Books

A few years ago I was reading a thread on Reddit, probably on r/LifeProTips or something stupid like that, where the OP was suggesting that one of the most useful things a person could do was read. This post, unlike all the other quotes out there about books and reading, really resonated with me. Not because it was profound or anything (I mean come on, it’s Reddit), but because OP put it in a way that really made sense to a semi-economist like me: reading books is an investment in yourself.

Let me explain. I’m 26. I would say that I have about maybe ten years worth of reliable memories, and anything before that is a mix of nostalgia, Nintendo, and half-remembered nonsense. Basically nothing before 2007 is of any use to me, not that the lessons a I learned as a kid would be all that useful anyway.

BUT, suppose I read Ashlee Vance’s biography of Elon Musk. Now, I have the ten years of Mike memories, plus some of the experiences of one of the most innovative people alive. Then if I read Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy, I get the lesson that sometimes it is necessary to stand for what one believes in, even at great personal risk. If I read The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis I learn about inherent biases and irrationality in decision making. If I read….you get the idea.

Books allow me to rapidly gain the experience and knowledge of others, which then lets me call on more than just that 10 years of questionably valuable memories. Books enable me to learn about and experience things in a fraction of the time it would take me to actually live them.

Now of course I’ve learned things in my own life, and of course reading books are no substitute for actually experiencing something first-hand. That’s not my point. The point is that reading books gives me a little bit of an advantage because it allows me to use the lessons of others.

Imagine if the only way to learn something was by trial and error. What if you had to literally do something in order to learn from it? It might be a bit of an exaggeration, but this is basically your world if books don’t exist (or if you don’t read them).

An obvious counter-point to this is that there are of course other media from which one could learn. TV, Radio, the Internet, could also be used to gain knowledge. The internet in fact is likely the most revolutionary technology ever invented, allowing for near instantaneous access to the entire accumulation of human knowledge. TV and Radio also are possible sources of knowledge, though I would argue that they are more inherently suited for delivery of entertainment than information, and that’s even before I go down the tangent of how informative programming is rarely if ever seen on TV or Radio anymore.

There’s also the evidence that reading books actually improves learning, helps prevent memory loss, and is an excellent stress reliever. No I’m not linking to any of that evidence. This blog is for fun, I’m not doing any actual research. Pay me and I’ll start linking evidence for you.

You might have noticed that so far I have not mentioned any novels or short stories or fictional works of any kind. Here at Books, Beer, and The Future, we won’t be reading any works of fiction. Not even classics or mythology (probably, we’ll see how I feel). That’s because these books are primarily entertainment, even if they are exceptionally well written. I have preferred modes of entertainment (looking at you Xbox), and there are far better literary critics out there.

In fact, please don’t confuse Books, Beer, and The Future to be a purely critical venture. While, yes, I am “reviewing” the books I read that’s not the point of this blog (there’s still the beer and the future after all). Think of this more as a one-sided book club, where you also drink beer. I’ll be mainly writing about what I think the “lessons” or “takeaways” are. And while I will be rating the books on things like readability, importance, and entertainment value, this is mostly for fun and to give me an easy structure to replicate week after week.

Lastly, for my own sanity, don’t expect a book post every week. I’ll try to get you a beer or a Future post, but reading, and writing about, books takes time. I’m also keenly aware that I have basically volunteered to write book reports for fun (high school me would be so pissed), so I don’t want to burn out by trying to read a book and write post in a single week. And as you can see below, there’s plenty of material for burn out.