personal example I was writing an academic paper for a journal here in Spain and talking to the professor he said okay why don't you read the book The Tyranny of Merit? by Michael Sandell who is I believe a political philosophy professor in Harvard and I wrote a paper on you know for this journal to publish about this book by the way I do recommend that book that book is is good stuff it will make you think and after reading that book I was surprised that you know in Spain we pay a lot of taxes it is not always reflected on society however after reading that book my feelings towards paying taxes changed you know I always I only had negative feelings before and after reading that book I was like oh I'm actually glad I'm paying taxes you know I'm glad that for example women when they give birth they are able to take 4 months for maternity leave I think that I want a society that give that type of treatment towards women and also towards men because actually men in Spain also get 4 months and now that I have a baby boy you know we take care of him I realize my goodness I don't know how people do it without 4 months you know what I mean it can be really really brutal and challenging on women's body and things like that and obviously the house and maintaining and cooking is just crazy and in Spain the company doesn't pay the maternity leave it is the government the tax payers basically and so the government administers that to pay the maternity leave something like that now that doesn't mean that all of the money of the taxpayers go to the right reasons the right causes no, but if I had to choose one of the inconveniences I think that you know having all of these things as common goods in Spain I do believe that I feel better with that type of compromise than women not having this type of maternity leave or parents in general men too you know fathers and so that is my opinion you know so that is that was my change of heart so to speak so when I pay my taxes I'm okay with it I was like yes, absolutely I want a society in which when women give birth they have four months and also the fathers and they can be with their* kids and they can organize the house and take some time to be that is my take now I don't believe that everything should be completely socialized and you know and mismanagements of funds either but definitely I do not believe in this individualistic conception of society I learned through this book that we are more in debt to one another than we realize and this idea of the self-made person is actually a kind of a myth which by the way we'll have an episode on meritocracy and we will dive really seriously in that topic and you'll see why I hold the views I hold I hold and we also will read some of the excerpts about Michael Sandel and, The Tyranny of Merit which I highly recommend you read regardless of what position you hold I think it's gonna be a really profound reading but I'm just sharing a change internal change It is not like I did more or I did less but I became I guess more at peace or loving with this idea of giving my money so that other people are taken care of basically now another type of change could be the external right like you read a book in the case of the financial situation and that changes* the outcome of your life you know what I mean and so that is just another example of that but in the internal matters too because it's not just what we do but how we treat other people in the way we do things you know the quality of our doing matters not all type of doing or deeds or things that we do are equal you know like many times we can do things but without without any type of intentionality or care you know So the idea is that we are present and in whatever we are doing and do it gladly okay so, let's move on to tip #3 study things to discover truth not just to confirm preconceived ideas that you already have you know when I was just I was studying linguistics and literature I used to organize at the university different debates and just talking to university students something I realized is that most of the university students were using the authors they were reading and the text and the quotations more as a way of masking or putting more beautifully or more eloquently the lies they wanted to believe rather than actually challenge themselves* seriously you know through these readings to actually discover truth so they were using the intellectual discourse just to be more sophisticated at justifying their way of living rather than actually trying to change their way of living based on what they were reading and so that's why I'm saying this study things to discover truth not just to confirm preconceived ideas about reality and you know it is obvious that we all have lies we want to believe you know if you ask yourself okay"what are the lies I want to believe?" and many will come to you you know you will not have to try hard enough and so recognizing your starting point okay"I would like to believe this""even though I'm about to read the author""that actually thinks the opposite""so let me see what I think of that." and so then you enter the reading and it takes a lot of courage to actually research a topic that way that's why when I research a topic I'm actually quite scared because I know where I'm going to start but I don't know where I'm going to end so it can be a at times"oh man..." if I start studying this topic I don't know you know I might be called to do something more or be more change my ways and I you know it's challenging and it can be uncomfortable and things like that but please don't do what Steven Crowder does okay? so Steven Crowder is the guy that is the "change my mind" guy that goes to university and things like that he says he wants to change his mind no he doesn't want to change his mind it's so obvious when people use rationality to just get a reaction to provoke you know and just that instead of actually creating true bridges of communication where we are actually engaging in true dialogue that is why I don't usually like debates because I feel like it forces people to defend a position that they might not even fully agree with and things like that it can get really uncomfortable and there are winners and losers and if that person wasn't a good debater even though their view might have been correct people will think that it wasn't just because that person wasn't a good debater so that's why I like just genuine dialogue you know high level conversation high level dialogue that is why you will never see me engaging any troll on comments and even less on Twitter I don't think it's useful I don't think it's productive I don't think it will take you anywhere and so yeah anyways another thing as I was saying about courage it does take a lot of courage I remember when I was reading Nietzsche for the first time when I was doing my paper for my master's degree Amor y Resentimiento Love and Resentment my book in Spanish that was an adapted version of the thesis about Nietzsche which hopefully I will get it translated into English next year so that you can read it I remember reading Nietzsche in my living room and nothing was happening externally everything was quiet and peaceful and it was a rainy day but inside of me oh my goodness it was war I was like hurricanes and things like like I was completely everywhere scattered nothing was happening outside everything was happening inside of me okay so it requires courage because Nietzsche was confronting and killing a lot of views that I had about the world that were not adequate however I did respond to Nietzsche even though he's dead and he cannot respond me back so that might be cheating but anyway that's is something else alright so let's move on to tip #4 pick the right book for the right season so most books have their specific audiences most books have a target audience in mind and I feel like books could be understood better with the metaphor of education in general right I am an educator so education in primary education in high school then college and so on right and for each phase of the education system you have different types of educators or teachers or mentors and it's not that you know the primary school teacher doesn't have any value actually primary school teachers have a lot of value but it just means that their purpose and the field of knowledge that they are trying to teach is very specific to a phase in the development of a human being so I feel like with books is the same it's not like there are bad books per se as I said about the best-selling books for New York Times I think that the issue is that there are books that it gets to a point this is too much fluff you know it's too much fluff there is no substance and I feel like sometimes books they make it longer so that they could sell it basically because if you were to summarize the ideas in one chapter you would* be able to do so that doesn't apply to this article justice after virtue by Charles Taylor and if you wanna read it you can find it online but oh my goodness that should have been a book that article itself and Taylor condenses everything too much at times you know and so it takes forever to understand at times his thesis but very powerful very insightful so anyways pick the right book for the right season so maybe you are already specialized in a field so reading certain books makes no sense you should be reading harder books better books and so that means that it will take you so much time to finish some of these huge books does that make sense? and I'm mostly talking about essays okay I'm not referring so much about novels and things like that that people read for fun for the most part I'm not really a "novel guy" you know I get distracted when reading novels it's really hard for me to pay attention to that and I'm more interested in essays always but anyway so for example let me show you I will describe this to the people who are just listening so it's like these books right you see this so I'm basically holding the Critique of Pure Reason by Emmanuel Kant this is the Spanish edition very thick book the font is very small now I'm gonna hold the book by Charles Taylor Secular Age you know also really huge book the font is even smaller which is terrible'cause it takes forever to read and I could pick even another one which was Sources of the Self and things like that well anyways if you were to read for example Sources of the Self and Secular Age by Charles Taylor and you actually understand those two books I feel like you will know more than many PhD level students in philosophy and in many other fields yeah that you will you will be more equipped once you understand really well these texts obviously understanding Charles Taylor will take you to understand the entire tradition pretty much that's what I'm trying to say that it's not so much how many books you are reading but the type of books you are reading in the right season in your life maybe in other aspects you need a more initiation book you know what I mean like languages you start with with an A1 then an A2 then a B1 then a B2 then a C1 then a C2 level of German of something you know so the idea is to know where you are at with regard to that type of field and what you're trying to grow in so if a book is not moving you in any way or in a deep way maybe two things maybe it is the wrong season for that book maybe you are not in the headspace to be reading that type of book even though it's so good or maybe it's the wrong book maybe you you shouldn't be reading that type of book if most books you feel like"oh man" I read this is so fast, so easy I already know everything maybe you should be reading more "deeper books" that will actually enrich more your life but let's not be elitist or pedantic about you know always reading difficult books I'm not saying that I'm not saying that but I'm saying that if you're already very knowledgeable for example in the field of productivity and you know already a lot of things about time-management maybe you shouldn't be reading more about productivity you should be reading other things in your life that are bothering you and learning how to grow in those areas you know and tip #5 which is the last one create a space for learning in your life you will be surprised what you can accomplish if you are discipline enough to maybe read 20 minutes each morning drinking coffee tea or just looking outside the window whatever you know what I mean like you could read more for example a person that reads three pages a day 7 days per week that would be what tres por siete so that would be 21 ventiuno that will be 21 so 21 pages per week so then multiply that by 4 by 5 depending on the month and then multiply that by 12 so you will be you might be a slow reader that's okay the idea is to enjoy the learning process that becomes something real in you I feel like most of the time I spend my time re-reading many things that I read because they were so rich and I didn't even grasp the entire thing and so yeah create a rule of life create a habit of protecting this space for learning and that can be part of your ritual and just start small you know don't go crazy I really like something that my brother Gabo tells me which is try to have a minimum you know if the ideal goal is to write three hours in your dissertation have a minimum even on your worst day that you don't feel like doing it at least do an hour and a half you know and so find that range for you you know maybe you wanna read 30 minutes but you know it's better to read 10' than nothing and I felt for the longest time in my life frustrated because when I was working just teaching English in academies and things like that and I wasn't doing philosophy or reading anything profound I was feeling like I was hungry for discovery I have this huge hunger for discovery you know for learning and so I realized I was doing so many things and I had this idealistic view of oh I need to read one hour a day even though I was packed with things that was silly you know it's better to read just 10 minutes instead of being fixated in reading one hour and then not doing it because you feel like oh it's not ideal this time and so I'm not gonna do it you know so anyways make learning part of your life you know we are always learning and it does not matter how much you know because there's always something you don't know there's always something we need to grow in there's always something we need to improve and recognize our weaknesses and blind spots so I hope that was helpful so to summarize read about what is bothering you that's tip #1 tip #2 read to be changed not just to get more information information alone will not help you change anything you need to implement practices Tip #3 study things to discover truth not confirm preconceived ideas about reality and Tip # 4 pick the right book for the right season and lastly Tip #5 create a space for learning in your life and protect it all right let me talk a little bit about the next episode ladies and gentlemen next episode we will have a case study in which we are going to address Andrew Tate and the decline of masculinity oh boy oh boy I hope the top G does not come with his Bugatti and knocks at my door here in Spain and after all he did say in one video by the way that Spain is a failed society tremendo so I don't think he's coming to Spain because we are a failed society so anyways what can you do... I won't get the privilege to have top G punching me in the face for criticizing his conception of masculinity but anyways that is the next episode so stay tuned subscribe share the love share the wisdom get my book subscribe to social media I need your support so that I'm able to keep doing this with better quality material better content and hopefully in the future some guests okay so that's everything on my end everybody I love you for free adios