What Kind of Relationship Do You Have With Information?

I love learning.

If I take time to myself, I’m probably going to end up at Barnes & Noble carrying a stack of books over to a plush chair with a window view.

I’m listening to ~10 hours of podcasts every week.

I binge watch Netflix docuseries.

I subscribed to Audible this month and have been devouring audio books.

But this endless quest for knowledge doesn’t always serve me well, and I’ve had to learn to honestly evaluate my relationship to consuming information.

When high information consumption is good

Leaders are readers (and listeners, watchers, etc.).

Take a look at the reading habits among these high performers:

• Warren Buffet spends 5-6 hours daily reading; he is also known for reading 5 different newspapers each day.
• Bill Gates reads 50 books per year (roughly one each week).
• Mark Cuban is said to dedicate 3 hours per day of reading.
• David Rubenstein, billionaire co-founder of The Carlyle Group, reads 8 newspapers per day and 6 books per week.

There are plenty of other high performers, thinkers, and otherwise influential people who have voracious reading habits.

But what are the benefits of consuming SO much information in such a short amount of time?

For starters, reading broadly across different disciplines can help you uncover unique solutions outside of the echo chamber that you inhabit day-to-day.

For example, let’s say you are a lawyer looking to expand your practice.

It’s worth looking at what wealth managers, accountants or other professional service industries have done to grow.

Going really wide exposes you to different domains of knowledge that you can later integrate or otherwise use to find innovative solutions.

Learning broadly also allows you to spot patterns across different domains or industries. This is particularly true of reading biographies, where you can observe patterns of how inspirational people overcome adversity.

Lastly, I’m a firm believer that…

All creativity is undetected plagiarism

-Unknown

That is to say, our creative breakthroughs are usually some mashup of knowledge, art or experiences we’ve had growing up.

Humans are brilliant repurposers of ideas. But for that to work optimally, you need to fill your tank with creative fuel.

Feel like you’re having writer’s block? Read more.

Uninspired in your songwriting? Listen to more music that moves you.

Feel stagnant in your business? Look at other entrepreneurs for inspiration and contextualize those strategies, tactics or habits to your industry.

When high information consumption is harmful

Here’s the tricky one.

We’ve grown up rewarded by teachers, parents, and mentors for reading and furthering our education.

We get a rush of dopamine from learning new information.

The danger is when we confuse with information CONSUMPTION with progress towards a goal.

You can check out 15 of the bestselling books on sales and read every word.

You’ll end up fluent in techniques for closing prospects. You’ll possess endless strategies for building rapport and for framing your unique selling proposition.

But incidentally, one thing you won’t have is…sales.

My general rule of thumb is this…

When you’re trying to achieve a specific outcome or master a skill, your ratio of reading vs. doing should be something like 75:25.

Let’s stick with the sales example. If I wanted to 10x my sales ability in the shortest time possible, I’m going to read just enough to build the foundation.

I’m looking to find the minimum viable information necessary to take action. For sales, that probably looks like learning to succinctly articulate how my product or service is unique and why that matters to my prospects.

Then I’m going to pick up the phone and start CALLING PEOPLE.

My 15 books then become reference material. If I can’t seem to get to a “yes”, I’m going to skip ahead 8 chapters to find a resource on overcoming objections. Then get back on the phone and put that script into practice.

The emphasis is on taking action. That action creates context and also provokes meaningful questions, which are the building blocks of efficient learning.

But most of us fool ourselves into thinking that information = progress. It doesn’t. But it’s why we buy books, binge podcasts, and purchase courses.

We believe the lie that possessing information will guarantee an outcome.

Knowledge is powerful. But knowledge comes from taking extreme action on received information.

When was the last time you evaluated your relationship to information?