The Significance of Reading

During your learning journey, a few side benefits will naturally come your way.

The first one is self-discipline.

When you study, you have to wake up early—6a.m. rises, breakfast, morning run, early reading session, morning study. Then classes, meals on time, evening study, lights out for sleep.Building a routine as an adult is incredibly hard, but breaking it is effortless. No matter what, once you stretch it out over time, you simply can't hold it. That's just human nature.

The second side benefit is learning how to work with others and navigate relationships.

If you want to understand the species we call humans, or understand the structure of today's world, the simplest path is to get things done together. Because human society was built through collective gathering and collective hunting. You're an adult now, so you don't feel it. But for a child who's never collaborated with others, asking her to grasp human nature or understand the world—that's impossible. Everyone goes to school, everyone goes to work. If you insist on doing your own thing, playing video games as a kid and hitting nightclubs as an adult—that kind of surface-level interaction with people won't help you grow up. Human society is a collective game, and if you don't participate, you're just waiting to be taken advantage of and played.

A capable person with money can wield tremendous power. But an incapable person with money is like Yuan Shu holding the imperial seal—you think you've got authority, but in reality, you've just given everyone else a reason to gang up on you.