Optimize With Brian Johnson | More Wisdom In Less Time

Do a Gritty, Flourishing Hero Good!   In our last +1, we talked about how I read a book.   More specifically, we focused on how I choose the books I read—which, I believe, is ALWAYS the most important first step in how to read a book.   In short, I said that I follow Joseph Campbell’s wisdom to “read the right books by the right people.”   Campbell tells us: “When you find an author who really grabs you, read everything he has done. Don’t say, ‘Oh, I want to know what So-and-so did’—and don’t bother at all with the best-seller list. Just read what this one author has to give you. And then you can go read what he had read. And the world opens up in a way that is consistent with a certain point of view. But when you go from one author to another, you may be able to tell us the date when each wrote such and such a poem—but he hasn’t said anything to you.”   Scientists would agree with this approach of trusting yourself and doing what really grabs you—with books and with other things in life.