Does Reading rot the mind?

Reading rots the mind! Does it strike as a negative statement? Does it challenge the accepted notion that reading is a beneficial mind-building exercise? When I first read it, I was amazed. I didn’t know the exact origin of this phrase, but it fascinated me. I was reading about Francis Crick, a reputed scientist, and a Noble laureate, widely known for determining the structure of the DNA molecule with James Watson. Crick was an exceptional scientist who solved challenging problems by combining theoretical predictions and exhaustive experimentation. He was guided more by observation and open-minded curiosity than disciplined specialization. He had an unrivaled reputation amongst scientists. Sydney Brenner, a developmental biologist, and a Nobel laureate shared the office with Crick; once mentioned that Crick had put a message on his office wall, “Reading rots the mind,” in big letters like some sutra he wanted to be constantly reminded of. I was intrigued. How could someone as intellectually accomplished as Crick believe this?

Later, I learned that the famous writer and philosopher George Bernard Shaw first said it, and Crick perhaps borrowed it from him. Scientists or writers are generally voracious readers as their professions capitalize on curiosity and constant evaluation of diverse ideas. Reading, for ages, has been considered a great way to obtain information and stimulate creative thinking. Even in the old times, society was divided between people with the ability to read and those without the ability to do so. Therefore, this bold expression sounds counterintuitive and counterproductive. But is there any truth in it? Interestingly enough, when I got fascinated enough to write my thoughts on this, I found out that Crick and Shaw and many other influential scientists and writers also said similar things. Paul Dirac, a famous physicist, said, “I don’t read; it interferes with my thinking.”??

What is reading? Reading is learning or understanding information through written words and visual aids rather than through direct experience. Reading allows us to conceptualize novel and complex information through words and familiar concepts. Not only that, Reading facilitates our imagination to comprehend abstract concepts or information that cannot be experienced through the senses. Hence, reading is a fundamental mode of learning abstract and complex information.?

Being able to read and write is the most significant invention of humanity and the foundation of modern human civilization. The most consequential spin-off of this invention has been an exponential increase in human creativity and productivity. This is because reading allows sharing experiences and information across human populations separated by distance and time. It allows a handover of the pre-existing corpus of knowledge to subsequent generations. Because we can read and pass on experiences, the next generation doesn’t have to reinvent or rediscover what their ancestors learned; they can read and learn from the corpus inherited from pre-existing humans. Yes, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel!

The journey from the discovery of fire to the invention of Jet engines is an ongoing series of incremental improvements facilitated by our ability to document, read and write and pass on knowledge to the next generation. Imagine a world where very little information is transferred or shared between human beings. Most likely, in such a world, people would still be living in small tribes in Jungles.?

However, since books only offer what humans have learned or assumed, books are not free from fallacies. Not long ago in human history, books were filled with grossly incorrect assumptions about the natural world. For example, the Earth is flat, and all planets revolve around the earth in our solar system. So, everything that is written and documented is not necessarily true! Nevertheless, reading is critical for learning; without it, thinking far beyond one’s limited experience is impossible.

Mental faculties develop with learning and gradually become capable of processing information to solve complex problems. A well-read person is much informed and has well-formed mental faculties. On the other hand, a mind deprived of learning is not well-formed. Such a mind is deprived of a long series of experiences and information humans have amassed over the long course of cultural and intellectual evolution. Learning structures the mind and makes it adept at making educated guesses about things, people, and events. We now need an operational definition of the mind; after all, the mind matters.?

A simple and operational description of the mind can be that it is the seat of faculties such as intuition, imagination, perception, reason, will, and memory. Mind is too complex an entity to be described by any given definition. Mind is constantly shaped through learning, experiences, and, notably, repetition of our actions. Mind is plastic and robust and can be trained to do a specialized job by training and educating it. That is the basis of all academic education, to create well-trained experts. But the most intriguing ability of the mind is its ability to observe, intuit, and question. Too much dependence on Reading to acquire knowledge can often impair our mind's ability to ponder the abstract nature of things.

So, the reading appears to be all beneficial and has no harm whatsoever. Great writer Mark Twain said, “The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the fellow who can't read a line.”. In his famous short story, The Bet, Anton Chekov has glorified reading fine books, saying that reading is so profoundly gratifying that a life spent reading fine books is better than chasing money or power as a life goal. Well, that is Anton Chekov’s take on this, and just because Anton Chekov said it, we must not believe this.?

Yes, we must question everything we read and validate its certainty as far as possible because reading can bias our thinking and affect our judgment. And that is the beginning of our understanding of how reading may rot the mind. For someone like Crick, a scientist working at the boundary of known and unknown, reading may not be the best way to seek information.

to be continued..........