Define productivity first. Also, even if one does not read books (or especially papers), he still will ask friends and colleagues about programming-related thi

Define productivity first. Also, even if one does not read books (or especially papers), he still will ask friends and colleagues about programming-related things. And those friends and colleagues may be avid readers of books (or especially academic papers). Even other's code can be considered derived from books (or especially academic papers). So this uneducated yet productive programmer is unable to escape reading literature by proxy.