Does reading make you a smarter person?

This is a post by Sanasi Kelkar, content designer at CTQ.

To really answer this question let's define the two things that we are trying to equate.

1. ‘Smartness’ - Smart can mean anything from well-dressed to street-savvy. For this discussion, we can limit its scope to "wiser than earlier", which makes it a personal growth journey. (Worth pursuing).

2. 'Reading' - So the question is - reading what? Let's classify reading sources in general and their ability to influence the ‘Smartness’ that we chose in (1).
   Here are the different things we generally tend to read and how I think they fare in achieving (1).

• Non-fiction: Genuine experiences of remarkable people who are humble enough to tell them as close to the truth as they can.
  (These are immensely useful. Some great reads I found are: Barefoot Coach by Paddy Upton, Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama, Surely You're Joking My Feynman, The Stories of My Experiments with Truth by MK Gandhi, Open by Andre Agassi)
  (Humble) Smartness tip: Make your own notes on these and use those as guides.

• Non-fiction: Newspaper stories which are presented as non-fiction but we don't know the motivations and internal biases of the people writing them.

  Sometimes the shroud of this is more dangerous than openly dishonest autobiographies.
  Smartness tip: Take them as wonderful hypotheses and to better your skills of weaning out good sources from the bad. Over time once you have established your own sources you trust, these can be used as great sources of general knowledge and awareness of the world around you.

• Non-fiction: Ideas that are derived from people's, experiments, theories and so on.
  These make for great reading but you need to think about them exactly for what they are - ideas and not always truths.
  Smartness tip: Use these for trying out things for yourself and see what works for you.

• Non-fiction: Compilations of deep research of a measurable and factually verifiable phenomenon.
  These, especially when well-narrated can really help you not just know interesting things but to also remember them. Smartness tip: Might want to read these multiple times!
  (Some great reads in this category: Sapiens, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Genome, The Emperor of All Maladies

• Fiction - Well written, great language (any language).
  These are like music to the mind. They tease your imagination and spread pixie dust on the daily grind of life. "Oh the places you will go!" like one wonderful book title says, is true with these. Classics even act as passive teachers, you will find that if you read things that are well-written, what you write will also subtly get better. They give you a portkey that you can lose yourself into. Great reads: So many but try to explore great writers from your own language as well.

  Smart Tip:

  At Choose To Thinq we try to read random things without thinking too much. Really helps to stay curious.
  
  Enjoy the journey!

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