Annie Dillard He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, for that is what he will know.
The things we read shape how we see the world. The books, articles, or newspapers we read are the words of others; they open someone else’s world. If we’re not careful of what we consume, we may let immoral or trivial ideas affect us. Especially when we’re writing—shaping our thoughts—others’ ideas will influence ours. And in turn, our text will influence our readers. The information we receive every day also comes at a cost. Selective learning is the challenge of our modern world. We can’t, and shouldn’t, turn all the information we receive into a piece of knowledge. We have to be picky and discard 99% of the information around us, especially what people call the latest ones. Then, we must discard the 99% of the remaining 1%. Only the remaining ideas will be worth knowing.
- Related Note(s):
- 2: How to Improve Writing;
- 20b: Sharing knowledge is not a noise;
- 25d: Commitment gives you freedom;
- 29a: Bet on things that won’t change;
- 52a: Accepting one thing requires saying no to other things;
- 64: Why Inspectional Reading?;
- 65: Learning and Understanding;
- 69: Reading and Criticizing with Enough Generosity;
