Humans are born to be social. We’ve survived and thrived by connecting, sharing, and teaching. Drugs are also social in nature; they’re more fun when shared. It’s only natural that drug use would spread in college, when social connections are at peak importance.
Reading a book is an individual activity. A book is not easily shared, not social, sometimes difficult, and often not fun. Books, in many ways, go against our very nature. You can live a happy life after college without ever picking up a book.
And yet, very often the most successful people have also read the most books:
“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none, zero.” ~ Charles Munger, billionaire investor
“I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.” ~ Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and the fourth wealthiest person in the world
“I did the reading.” ~ writer David Foster Wallace in response to how he got to be so smart
I just finished reading Kyle Winey’s Hackiversity: The Secrets to Achieving More by Doing Less in College. I wish I had it when I was in college. If you’re in college right now (or will be soon) I’ll send you my copy of the book, for free. Just send me an e-mail and tell me where to ship it: maloneyj@fredonia.edu.
If you don’t respond first, it’s only $10 on Amazon.
