If you don't read, prepare to sneed

Reading is good if you want to get ahead and not get replaced by AI

I’m writing this assuming you want to get ahead, that you want to be successful and innovative in what ever it is you are doing or pursuing and limit the risk of being replaced by “AI”

By “get ahead”, I mean to be ahead of the curve, first mover advantage kind of stuff. If you want to be a leader, not a follower. If you want to have specific, exclusive deep knowledge and skills that not many have. IF this is something you are trying to make a living at, having exclusive, deep, specific knowledge makes all the difference. The ability to problem using your own knowledge and experience.

Learning is always very important if you want to make the most from your human life. Ideally we continue learning until we leave this place. There are different ways to learn and different types of lessons to be learned. Some we learn through experience, some we learn through others who share their knowledge and experience.

For some time now, books and reading have been one of the best ways to learn from the knowledge and experience of others. I kind of feel stupid writing this because it seems to obvious BUT I’ve come across more and more people that try and learn new things and do not read.

They refuse to read and instead choose to learn from youtube/tiktok etc videos.

No doubt that learning from videos is very useful but when you do this you are not learning from the source of the information. In most all cases the person making the videos did the reading for you and then transmuted it into video form for you to easily and quickly consume.

Now this is great for quick fixes, I need to learn X now.

BUT when you learn this way you are like a robot just following the instructions given to you. You do not learn the why or the how, you just “learn” if I press this button or type this command I get the output I want.

Now if you have been paying attention to the LLM/”AI” space- these “AI’s” can follow instructions better and faster than any of us at scale, they never need to sleep, they work for far less than any human.

So what I’m saying if you are simply watching videos to learn, just following the instructions of others without knowing the why’s or how’s you are going to be replaced very soon..

Example- “coding” by copy/pasting or copying from a video tutorial or copy/pasting from an AI itself and not understanding even what you are doing because you are only focused on the output. Soon you will not be needed to do this- the LLM/”AI” will do it all itself.

Now the above example versus you studying programming by reading the books and understanding the how’s and the why’s- you know this is what the people that created the LLM’s/AI did.

When you understand the why’s/how’s by reading the source material of whatever it is you are studying you have an advantage over everyone who receives the second hand material through videos and the like.

A big issue in the middle of all this is impatience and people’s desire for instant gratification. With video tutorials you can “learn” how to do something instantly(with everyone else watching becoming your competition), you receive extremely shallow knowledge and little to no understanding of what you’re doing.

Reading takes time so you don’t get instant gratification but you get deeper knowledge and an understanding of what you’re doing so you can choose different ways to apply the knowledge and solve problems when they happen.

Also through reading you can read all you want you don’t need to wait for the “content drip” of whoever you are watching videos from.

If these “content drippers” have made a business out of this- it is in their best business interest to drip as little information as possible to keep you coming back and/or get you to sign up for further paid courses to receive more drip.

Readers can get all the information they want and that invaluable deep knowledge without having to wait for the mommy bird(“content dripper”) to shove some new food into their mouth, waiting with the other helpless baby birds.

Another example- in the world of investing- you can watch videos by investor “guru’s” on Youtube or Tiktok and just do what they say. Mindlessly buying and selling things you don’t understand in hopes you are being led down the correct path.

OR you can read the white papers yourself, you can research various companies, read the charts yourself, read about trends and technologies so you have an idea of what you’re doing with your money and why.

The reader always gets ahead-

I’ve gotten advantages in several areas of life simply because I read when others around me did not. “How do you know all this?!” - “Because I read about it?” SHRUGGING MAN

Shiiiiit and today just go to Libgen and download any book you want for free if you can’t afford to buy the book so now not having the $ is not an excuse if you have an internet connection and a device.

People that can read that don’t read are just lazy. Lazy people don’t usually get ahead, they get left behind.

If instead of reading you’re watching TV, playing games or with your phone and/or just sitting around getting high/drunk you are NOT going to get ahead, you are going to get left behind.

You are going to get replaced by “AI”

Why do we need you if you don’t have any deep knowledge with the ability to improvise and problem solve without following the “tutorials” of others?

We don’t need you and you will be replaced.

The truth is most people get left behind, thats just how it is. I’m writing this for the people that really do want to get ahead in whatever it is they are pursuing.

So read the manuals, read the white papers, read the books, read the articles, read the research papers- just read if you don’t want to be a baby bird waiting for a “content dripper” to feed you so you can do another neat trick that you don’t understand.

Read so that you can write your own “tricks”