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There’s much more to the story than writing is a way of thinking, and reading is a big input into writing. Specifically, how each interplay with ideas, as most
by npunt 4y ago
There’s much more to the story than writing is a way of thinking, and reading is a big input into writing. Specifically, how each interplay with ideas, as most of us after all are in the business of creating things. And here, the most important bit is not reading, its curiosity. Curiosity about others’ ideas drives reading, curiosity about one’s own ideas drives writing.
The time we spend chasing each type of curiosity is important. If we want to create, reading must have it’s limits, and sometimes pretty harsh limits, else we’ll be infected with others ideas about everything. Some choice quotes on this:
"When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process..." "This is the case with many learned persons: they have read themselves stupid." - Arthur Schopenhauer
"Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking" - Albert Einstein
"If you read all the time what other people have done you will think the way they thought. If you want to think new thoughts that are different, then do what a lot of creative people do - get the problem reasonably clear and then refuse to look at any answers until you've thought the problem through carefully how you would do it, how you could slightly change the problem to be the correct one. You need to keep up more to find out what the problems are than to read to find the solutions. The reading is necessary to know what is going on and what is possible. But reading to get the solutions does not seem to be the way to do great research. So I'll give you two answers. You read; but it is not the amount, it is the way you read that counts." - Dick Hamming
EDIT: On the other hand, if you first principles all your thinking and just write write write, you may spend hours on something that could be understood and moved on from in seconds. This meme explains the reading/writing spectrum quite well: https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/vwq8yh/this_true/ https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/vwq8yh/this_true/
- dj_mc_merlin 4y agoExcuse me if this is rude but there is an irony to using others' words to argue one should think for themselves more.
- woolion 4y agoIt's a variant on the 'doubt paradox' (somebody telling you "you should not believe everything people tell you") itself a variant of the Epimenides paradox (simply known as the liar paradox): a bunch of people who have read more than you tell you to be careful about not reading too much.
- npunt 4y agoHah on the surface I suppose. But I’m not arguing whether people should think for themselves, I’m arguing that it matters when people should think for themselves. If you’re more curious about others ideas on a given topic than your own ideas, then you should absolutely read!
- unsafecast 4y agoI think this is more about credibility - GP made a pretty good argument without the quotes. But the fact that Albert Einstein supposedly agrees puts a lot more weight onto it.
- woolion 4y agoGood list of quotes! I would add one by Nietzsche: “Ultimately no one can hear in things―books included―more than he already knows.” Reading can help you formalize, or put established concepts upon what you have already understood, even if only unconsciously. I remember the gist of a quote about the need to read as much as possible in a young age to inform a Weltanschauung (world view) from which in adulthood you're supposed to build on, but can't remember any source.
- achow 4y ago> ..most of us after all are in the business of creating things.. If we want to create, reading must have it’s limits, and sometimes pretty harsh limits, lest we be infected with others ideas about everything. The point perhaps is what PG is saying "A good writer will almost always discover new things in the process of writing." Writing is creating and the process of creation is about discovery. When one is sculpting a clay, one is discovering materials and its properties, one is discovering ones emotions, and infact one could be discovering or understanding oneself (this ignoring the pre creation phase where one is discovering and studying art movements, various sculptors, their ideas and techniques...). Any creation process roughly follows same patterns unless you are a facsimile creator.
- Kaibeezy 4y agoWild guess… Schopenhauer, Einstein, et al, were referring to their peers and associates, many sigmas out on the curve. I’m imagining a sensor of the larger sample reaching the “reading limit”; it would make a neutrino detector look like fireworks at a disco.
- npunt 4y agoThe quotes are for the most part about ideas and creativity being stifled by reading, and this can happen to anyone - it's related to the curse of knowledge and the preservation of the beginner's mind. Reading others' ideas, especially polished ones with a lot of authority behind them, can act as a filter on one's own (delicate, barely formed) ideas. Ideas already have a difficult path into reality, and others' biases and filters are one major contributor. I regularly choose not to read on a given subject if I have an idea I want to explore or to clarify my own thinking, and only afterwards do I consult what others have said. Usually I wind up in the same place (or a crude version of that) but sometimes I find a new insight and those are worth it!
- Kaibeezy 4y agoIt can happen to anyone, but does happen to you. Thank your lucky sigmas.
- amadeuspagel 4y agoAnd when Schopenhauer wrote this, it was much harder to find stuff to read, so his advice is all the more important today.
- philwelch 4y agoTo your counterpoint, I always liked this quote: “I’m one of the few people you’ll meet who’s written more books than they’ve read.” —Garth Merenghi