For me it comes down to diminishing marginal returns. I figure that the first time I read a book I might retain 50% of what is written. Just the big picture stu

For me it comes down to diminishing marginal returns. I figure that the first time I read a book I might retain 50% of what is written. Just the big picture stuff. Reading through that book again, I might retain an additional 20% of what the book has to offer. I’ll probably remember a lot more details this time around but I already had a general understanding of the concepts going into the second read. With each additional reading after that I may pick up on some new and interesting nuances that I did not understand the first few times around but I am really only adding a few more percentage points of understanding towards some hypothetical “Complete understanding”. With this in mind, there are really only a select few books that are worth the opportunity cost of beginning another. I think that if you are reading to better yourself professionally however, there is good reason to revisit old topics since a few more percentage points of understanding might make a big difference when it comes to job performance relative to others in your field. This idea is probably best on display in athletics. Take baseball. The difference in skill between a minor league baseball player and one playing in the MLB relative to the skill level of the broader population is minuscule. However, to make any money playing baseball you have to be in the .000001% of the talent pool and thus it is worth it for minor league ball players to spend a great deal of time for just a few points boost in there batting average.