Reading is one of those fundamental skills that is being overlooked nowadays. The economy has people convinced that certain skills are better than others, and right now the Humanities are on the chopping block. This isn’t due to the fact that the Huminites have stopped being important. It’s actually due to the rise of remote work and artificial intelligence. The two phenomena have come together in order to help people from poorer countries access the knowledge economy. This for better or worse has put a lot of Americans out of business. This on its own would be rough, but the effect is compounded by AI such that almost all Americans are priced out of entry-level jobs. It doesn’t really matter if they take a pay cut. The current economy is set up so that the cost of training employees is no longer as worthwhile as it used to be.
Since a lot of lower-level knowledge jobs are no longer in the United States, many people have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. In many circles knowledge has become useless, particularly if it’s the product of expertise. Everyone wants to do their own thing, and they want to feel like they’re in charge of their own learning. While the latter goal is quite admirable, it shouldn’t be achieved by discarding expertise. As I said earlier, people are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We want experts in our lives, and we definitely want to be able to trust them. The reason our current society hates expertise is because the people in charge have betrayed our trust at every turn. The anti-intellectualism of the late 2010s and early 2020s has everything to do with that betrayal of trust.
Many people lament the state of the world at the moment. This is especially true in the United States, Canada, and the UK, were people feel as though radical ideologies have taken hold of their peers. I can seem where the alarm comes from. People really are less intellectual than they used to be. That’s because they’re more skill based. In the past, you needed to be qualified in academia in order to make it to the top of society. Nowadays, entrepreneurs and skilled tradespeople are more respected. So, it’s not that people are getting dumber, they’re just knowledgeable about the things they truly need to know about.
Most people like to gain expertise in skills that can be learned visually or collaboratively. Hobbies like drawing and skateboarding come to mind. As Gen Z comes of age, they are taking part more and more in the digital economy. As such, we’re seeing more and more skills getting monetized by young Americans, while entry level jobs seem to be all but forgotten. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t mean that reading and “book smarts” are dead. They’ve just evolved.
Nowadays nobody wants to read. At best they want to get the skills they need to pay the bills. At worst, they want to scam or trade their way to riches. It will never work for most, but the few edge cases are more than enough to keep most people going. After all, it’s hard to resist the idea of having unlimited money and beautiful women come to you with ease. In reality, scamming and funny business lead to lots of pain and suffering. If you embrace this way of life, you’ll find it backfiring against you in many ways. Reading will set you apart when it comes to building a legitimate skill.
A lot of people have skills that are relatively low value. This is because most people are average, and average people learn average things. Nowadays, people need to earn money, but there isn’t a ton of value to earning average amounts of money. Most countries have universal healthcare of some kind, so we only truly need money for basic provisioning. This means that most people try to make money with skills that are simple and fun, rather than complicated and difficult. You can set yourself apart from the crowd by learning the skills that are complicated and difficult.
When you learn complicated and difficult things, you give yourself the chance to become what I like to call a “go to guy”. A “go to guy” is someone who people call to have a specific problem fixed. This means that people trust you and like you enough to support your lifestyle.
I’ve become somewhat a go to guy when it comes to making money online. I know what I’m doing, and people know that so they ask me for advice. That’s because I read about everything. I learned the statistics about YouTube, blogging, SEO, and many other ways of making money online. It was long boring work, but now I know more than most, and my plans should come to fruition with relative ease.
Reading will take you far in becoming a go to guy. Everyone is busy watching YouTube videos nowadays. If you read, you get access to the material that the instructor used to learn his stuff. Nowadays with the internet you can do extensive research, and tie articles and pieces of text together. This means you can build on things that you hear and see and find insights that you never otherwise could have. Reading also allows you to access information quickly, and also reference it. It’s easier to search for or bookmark an article than it is to skip through a YouTube video. When you get into the habit of reading, you’ll have lots of pieces of information to reference, and those pieces of information will put you head and shoulders above the competition, especially if you’re learning a skill.
So, get reading. It’s an important habit, one that will always allow you to find new ways of getting ahead and creating your dream life.
