Buy More Books Than You Can Ever Read
Or, why read books are far less valuable than unread ones
👋 Hey there! My name is Abhishek. Welcome to a new edition of The Sunday Wisdom! This is the best way to learn new things with the least amount of effort.
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Q: What is an antilibrary?
As a kid I loved buying books during the yearly book fair in the city where I grew up. I was not a good judge of my aptitude so I mostly ended up buying books that were beyond me. Naturally a lot of them remained piled up in shelves gathering dust. They still do. My mother has her own pile of literary collection. Too many books for a small house.
Once in a while somebody would mention about the unread books. It would be some distant uncle during his yearly visit, or one of my own friends. “How many of them have you read?”
It was a logical question. It made me wonder if I had been wasting my parents’ money buying all these books and leaving them unread.
Turns out I wasn’t the only one being asked this question. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes in The Black Swan, the late Italian writer Umberto Eco had a personal collection of thirty thousand books in his private library. Most of the people who visited him reacted with, “What a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” Only a very small minority understood that a library is not meant to show off the number of books one has read.
A library is a research tool where read books are far less valuable than unread ones. In other words, the knowledge you have gained is less valuable than what you don’t know.
Does it mean that we should buy books only not to read them because reading would make them less valuable? Can this idea be used as an excuse to be a collector of books, but not a reader? Not exactly!
I’ll agree that this isn’t the most obvious and intuitive concept to grasp. On top of that, this can be easily misinterpreted. Yet this is precisely how Nassim Nicholas Taleb starts The Black Swan — by introducing us to the concept of an antilibrary.
A private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allow you to put there.
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan
An antilibrary — the unread books in our collection — represents what we don’t know. It’s a reminder of our ignorance. It’s a delineation of the fact that even if we pursue knowledge for the next 100 years, we won’t be able to know everything there is to know. In fact, not even a tiny fraction of it.
The purpose is not to depress us, but to remind us to be humble about our own knowledge. So that we don’t become so cocksure about everything that it prevents us from learning, from seeing, and from questioning things. Especially our own conjectures.
When you have just started reading books, you are absolutely sure of your ignorance. Therefore you value the unread books. You have certain notions and assumptions that you want to verify. The problem starts when you’ve read a good deal. You start becoming too sure, too confident, too prudent. As Taleb writes, this is exactly what leads to Black Swan events.
It is our knowledge — the things we are sure of — that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning.
— Lincoln Steffens (1866 – 1936), Investigative Journalist
Our knowledge is incomplete, imperfect, and infinitesimal in absolute terms. The antilibrary represents the unknowledge — the things we don’t know. Unknowledge is the only antidote to our overconfidence from knowledge.
A scholar is someone who knows many things. An antischolar is somebody who is humbly aware that they don’t know everything. They are “someone who focuses on the unread books, and makes an attempt not to treat his knowledge as a treasure, or even a possession, or even a self-esteem enhancement device.” They question things. They are sceptical empiricists who know that what they don’t know is more valuable than what they know.
A good library is filled with mostly unread books. That’s the point. The unread books are a tool for us to question our knowledge, our assumptions, and our worldview. “You’ll never read all of them,” many people say when they look at my unread collection. With time I’ll go on adding more unread books, and my probability of reading all of them will further decrease. They are right. I won’t be able to read all of them, and that’s exactly how it works.
I’m aware of the limits of my knowledge. My library of unread books is a constant reminder. My limited knowledge can only take me so far. Like all of us, I know that unknowledge — what I don’t know — affects me far more than my knowledge.
As Taleb writes, “Note that the Black Swan comes from our misunderstanding of the likelihood of surprises, those unread books, because we take what we know a little too seriously.”
Timeless Wisdom
I’ve always believed that you can be anything you want. But the more I’ve thought about it, I’ve come to believe it’s not true. It has limitations. You cannot be anything you want. You might be anything you are good at—as long as it pays your bills.
What I’m going to say won’t sound nice, but it’s practical. Go for a career that may not be your passion, but earns a good income.
This is less about money, and more about freedom. A low-income passion isn’t for the long haul. It would be foolish to follow something if it doesn’t pay enough. Especially when you have a family—parents, siblings, spouse, kids—depending upon you. It’s both irrational and irresponsible.
Take care of the basics first: fooding, clothing, and housing. Once you get bored with that, focus your passion on the side. Once your passion starts paying for your basics, consider doing it full-time. Doing otherwise won’t get you very far. I know because I’ve tried it. Twice. Retrospectively, it was extremely foolish. Don’t be foolish.
I Enjoyed Reading
The Man Who Never Left Habbo Hotel — “On 9 July 2003, a 13-year-old James (now a 30-year-old local government worker in the North West of England) logged on to Habbo.co.uk and created the digital alter ego that he would maintain for more than half of his life.”
Feeling Unproductive? Maybe You Should Stop Overthinking — “In order to get something done, maybe we need to think less. Seems counter-intuitive, but I believe sometimes our thoughts can get in the way of the creative process.”
How Iceland Got Teens to Say No to Drugs — “Curfews, sports, and understanding kids’ brain chemistry have all helped dramatically curb substance abuse in the country.”
Today I Learnt
Usually when I like a book I tell about it to everybody I meet. On certain occasions I like a book so much that I recommend it to others over and over again. This is one of those.
Come As Your Are is a women sexual health book written for women. But it’s a must-read for men as well. Even though it’s branded as a sexual health book with a misleading subtitle “that will transform your sex life,” it is sooo much more than that.
It talks about sexual health, yes, but also about psychology, physiology, sociocultural problems, stereotypes, neuroscience, mental health, and more. It’s an essential read for all women (and men) who have been taught all the wrong things about sex. How men and women are different beings, and they respond differently to sex. How unlike men, sex is more about context for women. How pleasure is more about the brain than the genitals. How we have accelerators and brakes when it comes to arousal. And most importantly, how all of us are perfect in our own unique way. There’s no such thing as normal—or rather, that we’re all normal. We’re all made of the same parts as everyone else, organised in a unique way. No two alike. Emily Nagoski drives this message home beautifully.
I am done living in a world where women are lied to about their bodies; where women are objects of sexual desire but not subjects of sexual pleasure; where sex is used as a weapon against women; and where women believe their bodies are broken, simply because those bodies are not male. And I am done living in a world where women are trained from birth to treat their bodies as the enemy.
Guys and girls, go read it. It’s an eye opener. If you aren’t a sex educator, and if you don’t actively read about the science behind sex (novels and magazines don’t count), you dunno anything about it.
What I’m Watching
Creature Discomforts: Life in Lockdown — This film highlights the plight of wild animals in captivity through reflections on the global COVID-19 lockdown.
(Confused) Thoughts on an Unsticking Technique — Ze Frank’s on how to get unstuck. His ‘Triple S’ technique is useful for all writers who need a little structure to get past an empty page.
Why Finland Has The Best Education System in The World — “A segment on the approach to education in Finland from Where To Invade Next by Michael Moore. It’s a great footage showing how education works in Finland.”
What I’m Reading
The most important form of selfishness involves spending time on your fitness, eating right, pursuing your career, and still spending quality time with your family and friends. If you neglect your health or your career, you slip into the second category—stupid—which is a short slide to becoming a burden on society.
— Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
Before You Go…
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I’ll see you next Sunday,
Abhishek 👋
I think this is the first time somebody has written an article that properly explains the concept of an antilibrary. Really helpful!