I am a journalist, yet I will tell you with some degree of sadness that my industry rarely provide a complete picture, namely because it is easier not to, but also because those presenting the news are frequently uninterested in outside views. There is usually fairly holistic coverage of reality down at a local level. You’ll rarely find a failure to cover all sides of a town hall meeting or a story about a restaurant owner retiring, but if you read larger newspapers, and certainly if you watch almost any TV program, you’ll fail to get a well rounded view if the topic has views that exist outside of the mainstream.
A good recent example of this was when a huge federally funded study concerning the link between diet and disease came out. The New York Times, which is generally a good paper, wrote this article, which was journalistically balanced, but more or less divorced from reality. Other than citing Ornish, the article largely ignored hundreds of outraged doctors, scientists, and years of studies. The fact that the women in question made only minuscule changes to their diets at best was completely ignored. A good counter point is here and a huge list of research showing the opposite is here.
The problem is that most people don’t have a background in health, or anything else, to balance out what they watch on TV or read in Newspapers. It’s not even that the New York Times did did such a horrible job, but that the study was poorly orchestrated. Whoever was at fault, I would assume that 90 percent of the people reading that article probably walked away with the incorrect conclusion that at least as far as cancer and heart disease goes, they may as well eat whatever they please, because their diet doesn’t matter.
If you rely on the TV or newspapers for all of your knowledge, you’re going to go through life with a mainstream view of everything, and that’s one of the saddest things you can do.
The basis of all positive change is knowledge and experimentation, and the best way to get it is by reading a large variety of books. The wide range of knowledge that regular reading provides is almost a side benefit to the true advantages, however.
Books, like nothing else, will improve your vocabulary, and improvements to your vocabulary reverberate through all aspects of your life.
The more words you know the better your place in any business, for instance. This study of 39 manufacturing companies by the Johnson O’Conner Research Laboratory concluded that the better your vocabulary the better your rank in the company.
Company Position Vocabulary Score
Executive————- 236 Points
Manager ————- 168 Points
Superintendent ——140 Points
Foremen —————114 Points
Floor boss ————-86 Points
Other research has shown that those that read earn more, are more mentally flexible, have more friends, can think on the fly, have an increased ability to relate to others, have broader interests, and are more likely to be good public speakers, to name a few benefits.
Yet few in the US are really reading. According to a study by the Jenkins Group:
- 1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
- 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
- 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
- 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
These are sad statistics, and speak poorly for the state of the average American’s mind. Perhaps people are too busy with T.V. to read. If you think that picking up a newspaper will do it, think again. The average newspaper is written so a grade schooler can understand it. I was an English major in college and I graduated knowing how to write and extrapolate. With no journalism experience, I was told by my first editor during an internship that I was going to have to tone down the vocabulary, because some people wouldn’t understand. We very much cater to the lowest common denominator in the business.
The fix can be found at the nearest library, which likely contains a wealth of free books on most subjects. My library is one of my favorite places. The books are free, and the knowledge can change your life. No matter how busy you are, anyone can find at least a half hour to read every day, whether it be before bed or when first rising or during your lunch break. Sit down at a regular time, read, and pretty soon the books will be flying by.
Though I suggest you read fiction you enjoy, it’s important to read non fiction too. The best way to get informed is by picking a topic you’re interested in, finding a book, and reading it through to the end. Take several books out as a time so bad ones can be put aside. Also try to establish at least a minimum amount of knowledge about important areas of your life. I’m sometimes shocked that reporters at the paper haven’t the slightest clue about their 401ks or personal finance in general, for instance. A good background in nutrition is also very useful, as is one in history, because, as the saying goes, those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it. I find myself continuously fascinated by Greco Roman history and would have been hard pressed to write about the sun without such knowledge.
For every word or idea you come across, you’ll find that there is a halo of related ideas and words flowing around it. One leads to the other, and as the conquered books stretch out behind you over the years, you’ll wake up one day to find yourself amongst the competent people of the world. Those that stretch their mind find that it never returns to its old dimensions.
How we use our language is one of the few things we can’t hide, so the reverse is also true. Those who do not stretch their minds will slowly stagnate, never trying out new ideas, and never realizing all the missed possibilities that could have been theirs had they bothered to acquire enough knowledge to see them.
So pick up a book and a dictionary and get going.
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