Reading is vague. It could mean anything, and can absolutely be shallow. Successful people just have a portion of their life that produces something valuable to

Reading is vague. It could mean anything, and can absolutely be shallow. Successful people just have a portion of their life that produces something valuable to others. You can be a celebrated boxer while not even knowing how to read. Taleb once mentioned the story of a futures trader who made a killing with green lumber while thinking it was literally lumber painted green. The trader didn't know the first thing about the product itself, but they knew and could perform the actions that really mattered to the goal of trading. Many professions require reading to be successful, but it's more the case that getting the necessary information would not be realistically possible without reading at some point. People in that position don't read for its own sake in their work life (whether they read for pleasure is another story), they go find the information they need in the format it exists in. This is then confused as "reading makes you successful" but it is as trivial a statement as "having the right information makes you successful"