Read for inspiration, not agreement.

Here's a distinction that has served me powerfully in life:

Read for inspiration, not for agreement.

Don't read to see if you like the author, or agree with them, or to see how smart they are. Read in order to find a fresh idea that can serve you.?

It doesn’t matter whether the author intended the idea the way you read it. What matters is that it expands your thinking and gives you a new perspective.

I recommend a lot of books to people, and sometimes they come back to me saying things like “I didn’t like this, the author is blah blah blah…” and my response is, “Yes, but what ideas did you take from the book that's helpful to you?”

And sometimes they seem confused, as though not liking the author is a good reason to learn nothing at all from the book.

I get it. But that’s a very limiting way to read.

If you do that, then you’re just reading to see whether you agree with someone, rather than trying to take something helpful from it.

You only need one inspired idea to change your life. Doesn’t it make sense to be more open to finding it?

Next time you’re reading, forget about the author, and read the book to see what ideas you can extract from it to apply to your own life. And then go apply it.

If you can only learn from people you like and agree with, your pool of knowledge gets much, much smaller than it needs to be.