The importance of understanding how we read Many of us have regressed to barely skimming the surface of what we read, resulting in reading less overall. The focus should not just be on what we read, but also on how we read - the process, distractions, physical formats, and levels of attention. Understanding the states achievable through reading is crucial, as well as recognizing the concept of plasticity.
Speaker 1
Many, many of us have, if you will, regressed to that earliest form of reading in which we are barely skimming the surface of what we read, barely consolidating it in memory. And we are in fact reading less of what is there as a result.
Speaker 2
I’m really trying to decide if I want to keep the structure I’d intended here or jump around a bit. So let me say this because maybe it’s a good way of signposting where I’m going for everybody listening. I’m interested in your work and I’m interested in this conversation because I’m interested in the states you can achieve all reading. And we talk about reading typically in terms of the content as if the question of reading is what you read. And what your work is getting at is that at least as important a question is how you read the process by which you read, the distractions, the physical formats, the qualities and levels Of attention you bring. And this gets to something that you pointed out a minute or two ago, which is plasticity.Plasticity, distractions and how you read. Nonlinear thought is more powerfulThe Role of Plasticity in Reading and Comprehension Plasticity in reading is influenced by the medium, writing system, orthography, and educational background. The way we read reflects the affordances of the medium, which in turn affects what we discern and comprehend. The affordances of digital screens are particularly exciting in this context.
Speaker 1
Rather, this plasticity is dependent on the medium in which we read the language or writing system or orthography in which we read and even the educational background that taught us How to read in particular ways. Now I bring us back to the two words attention and insight. Plasticity means that the way we read will be reflecting the affordances of the medium. This was a point that McLuhan made, his student Walter Ong made, certainly Postman made as you indicated in your August essay. All of these people were onto the basic principle that how we read on a medium changes what we discern, what we comprehend. Now I’m going to push just slightly this plasticity into the affordances of digital versus print. The affordances of the digital screen are really exciting.As if the medium of creativity and consumption blur. What we perceive as experiencing and co creating has to do with how we read and gather insight ecology-of-technologyImpact of Screens on Reading Habits The shift to reading on screens has led to the development of a skimming reading habit due to the overwhelming amount of information to process daily. This habit has started influencing the way people read even print material, potentially impacting the depth of reading and the inner landscape of thinking.
Speaker 1
That’s how we were formed as readers. I call this moment in time technologically a hinge moment. As we’ve moved to the other side of that hinge moment, we have made our habit of reading largely on screens. So imperceptibly, we are developing a mindset or habit of reading in a particular way that by and large is based on a kind of skimming reading. Again, because of all the information we have to process in any given day. So the habit or mindset is now so largely influenced by us reading on screens that we take that mindset even back to print. We can build habits of mind. A kind of reading that’s after the innermost landscape of our thinking. Whether we call it the sanctuary of reading, Proust always had something amazing to say about everything.The habits that we have developed to engage and inquire actively because of the affordances of reaction to the reading will shape it from rote memory to engagementThe Power of Deep Focus Reading Deep focused reading, free from distractions, can lead to a state of expansive and associational thinking. This state can lead to flashes of insight that unlock problems and open new avenues of thinking. It is a meditative and epiphanic experience that the speaker associates with plane flights, where they are free from calls and internet, and vows to engage in more often.
Speaker 2
So I want to pause on that Proust quote because it’s really the heart of this conversation too. There’s a state I get in, less and less these days, but in part because of the way my world works and my phone and my computers, I now associate it with plane flights because nobody can call Me and I don’t buy internet. It’s a state that I only seem to access when reading, and only when reading without distraction for a long period of time. It’s very strange and it is one of my most loved states where on the one hand I seem very focused on the text. At the same time, my thinking becomes expansive and associational to the point of Proust where the wisdom goes beyond the author and into your own. I seem to get flashes of insight that can unlock whole problems or open whole new avenues for myself. It’s meditative but epiphanic and every time I get off of a plane, I say to myself, I’m going to do that more. I’m going to do that more.The value of undistracted reading for generating insights Undistracted reading for a prolonged period of time can lead to a state of focused yet expansive thinking, where personal insights surpass the author’s wisdom. This meditative and epiphanic state, often associated with uninterrupted reading during plane flights, has the potential to unlock solutions to problems and open new intellectual avenues. Despite recognizing its value, the individual struggles to integrate this practice into their daily routine.
Speaker 2
So I want to pause on that Proust quote because it’s really the heart of this conversation too. There’s a state I get in, less and less these days, but in part because of the way my world works and my phone and my computers, I now associate it with plane flights because nobody can call Me and I don’t buy internet. It’s a state that I only seem to access when reading, and only when reading without distraction for a long period of time. It’s very strange and it is one of my most loved states where on the one hand I seem very focused on the text. At the same time, my thinking becomes expansive and associational to the point of Proust where the wisdom goes beyond the author and into your own. I seem to get flashes of insight that can unlock whole problems or open whole new avenues for myself. It’s meditative but epiphanic and every time I get off of a plane, I say to myself, I’m going to do that more. I’m going to do that more. I’m going to sit and I’m going to have quiet time with a book and this was so valuable and I got like three months of intellectual work done in four hours and then I don’t. And so first I want to ask you, what is that state? What is happening to me in that place where you enter into this almostThe Power of Humor and Novel Thought in Reading Humor helps in understanding by activating all we know and making new connections, forming the basis of novel thought. The goal of learning to read should be to develop a sanctuary of innermost landscape for each individual. Reading not only gives us our best thoughts but also facilitates communication with others’ best thoughts, making it both communicative and solitary.
Speaker 1
Aristotle was writing about what makes a good society and he said there are three lives to a good society. The first life is the life of productivity and knowledge and cruel of information. The second life that is in the Greek sense leisure entertainment when it has to have that. But he said the third life that is essential is the life of reflection. He’s the word contemplation. Now that is a perspective, let’s call it the Aristotelian perspective in which the contemplative is going missing and we don’t realize how important it is to insight. Just the same thing that you experienced on a plane, writ large, writ across everyone. Where are our best insights? Where are we going to have the space and time to give that next generation the full sum of our wisdom? So that’s the Aristotelian perspective. The second one is a mocogum neuroscience one. And there was this one amazing set of researchers who were trying to deal with what’s the a ha experience, what’s the insight experience we have. And what they found was that the brain was activated everywhere it would seem. All these different regions in this both hemispheres. I find the humor in that actually very helpful in understanding what you are talking about. Because it illustrates that when we reach that state, we are activating all we know and going beyond it. We’re making new connections. And those new connections are the basis of novel thought. And that’s what we want for everyone to have as a piece of what it means to learn to read. It’s a mistake done by our educational system that sometimes we are emphasizing one thing versus another. But we should all share the goal that that reading sanctuary that innermost landscape that’s where we go when we read our best. And that’s what reading gives us. It gives us both our best thoughts. But it also is one of the best forms of communication with others best thoughts. Communicative and it’s solitary. And that’s its own miracle.Reading at its best is both communicative and solitary — a form of thinking that generates insight precisely because it is sustained and undistracted. The puzzle is why this experience, despite being universally recognized as valuable, remains so rare in practice. The “airplane insight” phenomenon — where enforced disconnection unlocks months of intellectual work in hours — suggests the barrier is environmental, not cognitive.2min Snip Despite the belief that the internet would lead to economic growth, societal wisdom, and elevated politics, we have not seen much progress. The abundance of information has made it difficult to reflect upon and gain insights from it, leading to a reduction in judgment. Simply having access to information is not enough; it is our thoughts, connections, and ability to think critically that determine its impact. While connectivity and quantity of knowledge have increased, our capacity to utilize it has diminished.
Speaker 2
And so you would think having lifted the constraint on what we can know and what we can share that you would see something economic growth, the depth of our democracies, our societal Wisdom and humaneness accelerate, right? Something of the early utopian beliefs about the internet would come true. Instead you look around and growth is not faster than it was 50 years ago. We do not see more wise. Our politics is not more elevated to say the least. And I think what you’re saying, and I think many people of sense, might be at least a partial explanation. We made it possible to have so much more information in a way that made it impossible or more difficult to reflect upon and develop insights upon that information. And as such, we increased information but reduced judgment. And so as you say, we’re not passing on our best thoughts, but it’s also weirdly what the information we have access to isn’t creating some civilization-wide betterment because it Turned out the information was never enough. That’s what we did with it, what we thought about it, the connections we made with it. And we’ve degraded those capacities at wide scale even as we’ve increased connectivity and quantity of what we can know.2min Snip We are training our minds away from cognitive patience and becoming victims of the novelty reflex, causing hyperstimulation. This reflex was once essential for survival but is now being overstimulated from infancy.
Speaker 2
Where I have a real fear about myself, about my sons, about my society, that we are training ourselves, are training our minds away from cognitive patience which isn’t just, maybe it Is for some people a virtue, but it’s also a capacity. Can you talk a bit about that dimension of it, the part that’s not about what we want to do but about what our brains become used to doing?
Speaker 1
There’s a term that people use in this area called the novelty bias and that’s a reflex that goes all the way back to our hunter-gatherer days in which to see what was unusual was to preserve Our life, whether it was a predator that we were able to avoid or make a strategy to avoid or whether it’s something that we could eat and not be poisoned but survival itself dependent On that novelty reflex. Now that novelty reflex is now being hyperstimulated from infancy on and I make a really hard point with my pediatric colleagues like Barry Zuckerman and John Hutton from Cincinnati. All of these people are really trying hard to insist we don’t endure our children to distraction and novelty because they are complete victims to the novelty reflex. Anything distracts them and they are becoming hyperstimulated so even though youWe crave novelty. What is the difference between cognitive impatience in a bad sense or creativity. Like playing piano. Finding what’s beautiful1min Snip Former head of FTX’s crypto exchange expresses skepticism about books, advocating for shorter blog posts. Emphasizes the importance of spending time in mindful states and deepening mental circuits. Highlights the need for contemplation and suggests a shift away from focusing solely on information and facts.
Speaker 2
Um former head of uh of ftx’s crypto exchange and collapsed and he says in there that he’s very skeptical of books he thinks mostly books should not be books they should be six paragraph Blog posts and if somebody’s written both a book and more six paragraph blog posts that then i can count even when the book is expanding an idea that could be shorter some of its value for The readers actually the time spent there wrestling and i wonder if the the point of this a little bit isn’t that we think much too much about the information we pass onto ourselves or Or teach children in schools and not enough about the states that we’re spending time in and as such the circuits in the mind that we are deepening and strengthening versus letting languish
Speaker 1
That like we’ve gotten too hung up on products as opposed to process i think that you are putting just a beautiful metaphor if you will for what’s important and it’s not information we Need facts this is the eristiles three lies but we need contemplation and we have forgotten our need for it but we also need something else1min Snip Reading requires both the heart and the brain. As Herman Hesse once wrote, books cannot bring us happiness directly, but they can create a secret path to our hearts. The emotional aspect of reading is just as important as the intellectual. It is through the emotions that we gain insight and knowledge from authors. So let’s not forget the power of the heart as we navigate the world of literature.
Speaker 1
Is feeling that’s so important i’ve been reading herman hasse again and one of the things he did at the end of his life was write a poem about books and he said all the books in the world will Not bring you happiness but build a secret path towards your heart let’s not forget the heart as we battle what is best for the mind because the heart the affective aspect of reading is One of the most beautiful things that leads to that inter-sanctuary but it’s part of what happens on the journey to insight the feelings that we have the feelings that an author elicits To us that’s a form of knowledge we need heart and brain as we look at what reading gives us and what we experience when we’re reading or not1min Snip To clear my mind and prepare for the day, I start by slowing down and getting rid of any distractions. Then, I immerse myself in the world of imagination, whether through films or novels. Lastly, I end my day with an essay by Montaigne, the first essay writer, which provides a unique and sometimes funny perspective.
Speaker 1
Completely center my thinking slow it down it prepares me for if you will clearing the deck of whatever detritus from the night or even the day before and redding myself with a particular Mindset for whatever the day brings and then at the end of the day i do two things that may or may not be helpful to people especially people with young children and that is i have to find A way for the world of imagination to take me away from the work of the day sometimes it’s films sometimes it’s novels but it has to be something truly in the world of imagination for me And then i end that because i don’t want to be on a screen at the very end of my day i often end it with some essay by montania i mean that sounds really strange but he was the first essay writer And those essays are sometimes really funny sometimes really boring but whatever they are they give me a kind of piece1min Snip Take a break from being a manager and find a secret corner in your day to remember who you are. It could be 10 or 20 minutes with a book, music, or something that brings out your best self. The author recommends listening to a haunting piece by Korean composer Yeruma. Reading is not the only way to refine ourselves, there are other ways too. The book also introduces another proposal to discuss.
Speaker 1
Managers of our days and times when really we aren’t giving ourselves just the tiniest break in being a manager but rather being just a thinker with a heart and a mind and a soul and so what I would suggest is if anyone can find a secret place in their day a secret corner maybe it’s 10 minutes maybe it’s 20 or they can go off whether it’s with a book or with music or with something That will just give them a chance to remember who they are who their best selves are that’s not a book in that’s finding a corner of the day to refine ourselves i actually do it with music Sometimes instead of reading i’ve discovered a composer korean composer named yeruma and i will play a haunting piece and it will elicit for me something similar so again there’s these Individual differences reading leads to this apex but other things can too let me ask you about another proposal you make in the book this one more1min Snip Children can learn programming and coding alongside reading, but it is important for deep reading processes and critical analysis to be taught as well. Tommy Cut Sear from Israel combines literacy and empathy in her program called Islands of Understanding.
Speaker 1
Every single night and then between five and ten again print being the dominant medium but the parallel is that our children in regs y’all amelia and italy just shows how this can happen They can learn programming and coding and all these wonderful cognitive capacities that go with digital they can do that simultaneously but that they’re doing parallel tracks they Come together when the aspects from digital can be complementary to books and print but not dominate reading between five and ten and somewhere between ten and twelve thirteen my hope Is that teachers across the world will really have this aim of deep reading processes of critical analysis and empathy being at the core of what we teach our children tommy cut sear from Israel has this program called islands of understanding for that age group and i so admire her because what she’s doing is she’s putting literacy and the study of empathy together and This is what i
