It’s Tuesday the week after my first UXPA conference. I’m still reflecting on all that I experienced. Certain remarks from certain speakers from certain sessions continue to occupy top-of-mind awareness. I wonder Susan Weinschenk what the correlation is? My assumption is that our frame of reference is usually egocentric; we hear, interpret and remember based on a frame of reference of our current circumstances, mood and pre-occupations?
In any case, a comment from Cliff Anderson during a panel discussion with fellow legends of the UX community, Ginny Redish, Stephanie Rosenbaum and Chauncey Wilson continues to replay in my thoughts “I read two books a week.”
My immediate response was to hope that nobody could read my mind as the reality of my decline in reading confronted me while sitting there amongst all of these smart, well-read people. A Washington Post article from 2018 entitled “Leisure reading in the U.S. is at an all time low.” tells me that sadly I’m not alone. While you may think (as I did) that the reason for this was increased time on social media, or online, the research proves that the culprit is TV and that “In 2017, the average American spent more than 2 hours 45 minutes per day watching TV, every day of the year, or nearly 10 times the amount of time [my emphasis] they devoted to reading for pleasure.”
What to do?
As I was pondering this, a medium post from Charles Chu appeared in my inbox this morning “The Simple Truth Behind Reading 200 Books a Year – and how to make it a habit”. He quotes Warren Buffet on his secret to success:
“Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will...”
Oh dear! I have to have a goal? I just want to get back to reading …
“There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears a Human soul.”
―Emily Dickinson
It was a little confronting as Charles applied some simple math that reminded me of how much time is consumed both by social media and TV:
705 hours on social media
2,737.5 hours on TV
That’s 143 DAYS which, according to Charles’ calculations (on average reading speed) equates to over 1600 books a year!
So, two books a week seems eminently doable right? Charles goes on to talk about the difficulty of weaning yourself from social media and gives some practical tips about changing your environment and being opportunistic in terms of where and what you read.
This reminded me of Cliff’s practical suggestion of a ‘book club’; which nicely aligns with learnings from Susan Weinschenk’s and Guthrie Weinschenk’s behavioral psychology workshop—also at the UXPA conference—of the desire to ‘belong and identify with a social group’ as a strong motivator.
Anyone interested in joining a tribe of aspiring readers?
And, what to read?
Some suggestions
Blockchain / emerging technology (weekly): read an article and discuss?
UX-related books (monthly): set and choose a topic / book read and discuss?
Other?