Jarkko Laine » Reading

10 Ways to Fit Reading Into a Busy Schedule

Jarkko — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:08:33 +0000

My goal with this blog is to help you make the most of your time and to create time for things that matter. And quite naturally, this includes figuring out what matters. Reading does. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find time for the important things, and reading is no exception.

If you believe regular reading would make an important addition to your daily routines but don’t have the time, this post is for you.

Not too long ago, I was in that place. I had been keeping up with a solid pace of completing approximately one book every week, and then my routines changed: First, instead of commuting to work by bus, I started making the trip by bike. Second, I decided to revive my blog and finally make my online ventures work.

These two big, (and I believe) great decisions wrecked my reading: first I lost the two hours that I had before devoted to reading while commuting, and getting back on my online business plan cut my evenings short.

But I wasn’t ready to give up on reading just yet. So I had to think seriously about how to make reading work again. Here’s what I came up with.

You don’t find time, you make it

This is not a list of 10 clever tips for reading that you skim through to pick one or two that work for you (I have written a post like that a couple of years ago). Instead, this is a 10 step program for making reading an integral part of your day. Following this approach, most days, you will not read a lot of pages. But at least you will be reading, and that’s what matters.

Decide that reading is a priority for you. If you are a fan of manifestos, write one describing why you read and what you hope to achieve with it. If that’s not your style, just make a strong mental note about it. Think about the books you want to read and all the topics you want to learn more about.
Set a clear goal. This time, I am not talking about a goal in number of books read but minutes. I decided to go with a minimum of fifteen minutes every day. If you happen to have more time at hand, use it, but this minimum is something we build on, the basis of your daily reading habit. Make it doable, but not too short. I don’t think you can really read anything in five minutes, but you also don’t need hours. Fifteen to twenty minutes is already quite OK to start with.
Dedicate a set time to reading: When aiming for fifteen minutes of daily reading it shouldn’t be impossible to find such a slot from any schedule. Wake up 15 minutes earlier and start your day with a few pages that bring meaning to the rest of the day, or maybe take the 15 minutes before going to bed after all of your work is done. I decided to go with the morning schedule and it has worked really well so far.
Clear away the task clutter: The amazing thing is that to make this time, you don’t have to give up on any of the important things you fill your days with, it’s enough to cut on things that add no value. For me, this meant giving up on the (bad) habit of checking email, Facebook and blog posts before breakfast. For some this could be watching TV in the evening. For you it can be something completely different. But when you devote the time to reading, you notice that you didn’t lose anything — but got back something priceless.
Clear away the physical clutter: By simplifying your home, you can focus easier. Your mind won’t wander through the housework waiting to be done, desks waiting to be organized, and when you read, you can just read.
Set an alarm: There is nothing that breaks your focus like checking the clock after each sentence. This will make your reading an annoying experience, and only mildly useful at its best. By setting the alarm to go off after your fifteen minutes, you let yourself to go into flow and dive deep into the book without worrying about forgetting to get to your other commitments on time.
Repeat tomorrow: When you have done this once, don’t leave it there. Make it a habit and stick with it, and you will notice how it gets easier and more natural every day. Even if you read some more at another time of the day, don’t count that as filling the daily reading appointment, count it as extra. By sticking to the routine as closely as possible, you will make it much more likely to stick.
Stay excited: This one is something I have never had any trouble with, but I imagine not everyone sees reading as the most exiting thing in their day. My advice is quite simple: read great books. Read something that challenges you, and make sure you are ready to be changed. This way, reading will be the ultimate adventure to the edges of your universe.
Tell your friends: They will root for you, and maybe they’ll start the habit as well. This way, you can help keep each other accountable. Or you can go one step further and make your reading list public like I am doing on this blog. One good tool for that is to join a reading site like GoodReads.
Start today: You can complete the first four steps right now. All it takes is a few moments to reflect on your daily routine and what you can cut from it to make room for reading. Then, select a few great books and depending on when you decide to have your reading appointment, do the first reading session today or tomorrow. If you have time, it might be a good idea to read a bit longer on the first day to get a good start and build some excitement to keep you going to the next day’s appointment.

I have been implementing this approach for a couple of weeks now and it’s working like a charm, but I am sure there is more to this. So stay tuned for more lessons learned after more weeks and months! And as always, I would love to hear about how you make time for reading.

How I Read 53 Books in 2009 and What it Taught Me About Reading

Jarkko — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:01:38 +0000

Inspired by Nick Cernis’s “Read One Book a Week” challenge, in the new year of 2009 I decided to give it a go: one book every week, 52 books between January 1st and December 31st.

Growing up, I was the kid who couldn’t let go of his book even for dinner, and since then I have spent many nights finishing mysteries that just had to be solved before falling to sleep. But this challenge meant switching to a whole new gear: I now had a goal to read more books in year than ever before. With a two-year old to take care of.

Why Read This Many Books?

You can easily find a handful (and more) reasons why this goal would not work for you: You have a busy schedule. You have kids. You have to cook for your family. You are a slow reader. You do sports every day.

I won’t blame you: the goal does seem unreachable at first.

But it just might make sense to give it a shot anyway: completing the goal feels great, but this is also a goal where even a failure can be a life-changing success. Say, you finish the year with only 30 books read? That’s already much above the average number of books people read per year! And even if you end up finishing just 20, the odds are that you have found yourself a great source of inspiration and happiness for years to come. You will never view books the same way as before.

How to Read 53 Books in a Year

It’s simple: aim for 52, then fail to count the books. In fact, until I started writing this blog post, I had no idea that I had read more than 52 book last year!

But how do you read 52 books then?

Use every free moment you find: You’ll be surprised how often such moments arise if you always carry a book with you. For me, by far the most important time for reading was my daily 45 minute bus commute to work. I have also been found reading while waiting in line at the grocery store as well as while brushing my teeth.
You don’t have to finish one book before picking up another one: I believe this is the number one secret to completing many books in a short time. It’s so easy to get stuck with a book that you don’t want to give up completely but still don’t have the inspiration to read right now. If you stick with that book, you will just drain your motivation and make reading feel like work. But if you let the book rest and read something else for a while, you might soon notice that when you return to the book you started from, it will be a better time for reading it!
Pick books you are interested in: Don’t read books just because some people list them must-read.
Don’t be afraid to give up on a book and move on to the next: The world is full of great books and there are more coming out every day. There is no way you can read all the good books out there, so if a book doesn’t feel worth reading, move on. But because you are reading for a goal, don’t trash the book just yet. Let it rest for a while, it might be that you want to get back to it. Don’t worry If you don’t, but if you do, it means less pages to read to make the 52 books.
Pick short books every now and then: Not all the time, but if it looks like you’re falling behind, there is nothing wrong in picking a 120 page story. It’s still a book, and many of the classics aren’t that long at all. Henry Thoreau’s Walking has only 60 pages!
Check out audio books: In my 53 books, I decided to not include e-books. You can decide differently, there are many good e-books out there and you set the rules for your own goals. Audio books, on the other hand, were within the arbitrary limits I set for myself in this project. What’s good about audio books is that you can listen to them while doing something else. In general, multitasking isn’t a good idea and I wouldn’t replace my daily dose of reading books with listening to them, but I found that listening to books while running works for me pretty well.
Have fun! Read all kinds of books. Mix fiction with non-fiction and humor with more serious prose. Remember that you are reading for yourself and not to please your old English teacher.

Where Do You Start?

Here’s one list you can use to pick the first few books to start from: The full list of the books I read in 2009, ordered by finishing date. I have marked the ones I recommend and plan to read again some day with a star before the author’s name. Two stars mean a top 3 favorite of the year.

* Alan Weisman: The World Without Us
Greg Egan: Axiomatic
Michael Connelly: Echo Park
* Kyle Macdonald: One Red Paperclip
* Leo Babauta: The Power Of Less
Tim Flannery: The Weather Makers
* Jonathan Fields: Career Renegade
Mark Penn: Microtrends
Juhani Seppänen: Hullu työtä tekee
Neil Strauss: Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life
** Haruki Murakami: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
* Thor Heyerdahl: Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft
* Daniel Pink: Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself
* Mende Nazer: Slave: My True Story
Drew Jones: I’m Outta Here
Jerry Connor: Why Work Is Weird
Mika Waltari: Aiotko kirjailijaksi?
Jaana Kapari-Jatta: Pollomuhku ja Posityyhtynen
* Christopher McDougall: Born to Run
Alan Macfarlane: Japan Through the Looking Glass
Richard Branson: Business Stripped Bare
Mikko Yrjönsuuri: Roistovaltion raunioilla
Frans de Waal: Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals
* John Hershey: Hiroshima
Robin Cook: Crisis
* Oliver Sacks: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
Robin Cook: Vector
* Pamela Slim: Escape from Cubicle Nation
** Seneca: Letters from a Stoic
* Greg Mortenson: Three Cups of Tea
* Seth Godin: Purple Cow
* Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Stephen King: Dreamcatcher
Petri Merenlahti: Ihmisen näköinen Jumala
Scott Ginsberg: Hello, My Name is Scott
* Seth Godin: Meatball Sundae
Stefan Einhorn: The Seventh Day
Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion
Heikki Saure: Wilson Kirwa – Juoksijasoturin ihmeellinen elämä
Michael Connelly: The Brass Verdict
Daniel Gilbert: Stumbling on Happiness
(*) Osmo Soininvaara: Fillarilla Nizzaan
(*) Osmo Soininvaara: Vauraus ja aika
* Kim and Jason Kotecki: There’s An Adult In My Soup
Mika Waltari: Lähdin Istanbuliin
* Tom Hodginson: How to Be Idle: A Loafer’s Manifesto
Juha Pihkala, Esko Valtaoja: Nurkkaan ajettu Jumala
Stefan Einhorn: The Art of Being Kind
Philip Yancey: Rumors of Another World
Naomi Klein: No Logo
** Muhammad Yunus: Creating a World Without Poverty
Roald Dahl: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Jorge Bucay: Dejame Que Te Cuente

Minimalism, and the Art of Reading Slower

Reading 53 books in a year was a great experience: I got tons of ideas, educated myself tremendously, and had a lot of fun. It is no surprise that the first thought as I closed my last book of 2009 was: “Next year, 100 books!” That’s how addictive numbers are. There is always a bigger number to reach for.

But after the initial excitement faded, I started to think about the meaning of reading: Do I really want to read just to reach a high number? My answer was no. In my quest to complete 52 books, I realized, I had read some books more quickly than I should have, without stopping to let them change me, and just reading them as books rather than big ideas that should be put into practice.

So now, I’m rereading those books from last year’s list. Slower, with a pen in a hand, trying to really understand what goes on inside the author’s mind, what he has to say to me, and how I can make the most out of that message. This year, most likely I won’t reach the 52 books mark. I could do it if I wanted to, and I guess I will get close, but I decide to take more time and let the words challenge me.

Do it Anyway!

In the long run, it is better to read books at your own pace than to count numbers. But even so, the 52 books in a year challenge is a great way to kickstart your reading. If you start today, in a year from now, you will have collected a nice set of new thoughts, quotes and interesting stories to build on! Not to mention the ever growing list of books you want to read next.

From there, you just keep reading as many books as feels natural for you.

Update: If you want to follow my reading this year, here’s a list of books that I update every time I finish a new book.

(The Key to Life is) Running, Reading… and Writing

Jarkko — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:43:59 +0000

Will Smith said it: “The key to life is running and reading.”

I’m just a beginner at running, and know just enough about it to agree with the Man in Black. And reading? I don’t think there is a single activity in the human life that would bring as much joy and food for thought to a person’s life than reading.

That’s why, in this post I’m going to focus on reading (I will write about running once I can honestly claim to know something about it – right now, it’s not the time yet).

When I envision my dream job, I see myself surrounded by books. I see high bookshelves on all four walls. I see ladders used to get the books from the upper shelves. And I see myself sitting in the corner of the room, next to a fireplace. Reading.

But there is something missing from this picture: the job.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard I have tried to think about it, there is no such job as a reader.

And in fact, such a job would be theoretically impossible because it would benefit no one. Information is only useful when it’s used to create something new — or to support the common good. This is why I added the third ingredient to the key to life: writing.

Writing puts your reading to test. It makes your brain process the things you have read, to combine them into new, meaningful and useful sentences. And if you haven’t paid attention to what you have read, writing will quickly show you where you went wrong.

Reading without writing is a waste of time (actually not quite — but close enough to justify this bold claim, I think), because if you just put more and more new ideas in your brain but never use that wealth of information, who will benefit from your reading? No one.

But if reading without writing is a waste of time, writing without reading is just foolish.

How could anyone know how to write without having seen the great examples from the writers before them?

How could anyone become a real author without knowing what real authors do?

How could anyone relate their ideas to the ideas that have come before them without knowing what others have been thinking about?

That’s why reading and writing always go hand in hand: if you want to write, you need to read. And if you love to read, it makes a lot of sense to write. You don’t have to. But it’s still a good idea.

But why should you do either of them?

If reading and writing go hand in hand, that doesn’t still doesn’t mean that you should read and write. It just means that if you read, you should also write.

But wait! There are many good reasons for reading and writing.

First, hear what Will Smith says about reading. Before I saw this video a few days ago at Zen Habits I had never thought that Mr. Smith was anything more than a nice guy playing the occasional role of a super hero on the big screen.

Well, he is. And you will agree after watching this video.

“(The Key to Life is) Running and Reading”

So, Will tells you that reading helps you through the different stages in your life. It shows you that someone else has struggled with the same questions and obstacles that you are facing right now. And it lets you learn from their mistakes rather than make all the same mistakes over and over again.

But that’s not all.

Reading helps you understand the world. Through stories you will see the full range of human emotions. Through scientific writing you will learn the facts from dinosaurs to evolution to far away galaxies to how the thought goes through your brain and lights the idea bulb right above your head.

Reading gives you ideas. A lot of the new ideas are created when two or more ideas from different areas of life are brought together. Frans Johansson calls this the Medici Effect. But with or without a fancy name, this means that the broader the selection of books you read is, the more likely you are to come up with new ideas.

Reading fuels your curiosity. It gives answers to the questions your curious mind has come up with, which leads to a happy, warm feeling of a fulfilled need. And then, all of the sudden, it creates more questions. And more. Each new idea, and each new book gets your curiosity flowing more freely than before.

Reading helps you sleep better. If you have trouble falling to sleep at night, reading can help. A light novel gets your thoughts off the stress you have been fighting throughout the day, and sleeping becomes easier than before.

Reading is fun. There are not many things that would be as entertaining than a good book. And no, although TV tells stories too, it’s not the same as a book. Try it, you’ll feel the difference.

What about writing?

For that, I have to turn to Scott Ginsberg and his mentor, Jeffrey Gitomer who say it beautifully:

Writing is the basis of all wealth

But now, I’m off to read a book! I suggest you do the same.

6 Reasons Why You Should Not Ignore the News

Jarkko — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:00:16 +0000

The other day, I was browsing my way through a personal development forum. I heard people talk about making the most out of their lives. I saw them share new things they had learned. Most of what was said was rather good stuff. That was before I bumped into a post about how, in order to be happier, you should stop following the news.

I have seen that argument many times, and always, at first, it looks like a winning strategy: news only bring you down, so why don’t you just ignore them and focus on something happier.

Often, this suggestion comes disguised as a different wish: There are lots of happy news in the world, so why won’t the newspapers run those stories instead of the dramatic and shocking ones?

I agree that it’s OK to feel good from time to time (maybe even more often than that). But at what cost?

Do we really want to live in an imaginary Matrix world without knowing what is going on in the real one? Would we really feel complete in a world of utopia, where we only see our close, seemingly happy environment, while ignoring the rest?

Photo by przemion

I would have to say no.

You can’t make a difference in the world if you don’t know what the world is all about. And you can’t understand life without understanding the place life happens in.

Here are my 7 big reasons why you just can’t ignore the news:

Know the facts: If you want to be seen as a reliable source for information and a professional who follows the world events, you must know what people are talking about. The longer you keep ignoring the news, the more your information gets outdated.
Inspiration: For a creative professional, the news serve as an invaluable source of information. If you’re a writer, the news can stir up an interesting novel idea. If you are an entrepreneur, you may find new needs for your company to fulfill.
Understanding the world: Even conflicts and natural disasters are important for making us question our world views. And questioning your world view is always good. And keep in mind, not all news are about war and crime.
Knowing what needs fixing: If you want to fix the (or some) problems in this world, the first thing to do is to figure out what the problems are. News are a logical place to start from.
Being able to make the correct choices: Every day we are forced to make decisions regarding things such as our spending habits, our carbon footprints, our support for developing countries. How can we do that uninformed of the current state of things?
Seeing if you made the news: Why not? You might well make the news – at least if you know what the world is all about and do something to change tomorrow’s facts.

But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing

I hope that by now you agree that it’s most important to stay informed on what goes on around the world. But what I’m saying is not that you should watch news every night at nine or read the newspaper when you wake up.

Those are both valid options but not the only ones.

Skipping the newspaper in the morning can save you time and money. Not watching evening news can mean that you can get rid of your TV and again save time and money.

But you need to get the information from somewhere. Here are some options:

Go Tim Ferris and let your friends tell you the news over lunch
Read the news from the Internet
Follow news events on Twitter
Go to specialized news sources: The Oil Drum for oil and energy news, GameDev.net for game development news, and so on
Check news from a different culture

But even more important than finding the news is getting the background information covered.

Don’t just listen to the news and swallow everything that is thrown at you. Read about biology. Read about economics. Read a bit about everything. Talk with people who know about these topics. This way you will be much better prepared to seeing behind the news stories, and can use them to make a difference rather than just seeing them as events that bring you down and thus need to be actively ignored.

No related posts.

Something to Read in July

Jarkko — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:04:25 +0000

July is the perfect time for a few books: if you are on holidays, you have all the time in the world and no pressure to do work related things.

And even if you are not, you can still take your book, or your computer out and enjoy the warm weather while learning some new skills!

Here are some e-book recommendations from the Insanely Interested Store to fill your summer days with new ideas, experiences, and skills.

(Happy Fourth of July to all my U.S. readers!)

SEO School: How to Become a SEO Ninja

When a book starts with three steps like these on

es, you know it’s more than just another e-book:

Take off your pants.
Get yourself something to drink. A gin and tonic might be a nice choice.
Start reading.

That’s correct! Our friend and favorite snarky

blogger, Naomi Durnford from IttyBiz has released her first e-book, and a really good one it is.

The book is about Search Engine Optimization (making your web site or blog rank high on Google for the search terms you like) and aims at making the art easy and approachable for everyone – not just the hard core googlers and yahooers!

I just finished reading the book, and now have my head full of ideas on how to make this blog more appealing to search engines. Check out the book, I’m sure it will have the same effect on you!

If you want to read a longer review of the book, see what I wrote about it at the Insanely Interested Store.

Switch on the Cash: 77+ New and Inspiring Ways to Make Money Online

As you all know, making money online is one of the many things I am insanely interested in. That’s why I found this new book from fellow blogger, William Profet, extremely interesting.

In this book, William shares over 77 new ideas (that’s how he likes to present it – the real number is somewhere around 80-90) ranging from things related to blogging to things like becoming an about.com guide. Each idea comes with a link and easy to implement instructions to get you started.

This book is the perfect choice for someone who wants to spend July tinkering with money making ideas – and earn some cash while at it!

For a longer review, check out what I wrote about it at the Insanely Interested Store.

Study Less, Learn More

For students – and students of life – July is a great to prepare for the next year full of new things to learn. This book from Scott Young (a fellow blogger just like Naomi and William) offers a great deal of ideas for making your learning experience more enjoyable – and more effective.

On the over 200 pages of the book, Scott shares what he calls the holistic learning method. While that might sound scary, it’s far from that. In fact, the whole point in this method is to make learning easy and natural again, to inspire your curiosity and make you excited about learning.

If you are planning to study in the fall, check out this book – it might just be the one thing that changes your next year from dull and gray to exciting, and insanely interesting!

To read a longer review, see what I wrote about it at the Insanely Interested Store.

Still Looking for More?

If you are interested in finding even more great e-books, you might also want to consider one of the earlier e-books recommended at the Insanely Interested Store:

And, now that we are talking about the store, may I suggest you subscribe to the Insanely Interested Store’s RSS feed. It’s like a book club, but without obligations: whenever I add a new product recommendation, you’ll get notified. And that’s it: No monthly products that you have to buy – just read the review and then pick the product if you like it.

Insanely Interesting Links: Something To Keep You Reading All The Time

Jarkko — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:26:15 +0000

In my previous post I wrote about reading. And as it’s been a while since my last insanely interesting links post, I thought I’d give you something new to read.

Here are a bunch of insanely interesting blogs, blog posts, and e-books to keep you busy for quite a while.

Enjoy!

How to manage your boss: In this brilliant article, Carmine Coyote from Slow Leadership tells that the most important thing in managing your boss is to understand that it’s all about politics: “If you manage to convince the boss that your idea makes sense politically, he or she will be publicly linked to its success, and any failure can be hidden, you’re in with a chance. Then — and only then — will he or she will look at the technical feasibility and benefits.”
Small Business Trends: 2008 Predictions Series: Coryan from U-Turn Ahead shares some rather interesting business trend predictions for year 2008, including my favorite: “Entrepreneurs of the world unite. – There will be a continued increase in small and microbusiness development.”
Duct-Taped Breasts, Hairy Mangoes, And New Kids On The Block: Naomi from IttyBiz posted her answers to the odd secret sharing meme that I participated in last week as well.
Next Big Idea: Benzi Ronen was one of the experts I interviewed for my post, Expert Advice On Picking The Right Project. After the post had gone live, he realized that he had even more to say on the topic. Check out his thoughts!
Great Place to Work: Reaktor, A Finnish software company that I mentioned in my list of inspiring companies last year just got selected as the best place to work in Finland! Congratulations!
Make Money Online and Escape Your Day Job: Actually, I should be linking the whole blog, and not just this post. I found Put Things Off last week through Anywired and I love it. The art, the text, the design. It’s all just great!
How I Became Rich: Michael doesn’t use capital letters, but has some really good points about what being rich really means. Plus I’m one of his top commentators!
Performance reviews are a big fat waste of time: Alexander, the Chief Happiness Officer says out loud what many think deep in their minds. I’m still a bit unsure which side I would take in the debate (and my performance review is taking place in just two days, so I’m cautious…), so you tell me: what do you think about performance reviews?

And finally, if you still haven’t checked out these great e-books, here’s one more chance to get some good reading and help me make some money:

How To Be A Rockstar Freelancer: Collis and Cyan Ta’eed from FreelanceSwitch have written this thorough and insanely useful guide for becoming a freelancer.
X Marks The Spot by Lea Woodward: An inspiring book that tells you how you can leave the office world behind and live free and wild, working wherever you want.

Also, as usual, I’m welcoming all the interesting links you have come across lately. Just leave a comment and I will check your links out!

And get prepared: on Wednesday I will be interviewing Jonathan Fields, a true shotgun entrepreneur and fellow blogger. Until then, have a great week!

UPDATE: Joshua Clanton just published my guest post “Seven Tips For Creative Reading“. I hope you like it!

Why I Read All The Time And How You Can Too

Jarkko — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:32:26 +0000

I read all the time.

When I wake up, I turn on my computer and check out the new blog posts from my ten favorite blogs. While brushing my teeth I have a book in hand.

I read on the bus. I read at work. And at home, before getting to sleep, I still read a few more lines.

Here’s what I’m reading right now:

At home, before getting to sleep I’m reading The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford: An inspiring book that takes an economist’s look at the world and makes you see every day things, such as why different coffee blends have different prices, in a new way.
In my backpack, I carry two books: The Aladdin Factor which talks about the power of asking (I just finished this one last week so I’ll have to replace it with something else soon) and Seth Godin’s Small Is the New Big – a book full of new ideas and possibilities to make your business remarkable. Depending on my mood, I pick one of these two, and read a few pages.
On my computer, I carry a decent collection of e-books: Currently I’m in the middle of reading Collis and Cyan Ta’eed’s How To Be A Rockstar Freelancer.
On the Internet, I follow blogs. It’s hard to count the number of pages I go through every week, but it’s a lot. I don’t read everything thoroughly, but I skim through tens of blogs every day. And a lot of times, there is something new I can learn from reading what other bloggers have to say.
At work, I look for practical information. I read about how to do specific things in Ruby on Rails or Java. I look for ways to optimize my code, make it cleaner and more readable, or just for new ways to do things more elegantly. In this Google is my biggest friend, although my large collection of RSS feeds also helps.
And when I want to relax, I pick up a novel. I just finished Thr3e by Ted Dekker and about to start reading Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane.

Not to mention the occasional Time or National Geographic I pick from the newsstand when there is something interesting on the cover.

So, I read a lot. I read about many topics, both fact and fiction.

And I read many books at once.

That’s the key for answering both questions: why and how.

I read because I want to learn.

But I don’t want to learn just one thing. I want to learn more about business, psychology, software, people, science, marketing, history. I want to hear the voices of the authors and become a better writer. I want to see how the brightest minds think so that I can improve my own thinking. I want to know about many things so I can combine the knowledge into something new.

But more than anything, I’m curious. When I go to the bookstore, library or BookMooch, I can’t help but pick an interesting book and bring it home.

I read to get new ideas

I love ideas. I love coming up with ideas. But I also love reading about other people’s ideas. That’s what makes Seth Godin’s books such a pleasure to read: they are all about looking at the world with your eyes wide open. Ready to analyze everything. Ready to find new ways to do things.

I believe that reading is a key to creativity. The more you read, the better you realize that there are many different ways of looking at this world. By reading books from different topics you begin to see how things fit together and make new connection between different ideas.

And bang!

All of the sudden, you have a new idea!

I read to keep on reading

If I would only read one book at a time, I would read much less than I do now.

I don’t know about you (but I will soon, after you have written your thoughts in the comments), but depending on my mood I want to read different kinds of text. Sometimes I’m in the mood for something lighter, sometimes I want to read about business, and sometimes I just want to get a quick idea to think about.

If I would have just one book open, I would read it when I’m in the mood for a book of that kind.

And the rest of the time I wouldn’t read anything.

What about you?

My suggestion is to always start a new book when you find something interesting and then read each of them depending on which ones seems to draw your attention the most. But what do you think? Could this approach work for you? How do you approach reading? Do you follow a one book at a time approach or something closer to mine?

Let’s talk about it.

(Photo by spcoon)

303 Insanely Interesting Links From 2007

Jarkko — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:33:02 +0000

The time just before a new year starts is exciting because while we are physically still living in 2007, our minds are already wandering towards the next year. It’s the time when we tend to take a look at how the past year looked like and set goals for the next year.

I use Google Reader to follow what’s happening in the blogging world, and whenever I come across an insanely interesting post, I star it. This week I took a plunge back in history and decided to go through all the starred blog posts from this year.

If you are only going to read one post from this list, pick this one! It’s fresh, inspiring and it summarizes really well how an ever growing group of people feel about business, work and life.

From the Shane and Peter blog: “Just Like Air”

And then, the huge list of links.

Starting from March because that’s when I started using Google Reader, and ending in December (because that’s where the year ends). Enjoy!

March

Your Code: OOP or POO?, Coding Horror
Top 6 List of Programming Top 10 Lists, Coding Horror
A Race of Futuristic Supermen!, Coding Horror
Rendering empty responses, the { buckblogs :here }
8 OpenID Resources for Rails Developers, Ruby Inside
Using Amazon S3 as an Image Hosting Service, Coding Horror
Publish and view documents online with Scribd, LifeHacker
Three Web-Based Mind Mapping Tools Reviewed, Web Worker Daily
Review: Highrise, part 1, Robby on Rails
Creating User Friendly 404 Pages, Coding Horror
Why You Don’t Matter, Trizle
The Myths of Starting a Business, Dumb Little Man
Do You Dare to Work with Friends?, Web Worker Daily
Do You Have What It Takes To Make It as an Entrepreneur?, Success from the Nest
12 ways to pimp your office, Chief Happiness Officer
Photos of 37signals HQ, Signal vs. Noise
10 Internet Businesses you can Start with $100, Dumb Little Man
10 Common Money Mistakes, Get Rich Slowly
People have no idea why they’re doing what they’re doing, Signal vs. Noise
Is Your Story Worth Reading?, Success from the Nest
The law of attraction is real. The movie “The Secret” is fake, Chief Happiness Officer
How to Turn Bad Habits into Good Habits, Zen Habits
Top 5 Online Apps That Ruin Your Productivity, Zen Habits
Edit Your Life, Part 4: Your Work Space, Zen Habits
Headline Remix Madness – Part Two, Copyblogger
Friday Fun: Photoshop your car to look like Cars, LifeHacker
LED faucet light “changes water color” when too hot, Parent Hacks
Geocaching – A Good Walk…Transformed (into an adventure!), Geekdad
10 Great Places to Take Your Kids in the San Francisco Bay Area, Geekdad

April

Hackety Hack: An Amazing Ruby Environment for Beginners, Ruby Inside
The Absolute Moron’s Guide to Capistrano, Ruby Inside
Ruby Cheatsheet, Ruby Inside
Sexier Migrations in Rails, Ruby Inside
Pick a License, Any License, Coding Horror
Take your work to the web with Peepel online office suite, LifeHacker
Cut down on Firefox memory hogging, LifeHacker
How to Know When to Quit Your Day Job and Work from Home Full Time, Success from the Nest
Finding the sweet spot in between passion and work, Worldchanging Business
How to work for four hours a week, really, Worldchanging Business
People don’t scroll…emails, Signal vs. Noise
A Guide to CSS Support in Email: 2007 Edition, Campaign Monitor Blog
Make Your PowerPoint Presentation More Human with Post-It Notes, Web Worker Daily
How to Lead Passionately, Trizle
How to Start Your Remote Project Team Off on the Right Foot, Web Worker Daily
Financial Zen: How to Get Financial Peace of Mind, Zen Habits
Simple Way to Save $3,000 a Year: Brown Bag It, ZenHabits
Finding Your Purpose Isn’t Easy – But Neither Is Having It Handed To You, Success from the Nest
Finding Patterns to Find Your Purpose, Success from the Nest
6 Ways to Track Your Time, Web Worker Daily
6 Simple Steps to Make Mail & Paperwork Painless, Zen Habits
ZTD Habit 4: Do, Zen Habits
Top 10 Ways to Reduce Your Work Week, Zen Habits
Why paper to-do lists work better, LifeHacker
Five Common Headline Mistakes and How to Avoid Them, Copyblogger
100 Things You Should Know About [Everything], Geekdad

May

70 Expert Ideas For Better CSS Coding, Smashing Magazine
30 Scripts For Galleries, Slideshows and Lightboxes, Smashing Magazine
60 Elegant and Visually Appealing Designs, Smashing Magazine
Freebies Round-Up: Icons, Buttons and Templates, Smashing Magazine
The Nametag Guy gives away his 4th book for FREE!, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
A CIO Revolutionizes the Rules of Email, Web Worker Daily
The Best Office in the World, FreelanceSwitch
101 Ideas to Get More Freelance Work and Generate New Client Leads, FreelanceSwitch
37signals in Time Magazine, Signal vs. Noise
Measuring Time: How Much Time Does It Take To Build a Business?, ZoomStart
Every Great Leader Is An Inventor, ZoomStart
6 Great Free Alternatives to Quicken & MS Money, ZenHabits
Beginner’s Guide to Running, Zen Habits
33 New Ways to Overclock Your Brain, Ririan Project
Handbook for Life: 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity, ZenHabits
Overclock Your Reading Speed, ZenHabits
7 Ways to Crank Out Articles, FreelanceSwitch
Why You Are Always Selling With Your Blog, Copyblogger
Create a Morning Writing Ritual, FreelanceSwitch
Is Disclosing Earnings Unprofessional, Nate Whitehill dot com
15 Must-read Blogs for Blog Writers, FreelanceSwitch
Top WordPress Plugins for the Smart Blogger, lifehack.org
20 Sure-Fire Ways to Come Up With Great Ideas, Ririan Project
How to be a Great Dad – 12 Awesome Tips, Zen Habits

June

Taking Payment with PayPal, Escrow and other Online Options, FreelanceSwitch
54 questions every entrepreneur should ask, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Endlessly Curious, Escape Adulthood
Are you a YES man (or woman), Dumb Little Man
Kill Meetings to Get More Done, lifehack.org
Tips on Using Commas, yes Commas, Dumb Little Man
Juice your creative orange with visual thinking, Slash7
Teaching Your Child to Read, Geekdad
Goo Goo, the First Search Engine for Infants, Geekdad
Rainy-day Geekdad Project: Home-made Fold-out Books, Geekdad

July

Programmers are lazy capricious pseudo-intellectuals. Really?, Software Creation Mystery
Advanced Concepts in Ruby on Rails Hosting, jlaine.net
Joyent Slingshot and Connector Go Open Source, Ruby Inside
Co-working vs Working-from-home?, lifehack.org
Office space and the writing process…, Presentation Zen
20 Ways to Get Free or Cheap Books, and Give Away Your Old One, ZenHabits
Why You Need To Be A Toastmaster, lifehack.org
Be somebody’s first friend, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Why Your Free Time is Boring, lifehack.org
WordPress Plugins & Tutorials: Your Pick, Smashing Magazine
Seasonal Traffic and How to Capture It for Your Blog, ProBlogger.net
Why Guest Blogging is a Powerful Way to Gain Exposure for Your Blog, NORTHxEAST
50 Tools that can Improve your Writing Skills, Dumb Little Man
Copyright Explained: I May Copy It, Right?, Smashing Magazine

August

Do We Need Software Architects? 10 Reasons Why Not, Software Creation Mystery
(xy)write it! has been released, Rails on Wave
Campfire vs. regular IM, 37signals Product Blog
How to build your business before quitting your day job, lifehack.org
Is Your Dream Just a Metaphor for Your Ideal Work?, Success from the Nest
What Is Your Dream Job?, Wise Bread
Are You Too Busy Working? You Might Suffer From Work Tunnel Vision, LifeDev
Saturday Night Post, Josh Mullineaux dot com
When To Use Email & When Not To, lifehack.org
How to Rock Your Work Day, Trizle
5 Wonderful Movies About Work That You Haven’t Seen, Wise Bread
Allow yourself to make mistakes. Very, very publicly., Chief Happiness Officer
30 Ways to Transform Your Career, Dumb Little Man
Slow Cook Your Business Goals for Success, Dumb Little Man
Deliver __________ value., HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Communication: Companies need less . . . not more!, Slow Leadership
Can you be happy in an evil business?, Chief Happiness Officer
On the importance of having capital, Wise Bread
Start Investing With as Little as $100, CashBulge
Investing: How to get Started, Josh Mullineaux dot com
Practice intentional discomfort, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
The importance of having a HOT body, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
22 Secrets to Discovering Your Dream and Living It, Dumb Little Man
10 Odd Little Minimalist Things I Do, Zen Habits
Collaborative Bookmarking… UNLEASHED, Robby on Rails
How to Communicate Effectively And Still Get Things Done, Software Creation Mystery
The Best Way to Break a Productive Cycle, The Young Capitalist
Plan Your Next Week’s Posting Schedule, ProBlogger.net
Do You Find Blogging Easier or Harder Than You Thought it Would be?, Random Jabber
Hacked Heelys Generate Power, Eco Geek

September

The Computer Programmer, Web 2.0 Entrepreneur
OpenID Authentication, Railscasts
Free Fonts of the Month: Revalo, Nadia Serif, Qlassik, Smashing Magazine
Attractive Online Diagrams, Charts And Maps, Smashing Magazine
100 Dollars and 30 Days!, Simon’s Money Notes
Backpacker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Are You the Next Virtual Business Success Story?, Mind Petals
How to Choose the Right Job So That You Can Have a Successful Career, Quick Sprout
Just say no – to that evil company, Chief Happiness Officer
Are You Making the Classic Entrepreneurial Mistake with Your Business or Your Blog?, Create Business Growth
How to Look Fortune 500 When You’re a Small Biz, Create Business Growth
Insist on being yourself, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
The Business of Freelancing – You Are In Business To, FreelanceSwitch
Dancing on Glass, FreelanceSwitch
Build a Facebook Profile You Can Be Proud Of, Quick Sprout
Things I Don’t Understand, Pt. 2, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Eeyore or Tigger?, Escape Adulthood
10 Big Lessons from Little Kids, Ririan Project
10 Benefits of Power Napping, and How to Do It, Ririan Project
Celebrate More, Escape Adulthood
Are you in danger of using work pressures as an excuse?, Slow Leadership
Top 15 Lies People Tell You About Pursuing Your Dreams, Ravi Vora
Seven LEGAL ways to steal…and they’re good for you., Dumb Little Man
Stop Worrying About Your Future Once and for All, Ravi Vora
How to Take a Compliment, lifehack.org
I want, I learn, I do, I get, lifehack.org
Insanely interested in reading!, Brighter Days For You and Me
Live Like There’s No Tomorrow, Wise Bread
RentMineOnline.com: Why Buy?, Eco Geek
Turn Your Old Laptop Into Money, Eco Geek
Take off at noon for greater results, Slow Leadership
Laptops In Meetings, Musings of a Software Development Manager
Are Excuses Hurting Your Blogging Success?, ProBlogger.net
Mastering Productivity: How to Be More Effective With Your Time, Zen Habits
31 Ways to Productively Waste Time, Ravi Vora
Challenges Every Blogger Must Overcome, NORTHxEAST
Give your wordpress editor a much needed upgrade, Blogging Tips
Extending the Life of a Post, Blogging Tips
Warning: Use These 5 Surefire Headline Formulas at Your Own Risk, Copyblogger
How Freelancing Made Me a Better Writer, Copyblogger
The Blogger’s Library: 28 Free eBooks and Excerpts for Bloggers, Skelliewag.org
A Guide to Throwing a Great Party (and Holding the Perfect Competition), Skelliewag.org
Essential Steps to Submitting an Article to a Magazine, FreelanceSwitch
Improve Your Blog By Reading a Magazine – An Exercise for Bloggers, ProBlogger.net
How to Get Your First Freelance Blogging Gig, ProBlogger.net
Tips For Surviving That Boring Meeting, Bug Bash
Comic Book Characters and Their Real Life Enemies, Ravi Vora
Grocery Bike, Eco Geek
An Off-Grid Vertical Farm for Downtown Seattle, Eco Geek
Falling for Notebooks, lifehack.org
Make your mind your friend, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Two Words That Are Certain to Inspire Your Creativity Every Time, Ravi Vora
The 14 Best Sounds on Earth, Ravi Vora
Twenty-five Things to Do With Old Jeans, Wise Bread
Potato Ideas that Pop, Wise Bread
There Are Alternatives To Homework, Be a Good Dad

October

iPhone: Context over consistency, Signal vs. Noise
Design Decisions: Backpack’s new “Add Anywhere” feature, Signal vs. Noise
“How I Learned to Love Testing” presentation, Rails Envy
Browser Tests, Services and Compatibility Test Suites, Smashing Magazine
Making a PayPal Form Tutorial, FreelanceSwitch
How to answer 23 of the most common interview questions, Wise Bread
A few incomplete sentences that need revision, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Workplace stress can be a killer, Slow Leadership
Top 5 reasons green workplaces make their employees happy at work, Chief Happiness Officer
Work and Life: 15 Ways to Strike a Balance, Ririan Project
How I Multiplied My Profits By Packaging Services, Self Made Chick
Money for Entrepreneurs – Have a Back-Up Plan That Doesn’t Suck, IttyBiz
Breaking the Freelance Writing Income Barrier, ChrisBlogging
Money for Entrepreneurs: Can You Afford It?, IttyBiz
I Made the Mistakes So You Don’t Have To, Random Jabber
Business Survival Guide: 8 Practices of a Long Term Freelancer, FreelanceSwitch
Seven Things That Keep Us From Getting Home on Time, lifehack.org
Monday Tip: How’s everybody doing?, Chief Happiness Officer
Busy: The New Four Letter Word, Escape Adulthood
The top 5 reasons why most team building events are a waste of time, Chief Happiness Officer
12 Examples of Viral Content, And What We Can Learn From Them, Skelliewag.org
Why people choose brands instead of anonymous products, Little Green Man
Legendary rock band Radiohead charges “whatever you want” for latest album, Wise Bread
37 Viral Post Ideas You Can Use Today, Skelliewag.org
Postcard Promotion Ideas and Moo Giveaway, FreelanceSwitch
Building Momentum: How Blog Action Day Got Going, NORTHxEAST
7 Incredibly Unique Business Cards, Create Business Growth
Radiohead, The 4-Hour Work Week and the Importance of Raving Fans, Copyblogger
Figuring the size of your emergency fund, Wise Bread
10 Easy Ways to be Nicer to the Environment and Your Wallet, Wise Bread
Proof you can make it: 20 Ugly Actors You Know and Love, Ravi Vora
Product of Your Environment., The Young Capitalist
Hassle-free Weight Loss: The Zen Habits Meal Plan, Zen Habits
The Ten Videos to Change How You View the World, lifehack.org
Big Dreams: Chapter 1, Ravi Vora
The 6 Most Exciting Reasons To Run In The Dark, 52 Lives
79 Ways for Busy Moms to Escape Adulthood, Escape Adulthood
Success is a Choice, Success from the Nest
Grandpa Me and Wii, Escape Adulthood
Find Your Big Dream Right Now, Ravi Vora
The Truth is Out There, Escape Adulthood
Unschedule Your Job, Dumb Little Man
Real bloggers create and enable. Followers react and comment, Young Go Getter
Your first 10,000 Blog Posts are Always the Worst, ProBlogger.net
Reporter vs Expert – Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting, Entrepreneur’s Journey
The First Month: Building Something From Nothing, Skelliewag.org
The Second Month: Building A Springboard, Skelliewag.org
Writing for Freelance Blogging Gigs, Blogging Tips
How I Drastically Improved My Blog Stats with a Few Tweaks, Self Made Chick
10 Tips to a Successful Blog Sale, NORTHxEAST
Results of the cross-blog series – it was a success!, How to Be an Original
Freelance Freedom #20, FreelanceSwitch
The Coolest Mom’); DROP TABLE, A Clever Cookie
The Energy Island: A Gigantic Offshore Battery?, Eco Geek
50 Quick, Painless Ways You Can Help the Environment Today, The Action Blog
Blog Action Day: What If The Water Runs Out?, Entrepreneur’s Journey
Home Decoration as Innovative Energy Option, Eco Geek
I want electric lights!, No Impact Man
5 innovative environmental business ideas, Young Go Getter
Soup Toppers With Style, Wise Bread
10 Ways New Parents Change, lifehack.org
Cooking Up Some Home-made Fun, Geek Dad

November

43 Things That Run my Website Business, Wake Up Later
30 More Excellent Blog Designs, Smashing Magazine
Making FreelanceSwitch Profitable, FreelanceSwitch
How To Generate More Clients and More Sales Than You Can Handle, Self Made Chick
Your first $400 with Affiliate Marketing, Change Your Thoughts
Freelancing: Why or Why Not?, Wake Up Later
Save the planet–a job creation scheme, No Impact Man
What Do You Do? (re: how do you make money!!? how much!!! tell me!!), Mind Petals
The Two Sides of “Website Favors”, Wake Up Later
Marketing For Entrepreneurs: Should You Sell On Price?, IttyBiz
Ask 37signals: Personas?, Signal vs. Noise
If your clients are not actively telling their friends about you…, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
How To Tell The Truth, Part One, IttyBiz
How You Live, Escape Adulthood
20 Fun Things You Can Do with Family on Thanksgiving, Dumb Little Man
The problem with WHY, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Self-discipline at home, Inter-Sections
How to Write Like a Painter, Skelliewag.org
Weekend Quote – Sunday 18 November 2007, Create Business Growth
The Top 20 Ways to Come Up With Amazing Ideas, Skelliewag.org
Study ordinary things intently, HELLO, my name is BLOG!

December

Pimp Your Firefox: 12 Essential Extensions for Web Developers & Designers, FreelanceSwitch
The Freelancer’s Support Staff, FreelanceSwitch
Putting Tumblr to work for you, Robby on Rails
Are You Someone’s User-Generated Content?, CopyBlogger
Making Money = Easy. Servicing Others = Hard., Mind Petals
Interview Yourself: Shane, The Shane & Peter Inc. Blog
111 Self-Assessment Questions to Make 2008 the Best Year Ever!, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Earning a living helping people keep it green, No Impact Man
Who cares about your job title – tell me what you DO!, Chief Happiness Officer
Monday Inspiration: Creative Workplaces, Smashing Magazine
Do you own a business or a job?, The Shane & Peter Inc. Blog
Quite Possibly The Craziest Statement I Have Ever Heard, My Tropical Escape
9 Ways to Drastically Increase Your Perceived Value, Self Made Chick
5 Things People Want to See Before the Sale, SmallFuel Marketing
What Apple Can Teach You About Marketing, SmallFuel Marketing
How To Personally Chauffer Your Clients Out The Door, IttyBiz
9 things people don’t care about, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Top 25 Life-Improving Christmas Gifts for Under $10, Zen Habits
157 Pieces of Contrarian Wisdom, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Put Your Life Into Perspective, A Clever Cookie
Tony Soprano’s Top 11 Tips for Success, Quick Sprout
Is your paperwork costing you time and money?, FreelanceSwitch
Why You Can’t Finish Anything, Trizle
What Did Blogging Teach You In 2007?, Entrepreneur’s Journey
Ding Dong, Digg is Dead, Copyblogger
Buying And Selling Domains: A Quick Guide, Blogtrepreneur
When to Charge an Hourly Freelance Writing Rate, ChrisBlogging
Five Blogging New Year’s Resolutions to Make 2008 Great, Blogging Tips
IGF Nominations!, Kloonigames
49 Ways to become an Idea Powerhouse, HELLO, my name is BLOG!
Size Is The Enemy, Coding Horror

People who acquire loans on their credit card, usually resort to debt consolidation, giving up their travel insurance as well as car insurance in turn.

Insanely Interesting Links: PageRank, Posting Less and Great Blog Posts

Jarkko — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 09:00:04 +0000

Last week I announced that I would post less frequently from now on until the beginning of next year. This week I wrote three posts plus this one instead of the six posts I have been used to. How did it go?

I have to admit that it was a bit strange not to write a blog post every day. While I was still writing something every day I somehow felt that I was slacking a bit. I guess when you have been blogging daily for almost half a year, dropping the frequency takes some getting used to.

What about you, did you notice any change? Did you miss those two posts that I left out or is this pace good for you?

PageRank updates

If you have been following blogs about blogging this week, you must have noticed that everyone is buzzing about PageRank. PageRank is Google’s way of measuring how important some page on the Internet is and how high they rank that page on their search results. Along with the number of RSS subscribers, it’s one of the most cherished numbers bloggers are following.

This week Google updated the ranks after a long period of not touching to it at all. Many blogs dropped in the ranking, but for me it was the first time that my blog actually got a PageRank. Not that it matters too much, but my PageRank is now four – which surprisingly is the same as that from some of the biggest players in the field, such as Pro Blogger or Copyblogger!

Great blog posts

That’s enough about me, so let’s get to this week’s insanely interesting blog posts:

The top 5 reasons why most team building events are a waste of time: The Chief Happiness Officer writes about an important topic, cultivating competition at the work place. It’s not uncommon at all to hear management say things like “we need to have some friendly competition to get the most out of your creativity”. But as Alexander points out in this post, competition is never a good option when you are trying to build up a good team spirit.
Money for Entrepreneurs: Can You Afford It? In just a few weeks Ittybiz has become one of my favorite blogs. Naomi Dunford knows how to put her words to make us think about our lives and the actions we’re taking. You should read all her posts, but to get started, check out this one about whether you can afford the things you really want or not.
Busy: The New Four Letter Word: Kim from the Escape Adulthood blog writes about a topic we’re all facing these days. It seems that there’s a competition in busyness going on, a competition that is draining us from energy and happiness. Check out what Kim has to say about it.
A new issue of Juoni: This is only interesting to those of you who can read Finnish, but I thought I’d post this link anyway. Juoni is a web based magazine published once a month with a monthly theme. This month’s issue was published this week with the theme “Time”.

There are more links and interesting posts coming up next week, so until then, have a nice weekend and don’t forget to relax!

Just finished reading: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Jarkko — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:00:13 +0000

“Well, if you don’t pay me more or show me more respect and teach me, I’ll quit.”

“Well put,” rich dad said. “And that’s exactly what most people do. They quit and go looking for another job, better opportunity, and higher pay, actually thinking that a new job or more pay will solve the problem. In most cases, it won’t.”

“So what will solve the problem?” I asked. “Just take this measly 10 cents an hour and smile?”

Rich dad smiled. “That’s what the other people do. Just accept a paycheck knowing that they and their familiy will struggle financially. But that’s all they do, waiting for a raise thinking that more money will solve the problem. Most just accept it, and some take a second job working harder, but again accepting a small paycheck.”

I sat staring at the floor, beginning to understand the lesson rich dad was presenting. I could sense it was a taste of life. Finally, I looked up and repeated the question. “So what will solve the problem?”

“This,” he said tapping me gently on the head. “This stuff between your ears.”

Life pushes us all around trying to teach us a basic principle:

We deal ads with a minimum pay (like my brother Tiitus did for a few months).

We work as tram drivers (like I did for two years) or store clerks (like my wife Mari did for a few years) – in boring and repetitive jobs that we hate, just to get money.

Even in jobs that we like when we get the monthly salary, it never seems big enough.

But we learn the wrong lesson.

We start saying things like “I don’t care about money” or “The rich are crooks” or “I can’t afford that”.

Or even worse. We start craving for a pay raise and think that getting a better paying job would solve our monetary problems. And when we can’t get that raise from our current employers we switch companies. But it won’t solve the problem.

In Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki claims that the reason why poor stay poor, and rich become richer is because the rich have practiced their financial IQ. When the rest of us play safe and try to avoid thinking about money they have learned to master money and how it works. When we buy things to look rich, they invest to actually become rich.

One of the key lines in Rich Dad, Poor Dad is the following:

“The poor and the middle class work for money.” “The rich have money work for them.”

I started reading Kiyosaki’s book out of curiosity. Graham from The Young Capitalist recommended it so I thought why not, and bought the book. It turned out to be much more exciting, and more thought provoking than I would have imagined.

Sure, there is some debate going on whether the rich dad actually ever existed or not, and if any of the successes described in the book actually are true. But even if that is the case I think the story has well proved its point: to be financially successful you need to know how money works and how to master it (and not become its slave).

Invest your money to something that brings you profit instead of spending it in luxury you cannot afford.

Try to get out of debt.

Learn how taxation works so you don’t have to pay the government more than your fair share.

Start your own side business.

Make money work for you.

Teach your kids how to handle money.

To me Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a starting point. It brings together ideas that have been running in my head already for a while. The things presented in the book may not be new but nevertheless worth thinking. Things like getting passive income, spending less, investing to assets instead of just living from one paycheck to the other.

It’s not a complete guide book to the world of money and wealth. Some even say that some of its teachings can be dangerous to you.

But the basic principle is clear: Invest in your mind and learn the logic of wealth. And then using that information you can make money work for you.

Have you read Rich Dad, Poor Dad? How did you feel about it? What do you think about the debate on Mr. Kiyosaki and his two dads?

Insanely Interesting Links: Something To Keep You Reading All The Time