Maybe one analogy to professional sports would be something like "Watching film". As a professional athlete, you need to be constant watching film so you know

Maybe one analogy to professional sports would be something like "Watching film". As a professional athlete, you need to be constant watching film so you know how other players are playing and what they're doing. However, at some point you also need to be on the court practicing and playing games so you can use that knowledge for something productive. Being too obsessed with reading would be like a pro athlete who only watches film and never plays the game. At some point, you have to be playing the game. Otherwise, you're no different than just an obsessive sports fan.