The content explores the common skepticism surrounding the value of reading, particularly among teenagers, by identifying two main types of readers who doubt its immediate benefits and offering a mindset shift towards embracing reading as a long-term knowledge-building process.
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if i tell you right now that reading is
good as you probably have heard from
years growing up for your parents or
your teachers
will you agree with me
most likely right
so most of us know that reading is good
for us
so why is it that we aren't always
carrying around a book with us like we
would to something that's supposed to be
good for us
well i'm really not here to criticize
you for not doing so i myself think that
not everybody has to do that to prove
let me tell you about my experience with reading
reading
growing up i've always loved it i used
to read
magazines fairy tales comic books back
when i was a kid
back in secondary school i would read
novels and science books
then came the peak of my so-called
reading career in grade 7 where i was
doubling up the quantity of books i was
reading and at the same time i became
extremely selective with what i read
actually to tell you the truth
being selective is what i read is just a
fancy way to cover up the real thing
that happened back then which is me
wasting a lot of time questioning
whether or not i should pick up a book
let me just describe to you exactly what
was happening back then i
i
stood in front of a stack of books like this
this
and i would think well
if i read this book is that going to
help me solve my homework no
then i'm not going to read it
and i call that being selective because
i thought that was good but
but
eventually i realized that i was not
being productive at all and i started
asking myself why
because i was doing something that was
supposed to be good which was being selective
selective
but then i ended up wasting time instead
so after
years of observing and you know
reflecting on what i did back then i
have come to notice something in
teenagers that i would like to call the
skepticism in the power of reading
so what is skepticism in the power of
reading to me
i would like to define my
definition of skepticism in reading as
having doubts in the process of reading or
or
thinking of reading as a means to solve
an immediate problem
so for this type of skepticism of
reading or over practical approach to
reading i classify these people into two types
types
the first type are the people who never
really give reading a chance because
they cannot possibly think of how
reading can help them in any way
the second type of people are those who
have actually had fierce beliefs in the
power of books but after not seeing
themselves getting instant results
they give up and their belief is
shattered into strong disbelief
for both of these types there are some
mindset shifts that they're going to
have to make in order to break free from
now let us get started with the first
type the over practical
these people are those who spend time
sitting to convince themselves that
reading cannot possibly help them get
better in any way
they cannot see how reading this book is
going to make their lives immediately
better for example if i'm having this
really difficult math homework and
reading this book is not going to help
then i'm not going to do it
that is the mindset of people in type 1.
now if you ask these people if they
think reading is good
they're really likely to say yes so they
do think that reading is good
but easier said than done they only look
at the short-term benefits of reading
which is how it's going to benefit them today
today
tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to
which they do not see any possibility of
what they read changing anything
don't get me wrong though these people
are not lazy in fact on the bright side
they may be someone who is extremely
result oriented and particular with what
they spend their time on
however as they think of reading as a
means to solve an immediate problem or
simply consider it as temporary motivation
motivation
they start questioning the process of
reading if it doesn't actually help them
for example to solve their homework
i have been in this position to be
honest with you
and while you may think that
well why is it so hard to convince these
people to maybe just give reading a chance
chance
it's really not that easy
let me just play it out how a
conversation with this type of person
would go
you would tell them why is it so hard
just to try reading to see if it works
for you
them with their super logic would say
would you study literature to get better
at math
obviously you're not going to study
literature to get better at math right
and that is their logic if it doesn't
help me solve my homework if it doesn't
help me get better at school immediately
why should i waste hours on it
so now moving on to the next type which
is the disbelievers
these people are interesting as in they
used to have strong beliefs in books
they used to be the ones like me
standing here right now telling you that
reading is good
but the thing is after reading several
times and not seeing themselves turning
into geniuses overnight
they give up
they lose the motivation
so for this type of people the problem
really isn't with their expectations for
results because as leaders we should
always expect an outcome to come out of
everything that we do
the problem is with their degree of
expectations that they set for their results
results
when you read something and you expect
results to come overnight in reality it
doesn't turn out that way it can be
extremely discouraging and even frustrating
frustrating
so therefore no matter how strong your
initial belief in books were
you eventually just stop believing in
them and then you refuse by what you
consider a package of waste of time and
energy along with a complimentary gift
of disappointment ever again and that's
how we arrive at the second type of people
now
for both types there are some
realizations that they are going to have
to make in order to break themselves
free from these limiting beliefs
the problem with type 1 is that they
limit themselves to only what they think
can happen
for example if i'm reading this book i
need to know exactly how it's going to
benefit me and i need to see that scenario
scenario
but really among the many things that we
can predict what happens to us failures
and especially opportunities
is not one of them
you should not be overly worried about
how what you read today will benefit you
tomorrow and be overly attached to how
exactly that will play out because we
don't know
i know that right now you have the
energy the time the curiosity to learn
i don't know if that also holds true for
back when i was having this problem as well
well
there was this story
that really inspired me to maybe step
out of my comfort zone to test this
theory out
it's a story about steve jobs i came
across so we know who steve jobs is
right hello iphone users
he is the ceo and founder of apple and
and
i mean this guy we all know that he is
really good right he graduated from stanford
stanford
he is one of the geniuses that we know
we know that he runs apple so basically
he does what has to do with information
technology and business so we would
expect a person like this to be stuffed
with knowledge from business books and
books on i.t
but back in university
he took a calligraphy class just for fun
so what calligraphy is basically to put
it simply the art of writing fancy
letters that you can see in
cards and birthday cards you know what
i'm talking about
he took it just for fun
and personally for me i would never
imagine a way calligraphy would help
with someone who is doing business in
information and technology
and maybe he didn't know how that would
help either
but eventually
his knowledge on calligraphy the
knowledge that he took from that
calligraphy class
came into use when he was designing the
interface for the macbook
this story really inspired me to maybe
try out and stop doubting so much of
whether or not what i'm learning now
will come to use in the future
and i've now i've come to learn that
every single piece of knowledge that you
are taking in
will come back to help you at one point
in your life
especially when you least expect it
that is why you should stop doubting so
much about whether or not you should
learn something
be selective with your time but don't be
so doubtful that you're wasting your
energy on it
there's this quote from the book the
course to be disliked by ichiro kishimi
and fumitakikoga that i really love
it is it is about the future as you can
see on the slide right here
the lives that lies ahead of you is a
completely blank page and there is no
chat that has been laid out for you to follow
follow
there is no story there
i don't want you to be overly obsessed
with how the future will play out that
you waste so much of your present time
doubting instead of being productive
i don't want you to be worried about
opportunities not coming
the question that i want you to ask
yourself is
when these opportunities you want come
are you going to be are you going to be
now moving on to the second type
these people are those who
disbelieve in book just because success
does not come overnight and they fail to
realize that
now i also have my personal story with this
this
back in grade 8
i was kind of bad at math
there was this geometry test where score
pretty low
i didn't like that at all so i came home
i found a geometry book that i would
read and i expected myself to become
genius immediately next week
the following week there was a test
i did it
the score got returned it wasn't a lot better
better
the week afterward i also did a test
it also didn't get a lot better than the
previous one
so then i came home and i was like yo
you see obviously reading this book is
not gonna help because i wasn't even
reading on the topic that i was doing at
school back then so i just threw it
aside and told myself that you know next
time if i score low on a test just don't
count to extra reading it doesn't help
well life really loved throwing
surprises at us
right the following semester at school
we did every single thing that i had
previously read on
now it took me an
entire semester for what i read to be
useful and it could have been any time frame
frame
three months
six months even a year
don't set your expectations too high unrealistic
unrealistic
think of reading as a process of
layering your knowledge building layer
after layer until you're competent
enough that opportunities start coming
to you
i've heard the saying although i don't
exactly remember where i heard it
but when you're competent enough what
you want the opportunities the people
the networks they will all start coming
to you your job is not to predict your
job is to get yourself prepared and
ready to take those opportunities when
now just to sum it up you may find
yourself in one of these two types i
talked about
maybe you are just hesitating a lot to
pick up a book because you cannot
convince yourself how it's going to help you
you
or maybe you have had strong beliefs in
them but eventually you get disappointed
because they didn't give you results as
fast as you expected
the solution i would like to propose
here for you
the first and hardest thing that you are
going to have to do
is to shift your mindset
you need to shift your mindset from the
mindset of doubting questioning
questioning
and over worrying about the future
to the mindset of learning and focusing
on the task at hand which is reading
when you're too busy focusing on
doubting and questioning which isn't
really productive
you're actually going to miss out on a
lot of knowledge that you should be
acquiring from reading
now if you're comfortable with the idea
of doing a lot of seemingly irrelevant
reading then you can start small give
yourself a time frame of maybe three or
six months and then every month include
a book that is of the topic that you
have never read on before
start with something that may be
relevant to you maybe start something
that is in the field of study you intend
to go for later on
then every month just try to step out of
your comfort zone as you go along pick a
book of a field that you've never tried
before of something that you've always
been interested in but you think that
have nothing to do with you
i want you to think of this as stepping
out of your comfort zone
you don't know if what i'm saying is
true or not and i do not encourage
anyone to blindly believe the words of someone
someone
until you have actually experienced it yourself
yourself
so i would like to invite you to try
this and see if it works for you
maybe you'll find that reading is
actually great and you regret not having
started it earlier or maybe you would
just once again confirm that i'm not
telling the truth at all and it doesn't
work for you
either way you're not going to regret
having seeked out the answer because
this is stepping out of your comfort
zone to try out something that you've
never tried before
this is seeking the ques the answers for
the questions that you have and that is
what leaders do they have to seek
the answers for the questions that
nobody else has the courage to go seek for
for
either way
you doing something to test it out
into the unknown stepping out of your
comfort zone is really recognizable already
already
but if you're the one who's holding
yourself back
from receiving the benefits of reading
that it can bring to you
now is the time for you to step up from
these limiting beliefs and become the
leaders that you have the potentials to be
be
thank you [Applause]
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