What is reading? ── The reason why the more you read, the more the way you see the world changes, known as "enhancing the information space"
- Don't be fooled by "reading because you want to look smart"
- Reading is a device for "predicting the future and diving into the past."
- I feel like I've read the books just by watching summary channels.
- Reading is a "solitary time," and that is precisely where its value lies
- The moment you name something, it becomes something else—a label is not an explanation, but a fixing of the field of view.
- The dilemma that people who only do "things that are useful right now" fail to increase in value: One's value is made of the multiplication of scarcity and the reverse calculation of the time horizon on which one is evaluated.
- The very idea of searching for the "right job" is wrong to begin with── Aptitude isn't determined before you enter a job, but after you start doing it.
Don't be fooled by "reading because you want to look smart"
Many people view reading as "studying." There are many who are under the illusion that reading difficult books makes you smarter, or that reading a lot makes you great. However, the essence of reading does not lie there. Reading is an act of strengthening the information space.
The information space is not a term that refers only to the Internet. The inside of the human brain, as well as this world itself, extends as a totality of invisible information. As the amount of information taken in through reading increases, this space is reinforced, and the resolution—the level of abstraction—with which one views things from a higher perspective rises. Being able to view things from a higher perspective means being able to judge the entire situation without fixing one's gaze on a single immediate point.
Reading is a device for "predicting the future and diving into the past."
Information can be broadly divided into two types: the past and the future. The past is the accumulation of history, science, and thought that humanity has built up so far. The future is the prediction of what will happen from now on. Reading is one of the few means by which one can access both simultaneously.
There is a saying that "Fools learn from experience, while the wise learn from history." If we try to learn solely through our own hands-on experiences, there are limits to what we can achieve. However, the knowledge that great figures of the past have spent thousands of years unraveling—covering worries, expressions of affection, interpersonal relationships, and management—has already been preserved in writing. Reading these works is equivalent to having a dialogue with historical figures whom we could otherwise never meet. Furthermore, accurately understanding past changes directly enhances the precision with which we can predict the future.
I feel like I've read the books just by watching summary channels.
Many people consume only summaries without reading books. However, summaries and reading are entirely different things. That is akin to the difference between a full meal at a restaurant and merely tasting a sample.
A summary only conveys the plot, leaving out the structure, literary style, pacing, and the process of dialogue with the author entirely. The true essence of the value of reading lies not in the content itself, but in the density of that time spent continuously conversing with a single author over several hours. Since you get such an opportunity to converse—spanning across physical distance and time—with a brain you could never otherwise talk to directly, all for just a few thousand yen, it is an absolute bargain. Knowing the content through a summary makes sense if it is used as a "taste test" to choose the next book to read. However, it must never be used as a substitute for reading.
Reading is a "solitary time," and that is precisely where its value lies
Modern people are constantly exposed to external information. Even during the brief moments spent waiting for a traffic light, they open their smartphones. Reading is also an act of limiting input to text alone, creating time to face one's own inner self. It is a time close to meditation, for organizing and reconstructing the contents of the brain.
That is precisely why I want you to take just one day a month. I'd like you to try creating a day with no plans, dedicated solely to reading books. At once an investment in yourself, it is also a ritual for calming the mind.
Reading is not merely a device that gives us the right answers. It is an act of broadening our surrounding information and cultivating the sense of reality needed to draw our own futures with our own hands.
That is why the question we should ask is not "How many books did I read today?" but rather, "What kind of future did I try to glimpse on the other side of the pages I read today?" That is the true meaning of the act of reading.
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