Eric-Jorgenson The-Almanack-of-Naval-Ravikant indd

When you first pick up a book, are you skimming for some-
thing interesting? How do you go about reading it? Do you 
just flip to a random page and start reading? What’s your 
process?
I’ll start at the beginning, but I’ll move fast. If it’s not interest-
ing, I’ll just start flipping ahead, skimming, or speed reading. If 
it doesn’t grab my attention within the first chapter in a mean-
ingful, positive way, I’ll either drop the book or skip ahead a 
few chapters.
I don’t believe in delayed gratification when there are an 
infinite number of books out there to read. There are so many 
great books.
The number of books completed is a vanity metric. As you 
know more, you leave more books unfinished. Focus on new 
concepts with predictive power.
Generally, I’ll skim. I’ll fast forward. I’ll try and find a part to 
catch my attention. Most books have one point to make. (Obvi-
ously, this is nonfiction. I’m not talking about fiction.) They 

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have one point to make, they make it, and then they give you 
example after example after example after example, and they 
apply it to explain everything in the world. Once I feel like 
I’ve gotten the gist, I feel very comfortable putting the book 
down. There’s a lot of these, what I would call pseudoscience 
bestsellers…People are like, “Oh, did you read this book?” I 
always say yes, but the reality is I read maybe two chapters of 
it. I got the gist.
If they wrote it to make money, don’t read it.
What practices do you follow to internalize/organize infor-
mation from reading books?
Explain what you learned to someone else. Teaching forces 
learning.
It’s not about “educated” vs. “uneducated.” It’s about “likes 
to read” and “doesn’t like to read.”