Hereâs how they can accelerate your learning.
Do you ever feel guilty about the book staple you havenât read? Polymath Nassim Nicholas Taleb says you shouldnât:
âRead books are far less valuable than unread ones.â
Yes, you read it right. The pages you havenât studied indeed add value to your life. Hereâs why.
Antilibraries protect you from ignorance
When you just read a few books in your life, youâre likely aware of what you donât know. But once youâve read through some hundred books, you tend to become ignorant.
You might be too confident, too sure, and less aware of the things you donât know. Thatâs where antilibraries come into play.
The books you havenât read (and will never read) assemble your antilibrary.
They represent unknowledge and are the best cure for overconfidence. Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes:
âA private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool.â
Antilibraries help you overcome the biggest enemy
The illusion of knowledgeâââthe things you think you knowâââis learningâs biggest enemy. The authors of the learning bible âMake it Stickâ write:
âThe illusion of mastery is an example of poor metacognition: what we know about what we know. Being accurate in your judgment of what you know and donât know is critical for decision making.â
Stuart Firestein, professor of Biology at Columbia University, adds an important point:
âWe know a lot of stuff but of course there is more stuff that we donât know. And not only is there more stuff that we donât knowâââbut the more we know, the more we increase the amount of stuff we donât know, because there was all that stuff that we didnât know that we didnât know before. [âŠ]
An image I always like is of a circle of knowledgeâââbut as the circle grows, as the diameter increases, so does the circumference thatâs in contact with all that darkness outside the circle of lightâââthat ignorance.â
When youâre convinced, you know something, learning something new means you have to change your mind.
People who donât want to change their minds keep stuck in the same place. So overcoming our egos is one of the big learning challenges.
Antilibraries accelerate your learning
âYou will never read all those books,â friends say when they look at my want-to-read list. The list grows by 2â3 books every day.
My friends are right. Even though I read 1â2 books a week, I will only get through some of them.
But thatâs the point: My antilibrary is a constant reminder of what I donât know. It helps me stay curious and humble. Psychologist Adam Grant writes:
âNo matter how much brainpower you have, if you lack the motivation to change your mind, youâll miss many occasions to think again.â
How to move forward
Donât ever feel discouraged by the books you havenât read. Instead, see them as a reminder to be humble and curious. Combined, theyâre the essential ingredients for life-long learning.
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