Becoming Smarter: How Reading Obsessively Changed My Brain

Every time I post on my Facebook page another reading landmark (I finished 50 books by September!? 10 more by the end of October!), someone invariably asks:? What was your favorite???

And while this is a fair question, it is actually besides the point.??

Those books I loved you may not enjoy, and vice versa.? The question you should be asking me instead is:? Why do you do this???

Because the answer to WHY is so much more interesting than anything I can explain in just a few sentences.? But I’ll try to summarize.??

Reading extensively, almost obsessively on a wide variety of topics hasn’t just provided me with lots of information mostly useless to me in my everyday life (the inner party workings of North Korea, the theory of how black holes work, and the play by play of Trump’s presidency from inside the White House are simply not subjects I’ll ever need).? And while I may never be able to use any of these, and thousands of facts, theories and ideas in my everyday life, that's not really the point.??

Because while I was busy acquiring useless facts, my brain was busy doing something incredible. It changed.? A lot.? While I can not point you to an IQ test (I really wish I took one before I started this experiment), what I can tell you is that I feel far smarter than last year. And I don’t mean smarter as in having better memory, being better at small talk at parties or passing some arbitrary test.?

I mean smarter in the bigger sense - where previously I saw chaos, I now see patterns. Where previously I saw certainty, I now understand enough to see complexity underneath. I’m able to solve work problems quicker, with more elegance and less struggle than before. I’m able to take a larger view of problems that used to consume me.? In the past, thinking about some complex topics used to feel like slow walking on a sandy beach, thinking about those same subjects now feels like walking on pavement in good running shoes. ? Life is… easier.? Work, even as it technically becomes more complex (my industry, online marketing, evolves by the minute) is easier.? There are fewer things that confuse me, and fewer yet where I can’t see a clear path to untangle the threads and settle on a central idea.??

I have a theory for what happened to my brain, and this, unsurprisingly I gathered from books.? Cognitive reserve is the idea that we all acquire a certain amount of information in our brain that makes our brain stronger.? Having a large cognitive reserve has been associated with a much lower risk of dementia including Alzheimer's.? Basically, the theory is simple:? the more you learn throughout your life, the more protected your brain is from dementia.? Your brain, it turns out, acts like a muscle. If you are in great shape, you can even afford to break a limb and keep going. If you are in bad shape, breaking a limb can sometimes be a death sentence.??

This simple theory is also pretty simple to test.? We know folks with more college education have a better shot at keeping their mental facilities for longer periods of life, even if you hold other factors such as nutrition, genetics and stress equal.? And we know that one of the best ways to protect yourself from dementia is to simply keep learning new things - from classes in a community college to dance lessons, learning almost anything new can help.??

So, if cognitive reserve helps protect the brain from dementia, it does so by making you “smart” enough to compensate.? And if that’s the case, then why can’t adding to your cognitive reserve make you smarter?? We tend to think of IQ as something fixed through your life.? At best we might be able to acquire some facts, to learn a few new things.? But your IQ is mostly fixed, it's approximately the same in your 50s as it is in your 20s, right?

But what if IQ is not fixed?? What if you could be actually smarter in a year than you are today. 5 points? 10?? More? ? And all you had to do was read?

While I’m in no position to conduct a study, I think one should be done. I have a feeling the results might surprise all of us.??

Couple of clarifications about my reading habits:??

One:? Some things haven’t changed - my short term memory hasn’t improved (still terrible, I almost burned my kitchen trying to boil an egg), my attention still wanders relentlessly (thanks ADD) and I still find myself struggling to remember where I put my sunglasses (usually on my head) and my phone (in my hand or in the bathroom).? I am still bad at crossword puzzles and have trouble remembering words on the edge of my tongue.? My eyesight certainly hasn’t improved.? You can ask my friends about my spelling - sometimes even I don’t know what I wrote.? I certainly don’t feel improved in many other ways after my year of reading - which makes me think my results might actually be real.? If I was going to imagine some superhero miracle brain, I’d surely imagine a better memory while I was at it.??

Perhaps unsurprisingly - I don’t remember everything I read.? I don’t remember even half of it to be honest. Although when I read about the same topics in multiple books, I slowly begin to internalize the concepts, recognize them and draw patterns.? After several books on the same topic I can “hear” where the authors disagree and even start to have an informed opinion on which author might be right.? Yes, even string theory.? Useless as it is in my world.??

Two:? When I say “I read,” mostly, I listen. I am a heavily auditory learner, and reading text is something I’ve struggled with since my late teenage years.? I’ve never read college textbooks, instead relying on class discussions to understand the topic, and my notes to pass exams.? The only thing I truly “read '' are fiction texts, as the sensory input to me feels very different when it comes to fiction and nonfiction.? So mostly my reading is actually listening to books.? I’ve had a couple of people point out to me that this shouldn’t count as reading - I’m comfortable with that.? But using the word listening doesn’t really explain what my brain does, or how it feels to me, so this is how I chose to describe it. You can take my definition or leave it, as you see fit.?

Three:? I do “listen” at usually two times speed.? This was a slow progression from 1x speed, as my brain adjusted and craved a faster pace to acquire more and more information. In other words, I would find myself bored if I wasn’t getting enough information quickly enough.? So, I increase my speed as it feels more comfortable - not because I’m trying to read more in a shorter period of time.? Although that's certainly a goal, comprehension is far more important.??

Four: On comprehension, I believe I comprehend about 85% of what I read, up from about 70% a year ago.??

Five:? Most of what I read is non fiction. I read on a wide variety of topics I am interested in. I genuinely believe what you read is not as important as that you read it.? You should challenge yourself, learn from viewpoints different from yours, and focus on non-fiction (its more intellectually stimulating).? It goes without saying that if you want to make yourself smarter you should stay away from books that spew pseudoscience, conspiracy theories and propaganda.? A good rule of thumb is if the book is claiming any one group of people are somehow “all bad,”? or somehow "all good" with no shades of grey, this would fall under the definition of propaganda and I can pretty much guarantee it will not make you any smarter, and might have the opposite effect.? Anything that provides simple answers to complex topics is likely propaganda as well. In books, as in life, there are no simple answers. Otherwise, read whatever you are interested in.

So, if you are interested in conducting your own super reader experiment, please join me. I’d love to share the results and see if other people can get similar results to mine.?