Read 500 Books About a Subject to Reinvent Yourself

20 Nov 2024 #misc

What is “it”? How do I know what I should do?

Whatever area you feel like reading 500 books about. Go to the bookstore and find it. If you get bored three months later go back to the bookstore.

That’s from “Reinvent Yourself” by James Altucher.

When he was bankrupt, to get back up again, he started to read 500 books about money. He recommends doing the same.

But I haven’t read 500 books in my life, let alone in one particular subject. Not even about software engineering and programming where I’ve put close to 10,000 hours of practice. I’ve read maybe a couple dozen books about programming and coding.

Let’s say we read 1 book per week. That’s 52 books per year. And that’s ~10 years of reading to reach 500 books. Or less if we choose not to read some books from cover to cover.

An easier alternative is to read 3 books about a subject to stay ahead of the 90%. That’s from The 4-Hour Work Week. That’s way easier. And definitely, anyone can read more than 3 books about a subject. That’s the rule I’ve been following so far to learn new subjects.

Is it better to go all in on a subject with 500 books or mix subjects in between? Don’t know.

The first subject to read 500 books about should be meta-learning, learning how to learn. That would be the groundwork for any future endeavor or experiment.

If after some books we realize we’re not interested in that subject anymore, we’re free to jump to another subject and start from “0 books read” again.