Why should we read? — by Koothaadi
Many of you in my circles wonder why should they read while they could easily acquire knowledge effortlessly by watching visual content which even takes lesser time than reading. There had been few FAQs to me about the reading habit. When I recently resumed reading books, I myself started contemplating what could even be the purpose of reading fiction? I asked those questions to Twitter fame, my friend Koothaadi. Well, he is the one who first introduced me to the world of books.
Below is the SoundCloud link to his Voice Note, added as a Podcast:
Expected a response from him in English, so that I can share with a larger audience. But the Voice Note was mostly in Tamil.
Hence, adding a transcript of the podcast below, in English.
“Hi da…
The questions you asked are close to my heart.
Because, most of my days were spent thinking the Uber Level answers to these questions.
Questions
Okay, aren’t these your questions?
- Why should a person read? What are we going to get out of reading?
- Secondly, I can know things by watching Visual Content also. Why should I read?
- Thirdly, Fiction Vs. Non-Fiction. Okay, Non-Fiction at least helps me gain knowledge. What do I get out of reading fiction? If I am not enjoying it, what’s the point?
Okay, so.. Let’s take each of these one by one.
Why do we do what we do?
First of all, why do we do what we do? Keeping aside reading, why do we generally do anything we do?
So, the point that all the researchers collectively agree is, ‘to maximize happiness in life’ for whatever 50/40/30 years you’re going to be alive.
But ‘happiness’ is a very broad term. If you actually see what a human wants, it is not happiness. Keeping ‘happiness’ as a broader term, being ‘contended’ falls within that. If you ask if a human wants ‘content’ or ‘happiness’, it is definitely ‘content’ that a human needs. I don’t want to get into the depths of who said this, why they said this - there are many researches around this. So let’s keep them aside.
Now, if I want to be contended or happy, if you say ‘I am normally very happy or contended — I watch TV, I go to work, I talk and laugh with people, I watch a normal mindless Masala movie of Tamil Cinema, and I already feel good about these. And I feel already happy, then why should I chase more happiness?’, I’m seriously telling you, you need not go beyond this.
Your searching stopped there. You already feel happy about what you’re doing. ‘Doing anything beyond this sounds stupid to me or it looks to me like a waste of time, or spending time for better deeds doesn’t give me instant gratification anymore.’ If this is your state, it’s totally fine — you need not do anything more.
But… If you see the difference between now and the last century, or between last millennium and last century, or between any two time intervals, you would notice that we have been improvising the humanity. What do I mean by improvisation is that, we have become more sophisticated. Our life span has got increased, death rate has gone down, our lifestyles changed, the technology, the ease of use… take any such little things — we are becoming more and more convenient. Over every decade, our convenience increases, medical facilities increase, thus we live longer, so we keep improvising this.
Why would a man do all these?
After all if every single human being can enjoy his life just by watching Sun TV, why would a man do all these improvisations?
Firstly, not every person are same. Every single individual has got a natural talent in doing some peculiar thing… BTW, I differentiate between talent and skill. Talent is something that comes to you naturally, or something that comes by a human virtue. And skill is something developed by self and can be done by anyone. I wouldn’t say talent is inborn — but something that is adapted in a young age or something that comes out of passion.
I don’t mean talent in a broader way as intelligence. Let’s say things like — being spontaneous, or being keen-eyed or being high in Emotional Quotient, these are all talents present in someone based on their circumstances right since childhood. These can also be acquired, but for argument’s sake — I distinguish skill and talent.
So now, people who has skills are the ones who keep improvising the humanity. They keep doing new things — be it in technology or medicine or anything else. So for each of us, searching will be like — ‘I should be part of bigger than something’. This is what is being exploited by institutions starting with politicians to any other groups that make us their subordinates. So, how these institutions are able to exploit some people are — those people cannot do things beyond themselves or they do not have necessary skills for the same.
If a person who invented penicillin or a person who achieved something, gets attracted to a philosophical movement, he will do that only because he is naturally ambitious about the philosophical ideology. But the chances of getting attracted because he feels no other place belongs to him, are lesser.
So, every man needs something called skill. Why is it needed? Because he believes, only then he can do something bigger than himself. If you say you don’t believe any of these and you just want to die by being merry throughout, 100% I’m totally with you. If I consider 1 crores years from now, nothing much would differ whether or not you do something better than your normal deeds.
But… but… if you feel you want to do something because watching TV and such petty pleasures has become boring to you, and feels mediocre to you… I started believing reading is only for people in such a state!
Because, whoever asks me questions about reading habit are above 25. So, I can teach someone a habit until someone is under 20 or 25 years of age. Even after 25 if you feel like, you don’t want to develop skill and all that, I will see you as someone who is not cut out for it. There can be 1–2% of people after 25 would still be open to acquiring skills because they feel their lives are boring. But if you don’t feel bored with your mediocre life even after 25, then you’re not my candidate at all. It is also not my job to pull you into reading and it is even a tougher journey — let’s not go there.
So, you feel bored. And, you want to do something. Now, let’s see all your 3 questions from this point only.
What is knowledge?
You are bored. You now realize your knowledge isn’t enough. Now, knowledge is nothing but knowing how the world in which I was born is structured, and how this world functions, historically how it has been functioning. Such that, if I equate functioning of this world to the idea of knowing how every single thing in this world functions, now comes the question why one should acquire this knowledge.
First of all, you should acknowledge that this world is a system with constraints. If you want to play a game, you should first of all know the story of the game, trivialities like, the button in the gun in your hand will fire, these are the people whom we must shoot, these are the people who is on our side… wouldn’t you be able to win the game only if you understand these rules of the game? It is the same in this world. In your context of world, the field in which you work, you acquire that industry based knowledge. And in general, as you are someone who socially mingle with people, you learn Psychology and Anthropology stuff. Else, just because you like, you learn about Politics. Like these, in whichever things you’re interested, you need knowledge on those things. Again, knowledge is equal to the rules of the game in this system, or the setup or context or premise of this game. So if you consider that as the knowledge, then you’ll know this is a complex world.
There is a physical world here — like trees, plants and creepers, and there are some truths about these physical beings. To know about these is why we have subjects like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry. Then there are living beings — and there is Biology to know the physical truths about these living beings. Now apart from these, what do we have? Specifically human beings without the presence of any other living beings interacted with fellow human beings, formed societies, developed themselves and came this far.
To see what other human beings say around the world, we have technology and it’s sub-departments; then how a society functions, and we ourselves have created some social institutions like Government, Bank, Nationality, this, that, etc. So it gets more complicated as there are specific rules to all these systems and institutions. Among all these, knowing about what institution you specifically like is Knowledge, let’s say. You wan’t to do something in those fields, or you just want to speak about them, or rather you have a mere curiosity to learn about them. If we conclude, this is what knowledge is, we must approach your question on ‘Why one must read?’.
The answer is this… Like how a photograph is a standstill in time, books are standstill of perspective of a system and the rules of the game.
Non-Fiction Vs. Fiction
Why one must read Non-Fiction?
Take non-fiction books — be it a biography, or a book about Startup world, or a book like ‘Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow’… What any such book does is, it takes an idea and tries to explain us that idea using examples and perspectives. So your knowledge before and after reading a book must differ and improve. If your knowledge doesn’t differ or improve after reading a book, then it is utter waste to read that book. This is about non-fiction.
Then, why do we read Fiction?
Okay, then why do we read fiction? In this world, first of all, the time we spend on human interactions has become very less. Moreover, the interactions we do with fellow people gets struck within a very small circle, unless you’re someone who travels around the world and gets to interact with people of multiple backgrounds. Even then, you can only cover geographically all locations but you wouldn’t be able to cover every time in place. Is it not? So, a non-fiction book is like, taking photograph of this world at one point in time, but with lot of depth.
Why I say ‘with lot of depth’ because, you can live the life of a character only when you read a fiction book. Meaning, you can know things like, what a character thinks, what it talks, in what situation it is, what will I do if I am in that situation, will all run in your mind as you keep reading the book. Every single moment, as you keep relating yourself to a character, you’ll know why the character speaks in a certain way and it is a resultant of what thoughts the character is going through, and how is the character’s words interpreted by other characters — you’ll get all such perspectives.
Let’s say you read a book like ‘The Kite Runner’. How else can you understand what a Syrian war looks like? You could certainly not understand much about the situation of people during Syrian war, through news bytes, isn’t it? What we see in the news is just data and numbers. But if you really want to understand about a family in Syria today, nothing else can teach you that like a fiction book does. If you want to put yourself in their shoes, nothing else can teach you like a book does. If I must make you understand the feelings of a Black man during a Civil War, nothing else can teach you like ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ book does.
You can then ask me, if I can’t understand Jews by watching a movie like ‘Schindler’s List’. Then my answer is, ‘You can’t!’. Let me tell you why you can’t.
Books over Visual Medium
Fiction
When we see a visual, our imagination becomes restricted. What they show in the screen will all be your whole imagination. And in a two-and-a-half or three hour movie… Let me say this for both fiction and non-fiction. First of all, for fiction, there undergoes a lot of compromise in a two-and-a-half hour movie. I’m telling you this using my limited knowledge on Film Making and my recent attempts in Script Writing… When we say something using Visual Media, there are a lot of restrictions in how an information is stored and how a situation is explained scene by scene. I can never replicate the depth of information found in a book, again in screens. If you do not believe what I say, you’ll understand what I say when you read a legendary story like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings and then watch the movies made out of those stories. The depths in the book and the logic found, wouldn’t be seen on screens. The makers skip a lot of things while making visual content because, we are ought to make a gripping story for the sake of all types of audiences. And, there are a lot of commercial compromises and other nuances. This is about fictional side.
In the non-fictional side, it is even more easier to explain. I am reading ‘Thinking Fast Thinking Slow’ right now. Daniel Kahneman has given a lot of speeches and I have listened to most of his speeches. The difference between his speeches and his books are that — his speeches are like a summary. It is easy. Let’s say I am talking to you now. Even if I do a scripted speech, I would have thought of something and will be speaking coherently. But, I can rehearse only to an extent. I can certainly not speak to you 10-hours at a stretch. I would be telling you things in a summarized way and I would have definitely skipped some of what I prepared. All speeches are like that. If someone wants to give a speech, they can take a simple topic and give an intensive lecture about it. Else, they can take a broader topic and give a summarized speech. That’s all they can do. Otherwise, complex and tougher topics can only be written.
This is not just about books. Think why we attach email documents? Why do we write Decisions taken in a Project? Can’t everybody keep those ideas in their mind itself and function based on that? They certainly can’t! Because, when you want someone to understand second order, third order, fourth order details, you must write them down! If you ask me why you should understand second/third/fourth order details and why not I read the summary alone, it just means you’re skimming through the contents and not getting into the details of it. You can never ever implement something using a summary, and without implementation knowledge is nothing.
When is knowledge useful? — an analogy
Let’s say you learn Psychology — if you cannot apply that anywhere in your life and you just know them as definitions… say you learnt what Cognitive Bias is just as a definition, then there is no use of it for just even a penny. Only if you can understand what role Cognitive Bias plays in your life and how it influences while you communicate with someone and how you can prevent Cognitive Bias from harming your life, only then it means you have understood the concept. Else, there is no difference at all between a person who doesn’t know something like Cognitive Bias exists and a person who just learns there is something like Cognitive Bias. Because, you don’t get any ROI from knowing it. Right?
Thus the need a of a non-fiction book is to understand second/third order details of a concept. To put it in a simpler way… I can know about any concept just by googling also. But if I want to implement a concept, I can do that only if I read the writings of who said what he said in what context. Why I say ‘writing’ is because of this… I can implement certain things even if I read a 5-page essay written by Paul Graham. I doesn’t necessarily have to read his books. But there is a world of difference between reading the writings of someone who has captured their thought process in-depth, and listening to just a summary of it. You can very well choose any of these — there is no harm in listening to reading a summary or a Ted talk. But, they are just ideas.
Why speeches are just a summary? — an analogy
Why do we go to work everyday? If I ask you what you worked for the whole 8–9 hours a day, you can very well say it in 10–15 minutes. But, why did you work for 8 hours? Why weren’t you able to complete the work in 10–15 minutes? Isn’t there a difference between the two? But if I document what I worked for 8 hours, it will come out as a 20-page essay. So, there will be depth and details in those 20-pages. It will contain details that a person misses to summarize by speech — because, they are second order details. Those details won’t be interesting when it is included in the speech and after all, every single thing cannot be told.
Some more about non-fiction
So, non-fiction book is needed when you definitely need in-depth knowledge on a subject. If you read a book like Sapiens, you’ll have an overall idea on why humans are like this with an added perception by Yuval Noah Harari. Say you read India after Gandhi — if you want to know what happened in India from 1947 till date, it’s very simple for me to show you newspaper snippets. You’ll get knowledge on Emergency period, who all became Prime Minister, whose Government was dissolved and all that. Keep that knowledge in one side and read India after Gandhi again. When you notice what kind of depth the book gives and the new perspectives it gives, you’ll understand what kind of mood it gives you. Because, there is lot of difference between just looking back at the events and understanding those events in the respective context’s setting. So when we read about all those events again as history or a story, there will be lot of richness.
Am I persuading you to read?
If you need all the above, you can try it out; else, not! Essentially, it all boils down to that. Not just this, anything else. Be it earning money, going to a job, travelling here and there, every single thing can be done only if you need. Else if any of these doesn’t give you happiness or if you feel doing any of these would make no difference in you, you need not do!
But someone does all that is because, whatever they have isn’t sufficient for them and they have a searching beyond themselves. Or they feel what rest of the world speaks is dumb, or they want to understand lot of things, or they want to experience a lot of cultures, or they want to know how people in this world lived 50 years before me. These depend on every individual’s interests. For instance, I can not read a cookbook… I cannot read a Physics book. I don’t have interest in these. If I am really interested in something and if I want to know it in-depth, then I learn it. Else if I am going to watch few speeches and do just name dropping, then I will just be like that. Again, I am not telling if it is right or not. This is all just implication of what a person needs. Who am I to judge the needs of another individual?
Summarizing the answers again…
The answer is simply this. The purpose of reading non-fiction is to develop skills. If that skill should necessarily help me earn money, not really! The purpose is to just enjoy my life and to relish. See Director Mysskin’s speech on why a Film Maker should read books — because they will relish in a better way.
If I know the story of… Who is that in Starry Night? Oops, I forgot his name.. How can I forget his name? Okay fuck!
Hint: he has been trying to mention about Vincent Van Gogh
If I know the 60-year after independence history of India, I can appreciate today’s Indian Politics, why people think this way, in a better way. If I know Kashmir’s history, I would understand why Kashmir people think in that way, or what a lockdown really is, why I feel lockdown is really a bad thing — my personal opinions will get formed about this. Otherwise, like how the common masses say, you will also say ‘Kashmir belongs to India and it is rational to keep Kashmir with India, right?’ Why you don’t think in a different way because you don’t know the history of Kashmir. But we are ready to tell out opinions even without knowing what about it. If you are read to tell an opinion but all you know about what has been happening there, what people on two sides of that place said, is all from the 4 tweets, 2 news bytes and from the opinion of a bunch of few other people, then what is that you really do to know better about it? Then what respect your opinions hold because it isn’t really your true opinion.
If a person really wants to know about something, they should really know the entire history about it. After knowing all that, they are free to take any side. They can even turn out to becoming a ferocious RSS folk — no harm at all in that. But, he must know and he must be fair about it. Being fair is equal to really knowing. This is about the non-fiction side.
In the fiction side, it is really simple. You have only one life and you are born in only one body. For example, you are born as a male and you’ll not understand what it means to be a female and you won’t understand how a female would think. You won’t understand what’s happening in Syria or the US. You won’t understand each and every place, story and time at all. So, what does it mean to be a person at particular point in time? If you want to get into the world of how someone had been, who lived in a setting, in a context, the only opportunity is through fiction. Be it Visual Medium or Videos or anything else — none of these would give you that opportunity! In everything else you’ll just be a spectator. The only place where you could be a participant, is through fictions.
All right? This is why you should read fiction, this is why you should read non-fiction!”
