The Cry for Self-learning
You won’t have to take a test on this text, nor will you be evaluated, so reading is not necessary. It is highly recommended that you skip this publication.
Contrary to popular belief, the habit of reading is not about accumulating records of books read in a week. There is a fundamental difference between the act of reading and the feat of absorbing knowledge. The traditional education system obliges us to consume books and fill our brains with as much information as possible to have an indigestion of “knowledge” and unload rote memorization in order to achieve that desired grade. The maximum grade that will prove to your peers, parents, and teachers that you meet the intelligence standards established by the respected academic world while imprisoning your mind within the limits imposed by the curricula.
Throughout history, humanity has been blessed with thinking minds that couldn’t fit into just one title, labeled as homo universalis, they understood that through the fire of discipline and the flame of curiosity and investigation, they were capable of developing any new skills that would be useful to them to create what was born in the space of their minds. True polymaths accelerated the clock of human development by solving problems that did not exist before.
Leonardo Da Vinci 1452–1519
Scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, poet, and musician
Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira 1849–1923
Jurist, lawyer, politician, diplomat, writer, philologist, journalist, translator, and orator.
J. R. R. Tolkien 1892–1973
Military, linguist, professor, translator, philologist, poet, illustrator, historian, essayist, children’s author, prose writer, and literary critic.
The issue at hand is the difference between being a human Wikipedia who loves to mention in friend circles the historical accuracy of the day Napoleon stumbled upon a piece of gravel and being a wise human who can apply with perspicacity the valuable words of an author in an important professional or personal decision moment of their life.
Reading by obligation is more of a penance than an act of evolution. Now the awakening reading of the soul, born from the fruit of curiosity, is the one that has the power to move mountains because when there is a genuine interest in researching a subject, the absorption of the words read and the magical pollination of knowledge in the atmosphere of the mind occurs in a much more natural and efficient way. The former requires accumulating stacks of books, the latter does not even require finishing a book or reading a Wikipedia page to the end, only rationality to validate the truth of what is being consumed through reason and data correlation. The challenge, and at the same time, the secret, is to cultivate the gift of curiosity, the notorious search for wisdom that fundamentally differs from knowledge.
The strategy? Go to a bookstore without the intention of buying, in the same way, we do with clothes and other material goods that, unlike knowledge, lose their value over time and spend your money instead of generating more wealth in the long term. From the moment you are in an environment of treats for your brain, everything becomes easier. It’s just a matter of flirting with the available covers and titles, questioning which type of field of study makes the most sense for your profession or personality today. Fiction to inspire your heart with art? Self-help to serve as support for therapy? Philosophy to poke you and develop your critical thinking? History to teach you from past mistakes? Politics to make you a more active citizen in society? Psychology to make you a better marketing professional? Infinite possibilities are written by an infinity of brilliant minds.
The action plan? Surround yourself with books. Spread books around your office, bedroom, or living room. Set traps for your mind, which is bombarded daily by distractions, and remind it that right there, next to your coffee cup, or on your cat taking a nap on top of a copy of Sophie’s World, is that book that once piqued your interest and is constantly flirting with the idea of teaching you something new. The most important thing is not to pressure yourself; it’s the book that desires you, not the other way around. There is no obligation to read or finish it, no pressure, and you don’t need to prove to anyone, not even yourself if you really understood those pages.
The magic? This part will blow your mind, so don’t drop your phone. When the book talks about your curiosity, everything changes. Every word, every sentence, and every idea that travels from the book’s page to the dimension of your intellect becomes a part of you forever. Even if the reading doesn’t make sense at the time, there won’t be an evaluation waiting for you to test if you learned it; your brain will have as much time as it needs to calmly process and savor that gift.
When you least expect it, in a few weeks, months, or even years, at a decisive moment in your life, your brain will give back to you the effort you put into studying autonomously in the past. It will highlight your work or help you solve a personal challenge.
