"Blog 2nd Anniversary": Talk about the dangers of reading! ?

Straight to the point, this article is to commemorate the two-year anniversary of my blogging (sprinkle)! In the "First Anniversary Special ", I shared 5 thoughts on my writing. For this biennial special, I want to talk about a particular topic: the dangers of reading .

What? Is it dangerous to read something so "positive"? The answer is probably yes.

Writing this theme was inspired by Podcaster Xinghua (the show's title is "Readers in the Wardrobe" ). He mentioned in the audience Q&A that reading was a "dangerous" thing for him, which resonated with me very much. So I decided to take advantage of this memorable time to pay tribute and talk about why I also think reading is dangerous.

[Reading too positively? 】

Xinghua said that although Taiwanese society encourages reading, it often only emphasizes its "useful" aspect. For example, many people will say, "Reading can help us become better people."

Therefore, the mainstream books on the market are always those about self-growth, business management, and financial management. Simply put, it's a book that can make you "better". Many people hope that through reading, they will become more opinionated, more capable, or more straightforward: make more money.

But Xinghua said that if everyone only emphasizes the "good" side of reading, he thinks this is a kind of "domesticated" reading. Under these conditions, reading becomes predictable. That said, you'll expect the benefits of reading to you.

But for him, reading is more wild, unpredictable like an adventure, and full of "dangerous" atmosphere. I get goosebumps when I hear this passage, because it fits my reading experience so well.

So what kind of dangerous law is reading? Let's move on.

【Reading will subvert yourself】

Many people think that reading can help them fill up their knowledge and build a unique perspective. But Xinghua said that reading doesn't necessarily help you build an opinion, and many times it challenges or even destroys your opinion.

And in my reading journey, the experience of such old ideas being subverted and slapped in the face can be said to be quite rich.

For example, the book " World View " has greatly changed my understanding of what "reality" is, and made me understand that seeing is not necessarily reliable. The sentence in the book: "Why do I believe that the earth revolves around the sun, what evidence do I have?" It can be said that it sounded the alarm bell in my heart, and I was shocked by the rigidity of thinking in the past (don't worry, the earth revolves around the sun is still relatively "correct" interpretation).

And Taleb's random series subverted my perception of "knowledge" and made me realize how unreliable people's understanding of the world is. "The Black Swan Effect " has repeatedly emphasized that "what you don't know is more important". In this complex world, randomness plays an extremely important factor. But people always think that they "know" a lot, and they will suffer heavy losses when they are hit hard by the black swan.

In " Antifragile ", he further criticized that those with theory and good prediction (such as many economic theories) are mostly fragile and vulnerable to black swans. As a polytechnic house accustomed to mathematical theory, this really disturbed my thinking.

There are too many examples like this. Such a cognitively shocking reading experience is definitely not pleasant. Because you have to constantly doubt your past perceptions and force yourself to regurgitate.

In reading, I often find that things that I was quite sure about and the "answers" are clear have become blurred and no longer taken for granted. As Xinghua said, reading may make you discover that the world you were familiar with turned out to be unfamiliar;

The more books I read, the more ignorant I feel.

[Reading will make people sad]

Although the above-mentioned subversion process is not easy, it still brings the joy of learning to some extent. Many times, however, reading can actually make you feel miserable.

In " Blog 100 Specials ", it is mentioned that after the 318 student movement, I, who originally read only novels, took advantage of the small gap in my life to read more different types of books. I describe this situation as "eye opening," but the process is often painful.

I still remember one time when I was watching "Annie's Diary" in the General Affairs Office during a break, I was suddenly hit by the plot, and my tears slipped down accidentally. It wasn't until the director asked me to print something that I regained my senses, hurriedly wiped away my tears, and said yes.

Reading books like these that describe the scars of history often makes me sad. For example, I read Taiwan history books such as "A Hundred Years of Pursuit" and "The Struggle between Memory and Forgetfulness", and then I have a better understanding of the bitterness of colonization, the blood of 228, and the chill of white terror. These "historical events", which I didn't feel much at first, got into my heart through reading. Often the eyes are reading, and the heart is bleeding.

The "Justice" I read at that time made me think about what kind of society we need. I serve in a remote village, and I often see the powerlessness of many people at the bottom. Compared with the content of the book, it can be said that the feeling is even deeper. This is why when I read " Deliberate Practice " later, what I saw was not the positive learning mind in the eyes of many people, but the greater possibility of class replication.

The pain of reading is often the misfortune of discovering the other. These tragic events that were not in your field of vision, penetrated into your heart through books. For example, when reading "Fang Siqi's First Love Paradise", I felt nauseated when I saw "Crab Siqi"; when I read " You have logged into Room N ", I saw the tingling of Telegram messages; when reading " I am Jin Zhien ", I saw The powerlessness when a woman is slapped is a super bad feeling.

Xinghua said it very well, reading may make people who were full of happiness become worried. I totally understand that feeling. When reading, I often feel that many questions are too difficult and too difficult, and it seems that I can only ask the sky.

The more books I read, the more powerless I feel.

[Reading is useful? 】

Seeing this, you should be able to understand the reason for reading "dangerous". But does reading only make people more self-doubting, more painful and powerless?

Don't worry, if it was just like that, I wouldn't be sharing readings here all the time.

I really like what Xinghua said, building an opinion while reading can actually be dangerous . He quotes a famous person who loves to read, and even more like to use knowledge in books to build opinions:

Some people read endlessly, book after book, word after word, but I wouldn't call them "erudite." They have a lot of knowledge, but their brains can't organize and register all the material they absorb, they lack an art, they don't know how to sift out what's worthless in the book, and what's valuable to them, and keep it in their minds forever middle.

It was Hitler who said that.

In fact, it was this reading that was too opinionated and overly subjective, which built up his solid hatred of the Jews and created the most notorious massacre tragedy in history.

So it's not terrible to feel ignorant while reading. In fact, it is because of this experience that I have become a resilient person. Learn to look at people and things around you with a more open perspective. With a more modest attitude, face different opinions and seek communication possibilities.

And feeling powerless while reading is actually a good thing. It was experiences like this that made me a softer person. Learn to suffer the sufferings of others, and empathize with the misfortunes of weak others. It is precisely because there are so many problems in society today that we need to work hard to change it.

From this perspective, reading is of course very "useful".

That's why, even though reading is full of dangers, after reading a book, I don't hesitate to embark on the next journey.

【Postscript: Better People】

I don't know if you have noticed that the board label of "Music's Reading Space" is: 10 minutes to introduce you to a good book; become a better self through reading. But this "better" may not be what you think.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that mainstream society's expectations of reading clubs are wrong. I've also shared a lot of "useful" books. Like "The Brain Likes to Learn " which teaches you how to learn; " Walking on Wall Street " which tells you how to invest; and " Get Done " which helps you manage your time. And they are really great, useful books.

But what I'm trying to say is that "reading" isn't just these aspects.

For me, reading is not only a tool to improve myself, but more like a tentacle to probe the world, and let me learn to be humble about my own cognition and sympathize with the misfortune of others. And this kind of cognition is even more important in today's world of information explosion but polarized opposition.

If we all face various viewpoints with a more open heart, and are willing to think and empathize from the perspective of others, perhaps we can create a so-called better society together. This is my ultimate vision for promoting reading. Maybe a bit too idealistic, but it is this kind of imagination that supports my uninterrupted sharing for the past two years.

I have said many times that I hope that <Music's Reading Space> can become a field where everyone can freely enter, wander and meditate. Through these reading and sharing, everyone can see more oriented knowledge, and use this as a fulcrum to open up more diverse communication. This is the original intention of my sharing reading.

Finally, as an anniversary post, it is unavoidable to have a thank you time. In the past two years, I have been really encouraged by many people. I have never been a very confident person, and I often doubt whether my sharing is valuable. If it wasn't for everyone's support, I would never be able to get to where I am today. I feel very, very lucky, thank you very much!

May we all become better people through reading.

Articles you may also be interested in:

• "Successful Reflection": The trap of the supremacy of virtue, what kind of society do we need?
• "Making Truth": The information war begins, you and I are already in the smoke!
• "My Youth, In Taiwan": About Identity, Dialogue and Youth

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