Hacking the Brain of a Dumb Kid
Letter Zero 12
Dear friend,
Let me just spoil the punch line right away. The dumb kid in the subject line of this email is me. I realized I was dumb in third grade. That’s when the grownups tricked me.
They told me I was lucky. There was only room for three students and I had been selected for a very special program.
When the big day arrived, I was excused from class along with two of my “lucky” friends. Outside an RV was waiting for us. A little old lady gave us a tour of the RV and we imagined the fantastic voyages we would soon be embarking on. I remember actually climbing into the loft and asking if that was where we would sleep. Dumb kid.
After explaining that we wouldn’t be leaving the parking lot, the old lady got out a book and started reading with us. Suddenly the truth of the situation dawned on me. Wait a minute. We weren’t special at all. We were the three worst students in class and they thought they could trick us into learning how to read. I was locked in that RV and soon everyone at school would think I couldn’t read.
I was furious. And embarrassed. To escape the RV prison, I needed to prove to the teachers that I could read. Almost instantly my reading grade improved. If anyone tried to give the RV lady credit for my remarkable strides I quickly corrected them by explaining, “No, that lady is a fruit cake. Trust me. This whole misunderstanding was my teacher’s mistake. That idiot can’t tell the smart students from the dumb ones.”
Perhaps the reading RV experience is why I have never considered myself a good reader. I read slowly. I struggle to finish books. I don’t read for pleasure. And yet I want to read more.
Last year I figured out how to hack my brain to read more books. I want to share the trick with you. This is going to sound ridiculously simple, but here it is. Give yourself permission. Let me explain.
I tend to be stingy with money, so buying books feels like a wasteful purchase when books are free at the library. My reading increased dramatically after I gave myself an unlimited book budget. 1. Give yourself permission to buy books guilt-free.
You also need to give yourself permission to abandon books. Nothing is worse for a reading habit than a book that sits half-read on your desk blocking whatever book is next in line. 2. Give yourself permission to abandon unfinished books.
Finally, for too long, I clung to a belief that audio books don’t count as books you have read. After all, listening is different than reading. If you feel that way, too, it is time to abandon that belief. And if the price of an Audible subscription intimidates you, remember we gave ourselves an unlimited budget. 3. Give yourself permission to listen to audio books.
The final obstacle is the big one. How do we find time to read? I have some hacks for that, too, but I will save them for another letter.
I will write again next Sunday. Stay creative.
Your friend,
Adrian
P.S. If you are looking for book recommendations, here are the top ten books I read last year.
Quiet, by Susan Cain
Range, by David Epstein
The Innovators, by Walter Isaacson
Technopoly, by Neil Postman
Grunch of Giants, by R. Buckminster Fuller
Stealing Fire, by Steven Kotler
Loonshots, by Safi Bahcall
Loserthink, by Scott Adams
Antifragile, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Dune, by Frank Herbert
By the way, if you are on GoodReads, let’s follow each other.