Surviving the Information Age: How To Hack Reading in 5 Steps

Reading is the most important skill to develop in the 21st century. Here’s why:

TLDR: reading is the ultimate highway for information upload into your brain, and to upgrade at the pace needed to navigate the technologically-accelerated 21st century, being able to learn new skills at speed and at scale is non-optional.

To that end, I’m going to show you how to maximise the bandwidth of your best natural information highway — reading. These techniques will help you increase your leverage per unit time spent reading, i.e. helping you extract maximum informational value for minimum time invested.

1. Books do not have to be read linearly — find the shortcuts.

Reading a book front to back, cover to cover, is like grinding away at a 9–5 job, processing data for your line manager to review.

Extracting the introduction and conclusion is like having your entire analytics team crunching through terabytes of data overnight, drawing out the key findings and summarising them for you to inform your next strategic move.

I’m guessing you’d rather be the CEO.

The mindset that defines prodigious readers is their freedom from the impulse to read front to back, cover to cover. You do not need to do this. The author has already done the intellectual heavy lifting for you, condensing the book’s argument into an introduction and a conclusion. Many chapters will mirror this structure internally.

Books contain intellectual leverage — find and exploit it ruthlessly.

2. Books providing an insufficient return on investment do not need to be finished.

Reading requires an investment of time, which means it comes with an opportunity cost. Ploughing joylessly through a book for the sake of completion may mean missing out on starting the one that could change your life — and the reality of reading is that you’ll never know which book will do this, no matter how many recommendation lists you study.

I’ll admit — there’s something deeply satisfying about turning the last page of a book, closing the cover and placing it back on the shelf. And there’s absolutely a time and a place for that — great books, often fiction, have that power to spellbind you thoroughly from beginning to end, and it’s truly magical.

But don’t be blinded by completionism. Books are there to serve you — once you’ve paid for them, take them off their ceremonial pedestals and make them prove their worth.

3. Use book reviews and authors’ promotional work to hack your reading list

Hacking a reading list is like peeking at the top of a deck during a card game, in that it can save you a lot of money if you don’t like what you see, and be very rewarding if you do. And since time is money, here’s how to hack your list and start cashing in.

Most authors these days promote their work through interviews, lectures, op-eds or podcasts — after all, books are a business. Which means, in a brief op-ed for example, the author will summarise the key thesis from their book. Better yet, in the hands of a good interviewer or podcast host, they will not only summarise their argument but will often build upon the book’s ideas, sharing new insights and opening up new avenues of enquiry. Layer a couple of these bits of content together with a book review, and you have a solid idea of the top cards in the deck.

So even before you turn a page, you can make a pretty good assessment of whether it’s worth your time. Be informed and invest wisely.

4. Organise your reading list and reading medium to pick the right book for each situation.

You know those books that are so dense with brilliant ideas and insights that it is physically exhausting to read them?

Contrary to the advice of productivity gurus, you won’t want to be listening to these books while out on a gruelling run. Rather, you’ll want to dedicate a solid block of time to sit down and wrestle with them, armed with caffeine on the desk and in the bloodstream.

On the other hand, “lighter” books are often most efficiently devoured in audiobook form, consumable over the course of a long run or commute. And yes, the 2x speed button is always there if you really want to lever up.

Not all books are the same, so don’t read them in the same way.

5. Don’t be afraid to stop and smell the roses.

Most of these principles may seem clinical — you might even consider the approach somewhat cold and dispassionate. But this is entirely by design. Following these principles maximises your time to enjoy those books where you might want to meander leisurely through the pages, stopping to smell the roses.

Not only are these two approaches compatible, they are entirely complementary to one another. Having the discipline to avoid the siren songs of completionism and linear reading frees you to indulge in the best that literature has to offer.

In other words, you really can have your cake and eat it.

Final thoughts

Ultimately, reading is a skill that needs to be nurtured and practised. Like all skills worth mastering, it takes time and effort, and while the above strategies will undoubtedly improve your efficiency, they are no substitue for patience and practice.

So work hard, but work smart — your brain will adapt to the stimulus, and your information upload bandwidth will improve dramatically.