Weekend Edition – The Power of Reading

Einstein described compound interest as the “8th wonder of the World.” I certainly won’t quibble with Einstein, because, well, he’s Einstein. But I think, perhaps, the 9th (10th? 11th?) wonder of the world, is the compound power of lifelong learning. The same concept is applicable as to why the power of compound interest is so great – as you learn more, your knowledge compounds exponentially. Learning can be accomplished in a lot of ways; however, one tried and true method is being a consistently fanatical reader.

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time – none, zero.”

- Charlie Munger

This isn’t a novel thought from Charlie Munger. In fact, it’s been around since the written word itself. Knowledge is power and one way knowledge can be attained is via reading. From Wikipedia:

“In most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language. Within a language system, writing relies on many of the same structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar and semantics, with the added dependency of a system of signs or symbols, usually in the form of a formal alphabet. The result of writing is generally called text, and the recipient of text is called a reader.”

I repeat, called a reader.

Writing (the pre-cursor to reading) is so important in the evolution of mankind that historians make a distinction between “history” and “pre-history.” History–as defined by historians–is the period of time after the written word. In other words, “History” really only dates back to our ability to read and write.

The Love of Reading

At Dividend.com, we love reading and do it every day of every week of every month of every year. While our reading schedule on the analyst team varies across different personal interests beyond investing alone, we have a voracious and focused desire to consume information about dividend stocks, the market, economics, geo-politics and personal investing behaviour. We’re all lucky to live in such a glorious time to consume information via the complex web of links known as the Internet. Reading has become easier than ever before. Within two clicks you can find almost anything you want, if you know what you’re looking for, and that’s the crux. While the accessibility of information has skyrocketed over the past 15 years with the explosion of the Internet, it has brought with it disproportionate mountains of useless reading.

Need A Plumber?

The paradoxical nature of good and bad information online reminds me of the story about the guy with a leaky pipe in his basement. Yes, a leaky pipe, bear with me a second. The gentleman can’t figure out how to stop the leak, so, naturally he calls a plumber. The plumber shows up at his door and the man shows him to the basement and more specifically points to the