I love to read! But I’m always so annoyed at how little I retain. So, I developed a system to help make it stick. I hope it’s helpful to you as well. Reading is my unfair advantage, and it can be yours too!

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0:00 Unfair Advantage: Unlock the Power of Reading

0:52 Be comfortable with writing in your books

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Shot a video recently on how to not fight fair, the five outsized advantages,

2

and I actually got a better response on it

than I was expecting, which is good news.

3

So, I wanted to dive into my favorite

unfair advantage, which is reading.

4

I think reading is the most

important skill, habit you can

5

cultivate, as you can tell.

6

from the annoying virtue signaling

background that I have in my videos.

7

I read a lot believe it or not,

this is not the room in the

8

house that has the most books.

9

I've developed a protocol for my reading

that I'm actually really proud of.

10

I'm going to walk you through my system.

11

You don't have to use my system

if you don't want to, but this is

12

going to help you with retention.

13

Maybe most importantly, but also

honestly just kind of makes I

14

think reading more enjoyable.

15

Feel free to customize this However, it is

you see fit the first and most important

16

thing and this was actually I was

indoctrinated by a friend On this level

17

is start is you need to use a pencil.

18

So go by yourself I've got these real

fancy mechanical pencils because I

19

just like nice writing utensils It

makes me enjoy the process more go

20

get yourself some nice pencils Because

you're gonna start writing in your

21

books, and I realized in the very

beginning that this feels sacrilegious.

22

Don't write your antique

first editions, obviously.

23

But I've had to change my mind on this.

24

I used to feel like writing

in a book was disrespectful.

25

Now I've decided that it's me.

26

Communing with the book and I'm

having a conversation with the author.

27

So just change what it means.

28

you're not defacing it and and What's

really important about being able to

29

write in the book is this is how you

can let yourself just enjoy the book

30

because for so long what I would do

is I would be reading and then if I

31

needed to take a note or Look up a

word was this constant back and forth

32

and every time I would Take my eyes

off the page It would stop the flow.

33

it would decrease my

reading time by multiples.

34

So never stop reading, give yourself

the opportunity and you're just

35

sitting there and you've got your book.

36

Nice plug for Brandon Turner's

multifamily millionaire.

37

And you've got your pencil and I

actually kind of generally like to

38

follow along with my pencil because

I read a little bit on speed reading,

39

which also really helps by the way.

40

But if there's anything that's

notable, interesting, thought

41

provoking underline it.

42

And I've got a key for myself and you'll

want to develop your own key, but I

43

put little symbols in the margins.

44

So if there's a word that I don't know,

or that I really like the usage of, so a

45

lot of being articulate isn't necessarily

knowing all the big fancy 12 words, it's

46

knowing how to use, Normal words in unique

ways, and so if I ever see an author use

47

words in ways that I'm like, oh, wow,

that's, that's brilliant, then I'll circle

48

the word, so if I don't know the word or

if I just like the word uses, I'll just

49

circle the word, and then in the margins I

put a V, and the V is for the vocabulary,

50

and then I leave it and I continue to

read, so I don't have to stop and write

51

it down or take notes I just have it and

we'll get to how we're gonna go and use

52

this in a minute V is for vocabulary.

53

Now, if there's a concept on the page

Or a person or a reference that I

54

want to research and learn more about.

55

somebody mentions the Magna Carta

and I'm like, you know what?

56

I don't really know much

about the Magna Carta.

57

Then I'll underline that.

58

And then in the margins, I'll put a

question mark and I'll circle the question

59

mark and the question mark lets me know

we're going to go research this later.

60

And what's nice is this satiates my blood

lust for information because for so long

61

I was like, oh crap I gotta go learn

everything about the Magna Carta and I

62

swear to God, this is true I would be

reading a book and then the book would

63

reference something I didn't know about

and then I'd go read three books about

64

That thing before I could come back to the

book that I was reading which is just a

65

horrible way to live your life So unless

you find yourself in a position where

66

the foundational knowledge necessary to

understand the book you're reading Is

67

a prerequisite Leave it for a moment.

68

just put a little question mark.

69

You know, hey, I'm

curious about this thing.

70

And then the third symbol

that I use is a star.

71

And I use a star for notable passages.

72

there's a quote or a passage

that I want to save for later.

73

Something that I really liked,

that I felt was really impactful,

74

that I want to remember.

75

Upon re reading, I'd

really want to highlight.

76

Then I put a star next to it.

77

And y'all, I'm as aggressive as I want

to be, and sometimes it depends on

78

my mood, when I read Brené Brown's

Daring Greatly, there were whole

79

chapters that were just underlined.

80

That's okay.

81

because we're going to talk

about what we're going to do

82

with this stuff in just a moment.

83

So, as you're reading, you follow along

with, your pencil, and you're using, and

84

by the way, come up with your own key.

85

If you're a content creator and you

come across something, you're like, Oh

86

man, I should shoot a video on that.

87

Or I should write a thread on

that or a carousel or whatever.

88

See content, bam, move on, but give

yourself the ability to stay in flow.

89

And what I like about this, what's cool

is it makes your first reading leisurely.

90

You're giving yourself permission

to just read to read, just for the

91

sake of reading, which is so helpful.

92

So there's not that desperation

of like, oh, I need to drink every

93

last ounce of value from this book.

94

When you're done with the book, your

second reading what I like to do is,

95

I go back through the book, but I

only pay attention to the notables.

96

And so I get done with the book, and I

basically turn right back around, and,

97

then in my journal I've got a Google Doc

that I keep all my notable vocabulary and

98

I'll look at that every now and again.

99

if I just find myself with time in

line at the grocery store, I pull

100

up my vocab doc and I start looking

at some of the words that I like.

101

And there's just something

about that that appeals to me.

102

You don't have to do that.

103

But whatever it is for you and then

anything that I want to look up, I'll

104

look up and I'll play the research game.

105

And then any notable passages, and this

is maybe where I go a little overboard,

106

but I actually write those down in my

journal, which means I'm effectively

107

rewriting the book, but I'm only rewriting

the parts that were notable for me.

108

And what's cool about that is if I ever

want to go back to that book, I don't

109

necessarily have to return to the book

as much as I return to my journal.

110

And I can, I get all the distilled

value from that book from my journal.

111

Now I'd caution against relying on

that too much because as you grow, you

112

get different things from every book.

113

You know, there's the old proverb

that nobody steps in the same

114

river twice because the person

is different and so is the river.

115

Books are like that.

116

especially, I mean, really

good books are like that.

117

Give yourself the

opportunity to revisit books.

118

But, having your, distilled

notes is really helpful.

119

And then it's really fun to say like,

Oh, I thought this was notable before,

120

and now I actually, I, I resonate

with this passage a little bit more.

121

like that with a one two punch and the

second reading isn't nearly as daunting

122

as it sounds you're like, dude You're

gonna read every single book twice.

123

No, not at all second time you're

basically paging through and it's shocking

124

how quickly You can get through something

along those lines I hope then again it

125

helps with retention, you know I mean,

there's all these studies done on writing

126

things down and upon second review.

127

There's a book.

128

It's actually on my

bookshelf right up there.

129

It's called Make It Stick.

130

And it's an interesting

book about retention.

131

really, all it says is effectively,

you need to test yourself at the

132

end of anything that you read.

133

And test yourself with

questions you come up with.

134

doesn't matter, which

is really interesting.

135

, that book's a good example.

136

Some pro tips on reading.

137

You have to pick your material properly.

138

Make It Stick is a good example.

139

And I'm not trying to bash those people.

140

They took what should have been

a blog and they made it a book.

141

it pisses me off because that

seems to be a trending theme.

142

People are taking small concepts and

they're expanding it into full books.

143

Now sometimes that works really well.

144

That worked with The Gap and The Gain.

145

Dan Sullivan.

146

It worked with Zero to One, Peter Thiel.

147

It worked with The One Thing, Gary Keller.

148

Those are actually three of

my favorite recent books.

149

And they're all very simple.

150

But they're not written

in simplistic fashion.

151

They just help reinforce this idea.

152

I'd strongly recommend all three of those

books, and I read them cover to cover.

153

But then there's books like Make It

Stick, or Mel Robbins Five Second

154

Rule, where I'm like, man, I could

have gotten the value from...

155

Like the cliff notes version of this

book and the way to protect yourself from

156

that is what I do for all nonfictions

is I'll skim first in my opinion.

157

It's on the author to

capture my attention.

158

I didn't used to feel this way I

used to feel like I have to read

159

everything cover to cover Otherwise,

I'm not a real reader But then what

160

happened is I became fatigued of

reading which you don't want to do.

161

It's so dangerous You have to

love the author art of reading.

162

So now I'm skimming.

163

And if something captures my attention,

then I'll dive a little deeper.

164

And if it or retains my attention,

then I'll stay deep and maybe even go

165

a little deeper and so on and so forth.

166

But then there are books that

actually diminish in value as you go.

167

One of those interestingly was Driven

by, I think it's Douglas Brackman.

168

And I say it's interesting cause I have a,

a mastermind called the Driven Mastermind.

169

The name of the mastermind

is based on this book.

170

Here's what's funny.

171

All of the value in the book,

the first three chapters.

172

And then after that, it's just kind of

like this repetitive sort of reinforcement

173

of his original thesis that I didn't need.

174

And so first three chapters were great,

and then after that I started to, I

175

went super deep, and then he lost me,

and then I zoomed out, got shallow, and

176

then just paged through and took a hike.

177

And you can do that too.

178

It's okay to skim, skip, jump

around, choose your own adventure.

179

Now, it's heavily dependent

upon the type of book.

180

Right?

181

So like, that's obviously far, it's

maybe only applicable for nonfiction.

182

And then some books are

sequential in nature.

183

I'm reading Brandon Turner's

Multifamily Millionaire right now,

184

and it's a two volume book, and are

foundational components where you

185

actually need to read section one

in order to understand section two.

186

And then there's some components where...

187

I can tell that I'm able to bounce

around and I'm like, you know what, I

188

actually really understand this concept.

189

I'm going to move on.

190

And so, you get more sophisticated

as you get better at reading.

191

But then there's books

like, you know, I've got C.

192

S.

193

Lewis's entire set here and I happen

to know for a fact, I've never

194

read the screw tape letters, but

it's been recommended to me often.

195

And that's probably going to be one

that I have to read cover to cover.

196

So you'll get kind of good at figuring

out what it is that you want to read.

197

Another really cool pro

tip is go use summary apps.

198

There's Blinkist is one.

199

ChatGPT now summarizes books really well.

200

And what I like to do is summarize

a book before I read it, because

201

it lets me know whether or not

I want to dive into this book.

202

and there's ways to hack

that too, by the way.

203

What is it?

204

Chat prompting.

205

Prompt engineering.

206

Which is not my favorite term

but instead of asking, you know,

207

I'll just summarize the seven

habits of highly effective people.

208

What you can do is go in and say give me

a summary of the seven habits of highly

209

effective people and give me the Ten

key takeaways and it gives you ten key

210

takeaways and then say okay Give me 30

more key takeaways and you keep asking for

211

that until you notice that the takeaways

get repetitious And what that exercise

212

does is show you how dense that book is

because there are books that are Insanely

213

dense from a value perspective prince

of principles by Ray Dalio so dense the

214

seven habits so dense Neval Ravikant's

the Almanac of Raval or whatever.

215

It's called like Not a long

read, but unbelievably dense.

216

And when I say dense, I just mean

like, the value per word is high.

217

And so, you could tell from ChatGPT

like, Okay, I need to go read Principles

218

by Ray Dalio, because it's not

getting to the bottom of this well.

219

But then, The 5 Second

Rule by Mel Robbins.

220

Like, you could summarize that in a tweet.

221

Sorry to go bash Mel.

222

I just hated that book so much.

223

I hated the fact that...

224

I'm like, I can't believe

she's getting away with this.

225

Anyway, that's one pro tip.

226

Another pro tip that I'd have for

you is don't sleep on fiction.

227

I get more out of fiction than I

do nonfiction, maybe by a multiple.

228

And that's getting more

true as I get older.

229

fiction requires more

participation on your part.

230

You know, nonfiction is

like, here's the principle.

231

You know, take it, run, here's how

to, here's how to execute on it.

232

and that's fine, you need that.

233

And, and I like to go from

non fiction to fiction.

234

I always, I try to have one

fiction and one non fiction.

235

So right now I'm reading The Multifamily

Millionaire, and then I'm also reading

236

Tess of the Dubervilles, which was

recommended to me by a, a Twitter friend.

237

but I'm reading Tess and I get a

little fictioned out, which really just

238

means like, I mean, that's a really

emotionally capturing book and I just

239

need a moment that I can go switch

over to the Multifamily Millionaire

240

and they're so diametrically opposed.

241

I'm not getting confused.

242

If I read two fiction books at the same

time, I always, convolute the stories.

243

And then if I read non fiction books,

I tend to be in different zones.

244

Like I've got The Origins and Histories

of Consciousness by Eric Neumann.

245

And I know that.

246

for me to read this and this at

the same time, it requires just

247

two different frames of mind.

248

I don't want to shift in those gears.

249

what's easy for me is to always have

one fiction and one non fiction.

250

That I can bounce back and

forth between the two of.

251

I have a dear friend who likes

to have four or five books

252

running all at the same time.

253

And she can do that.

254

She can keep it in her mind.

255

I can't.

256

I'm incapable of it.

257

whatever works for you.

258

But again, please don't sleep on fiction.

259

Some of the greatest pieces of

art that have ever existed are

260

stories, stories, the oldest.

261

Human art form.

262

It predates language.

263

It's how we think, it's how we dream.

264

It's, the study of psychology

is rooted in the study of story.

265

It's how you articulate your life,

both to yourself and to other people.

266

Story's so important, and

there's so many lessons in story.

267

All religion relies on story.

268

Heavily.

269

You could say all religion is

story, in a way, and that's

270

not meant to be an indictment.

271

I'm not saying anything's any less true.

272

As a matter of fact,

it's probably more true.

273

when you see, like, people, and

I'm stealing this from a thought

274

leader I love, whose name I won't

say, because he's polarizing, but...

275

You'd say, like, is Harry Potter true?

276

No, of course not.

277

But, the...

278

Principles and values articulated in

Harry Potter are true on a meta level

279

that maybe is more true than the things

that you think of as true, honesty,

280

integrity, bravery, friendship legacy.

281

Like, there's truth there that is

better articulated inside of fiction

282

than it could ever be articulated

outside of, in non fiction in

283

the quote unquote real world.

284

So please don't sleep on fiction.

285

And if you don't know where to start,

like just follow your passions.

286

I love Victorian literature, I don't

know why, honestly it's popcorn

287

movie type books that I love.

288

I love Charles Dickens, which I know

is like supposed to be so pedestrian.

289

But I don't care because I just,

I love how sarcastic he is.

290

And he's so much fun and thoughtful.

291

And his characters are amazing.

292

But then I love swords

and sandals stuff too.

293

I love Brandon Sanderson

and Patrick Rothfuss.

294

I love George R.

295

R.

296

Martin.

297

I love the Game of Thrones series.

298

I love sci fi.

299

I liked Orson Scott Card and

who's the Red Rising guy.

300

I could just go figure out what appeals

to you and don't try to dive in.

301

That's the other mistake I made

too is I try to eat like all

302

of the densest meals first.

303

You know, you don't go, you

can't go straight to Dostoevsky.

304

You won't understand it.

305

I didn't.

306

I still can't tolerate Tolstoy as much

as I know he's supposed to be brilliant.

307

But then over time, like you kind of

develop, it's like wine, I used to hate

308

wine, but then you kind of develop a

taste for it and then you, and then

309

your palate improves and And then you

find what you like, and it doesn't

310

have to be what other people like.

311

I'd love to know what you read.

312

I'd love to know what book

recommendations you have.

313

I have a really good habit,

anytime anybody recommends

314

a book to me, I just buy it.

315

You know, if it's somebody that I respect.

316

And so if you have book

recommendations, fiction, non

317

fiction, I'd love to know what you

think I should be reading and why.

318

What books made the biggest

impact on you, and why?

319

What was the needle mover for you?

320

And my experience recently,

and I think I was...

321

Indoctrinated into this thinking

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

322

Nassim wrote a book called Anti Fragile.

323

And I don't know if he said it in this

book or if he said it elsewhere, but

324

Anti Fragile is one of the most important

books I've ever been exposed to.

325

One of the most important thoughts

I've ever been exposed to.

326

And he's an obnoxious

person to read, by the way.

327

He's so arrogant.

328

But he talks about how the

longer a book has been around,

329

the more likely it is of value.

330

It's either an axiom or it's an

oversimplification depending on

331

where you sit philosophically in

terms of your view of the history.

332

But regardless, I've

just found it to be true.

333

I mean, go read The Republic, right?

334

Go read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

335

So much value there in the family Marcus

Aurelius is one of the smartest most

336

powerful people who's ever lived and you

can just read his Words, what a blessing

337

Anyway, it's got a little preachy.

338

Let me know what you read

like comment subscribe.

339

I'll see you tomorrow