The Power of Reading and Writing

For all of you looking to start writing or reading, this one is for you. For the longest time I neglected writing and reading as a whole. I was disinterested because I never gave either the time of day. A few months ago I flipped the script and in this newsletter I will be talking about my experience.

Before we begin, I just want to remind you that with every subscription, we grow this email list a little bigger. If you enjoy my writing and want to support the Digging Deep newsletter, I encourage you to hit that subscribe button and share with a friend, thank you.

The Beginning…

I am shocked I am writing in the first place, let alone writing about writing. Same goes for reading. Reading a paragraph used to be a complete hassle. Literally anything else was more appealing to me. But here we are 5 months, 21 books, and 11 newsletters deep. And I am going to be honest, I am enjoying every second of it.

A few months ago I saw that my Dad ordered a couple of books. I could not be more confused. As far as I knew, this man hated reading all of his life and still did. Perhaps that is where I got my disinterest from. I asked him why the fuck he bought books. His answer was, “To try and fall asleep faster.” Glad you are eager to learn Dad! A few weeks go by and the books he bought were staring me in the face. One of them being 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson. I listened to a lot of Peterson on podcasts, it wasn’t like I didn’t love learning, I just hated reading. Well, at least that’s what I thought. One night I said screw it I will read a few pages, worst case scenario I learn something. That was it. The moment I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. How could I have ignored such wisdom for this long?

Now for the writing. I was never against the idea of writing, but never had an incentive to do it. I always had a lot of thoughts rolling through my head, some good, some not so much, but I never wrote any of them down. On Twitter, I saw a number of people starting newsletters. Another “Oh Shit” moment for me. This was a place where I could curate my thoughts and share them with like-minded individuals. Not to mention, writing is a great business skill and if you do it well, it is hard to go unnoticed. From that moment forward it was pen to paper. More like fingers to keyboard, but you get the point.

How Reading Changed Me

Reading immediately made me realize how little I knew about things in general. This is what made it exciting. The beautiful thing about books is there are endless possibilities to absorb valuable information. I would venture to say I have learned more in the last 5 months reading lots of books than I have in my 15 ish years of school. I have read a little of everything. Some auto-biographies. Some psychology. Some Finance. Some Business. Some Self-Help. Some History. Some Stoicism. There is something to be gained from every single one of those topics.

Becoming familiar with new information made me curious about everything that is completely unknown. A great example of how reading has benefitted me is the following. In college I took a few Economics courses, but never really understood the concepts. I memorized and moved on. I decided to pick up Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. I understood more about the economy after 15 dollars and 180 pages than I did with thousands of dollars and multiple college courses. Another example is Atomic Habits by James Clear. This book is a well-researched, self-help oriented banger that helped me implement tiny changes in my life to get more shit done. These are two of many examples. There is still much to be learned as I am still making my way around the spectrum.

The less talked about, but highly valuable aspect of reading is the habit itself. I use reading as a way to get my mind flowing in the morning and and winde down at night. It serves as an entrance and exit to my daily routine. I block out about a half-hour in the morning and at night. It helps me stay on schedule. Plus, it is far better than doom-scrolling your phone.

The last thing I want to mention about reading is getting excited about implementing what you learned. Learning is not so important if you do not apply it. Use your new wisdom to help guide you through life.

Writing, My New Weapon

Funny enough, as I started reading, new ideas prompted me to write. I started my Substack newsletter with the intentions of writing whatever interested me that week. I found that if I was going to write about something, it meant one of two things. First, that I learned something and someone else possibly could too. Two, I didn’t know the topic well, and therefore would have to teach myself before sharing with others. A win win situation in my opinion.

I am working toward a career in the Web 3 space. As many of you may know, there is a massive lack of education to the masses when it comes to crypto and NFT’s. Another incentive for me to get typing was becoming a more informed, articulate researcher to fill this gap. This doesn’t mean I am limited, it just means I have something else to add to my writing arsenal. Most weeks I just cover a topic that I believe is important or relay something that I learned in my life. But, at the end of the day this all a part of my brand.

A less expected benefit of writing, especially on this platform, is the networking. So many people have amazing newsletters and as you grow yours, you start to notice others. Other people’s newsletters are probably bigger and better than yours. However, you can probably ask them for tips directly or use their work as inspiration. Many have their newsletter monetized as well given their volume of readers.

My advice to you: If you are thinking of reading or writing, just fuckin do it. The trajectory of my life has gone up ever since I started. If you feel like you have nothing to write about, you probably do. If you still have nothing to write about, learn something that interests you and teach it to someone else. As the great Roman Philosopher Seneca said, “While we teach, we learn.”

Tweets of the Week:

Weekly Book/Podcast Recommendations:

If you enjoyed my writing and hope to hear more, I once again, it would be of great support if you hit that subscribe button. Much love