#188 - Why you should scroll less and read more
Here's some more 'year-setting' food for thought, from an Inc article about billionaire Warren Buffet's self-professed secret to success, which anyone - even a lowly editor like me - can benefit from:
Buffett calls this famous formula the key to his success. It's actually a rule that he follows religiously:
Go to bed a little smarter each day.
He says, "That's how knowledge builds up. Like compound interest." In theory, the Buffett formula should give you an advantage over a lifetime, as it has for Buffett.
And the best way to launch it into daily practice is to do what Buffett does every day: Exercise your mind.
— Marcel Schwantes
In exercising his mind, Buffet aims to read 500 pages a day.
– I don't have time for that?!
Oh yeah?
Open up your daily Screen Time stats on your phone and think again.
Full disclosure my daily average seems to be about 4 hours!
Even if you don't have capacity for 500 pages, (sadly, I don't either) setting aside the time to read even a handful of pages, every day, will add up over the year.
Apparently, these days, the average book has bloated to about 400 pages, so here's some math:
- 5 x 365 = 1,825 pages / 400 = 4.5 books
- 10 x 365 = 3650 pages / 400 = 9 books
- 15 x 365 = 5,475 pages / 400 = 13.5 books
On average there is about 250-300 words per printed page, consumed at an average reading speed of about 300 words per minute, which makes for a page a minute.
At maybe a book a month, for just 15 minutes reading a day, that's not too shabby at all and that's at only 3% Buffet!