NIETZSCHE: The Art of Not Reading (And What to Do Instead)

SUPPORT US ON PATREON:

WATCH:

OUR ANALYSES:

Even though Nietzsche turned from one of Schopenhauer’s greatest admirers to one of his greatest opponents over the course of his intellectual career, in one aspect at least he was always in agreement with his former mentor.

It’s not a good idea to read too many books. A brief passage in Ecce Homo is dedicated to “the scholar”… The type of person who spends his entire day reading books. Nietzsche would’ve been all too familiar with this type of person from his days as a scholar himself, when he was a professor philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland.

Nietzsche’s problem with reading too many books is related to overstimulation. By constantly reading books, you become dependent on their stimulus to formulate your own thoughts. A yes or no or a critique of those thoughts. In other words, you become a reactive being as opposed to a proactive being.

Of course, we also know for certain that Nietzsche had around 1100 books in his private library at the end of his life. And those represent less than half of all the books he’s read in his life.

So, make no mistake: Nietzsche did read a lot. But he warns against reading too much, and becoming dependent upon books and the ideas of others to formulate your own opinions. In other words, he warned against becoming reactive in your thinking rather than proactive. The first is the hallmark of a critic, someone who takes another person’s system and criticises it. But the proactive thinker comes up with his own system and ideas, he generates original thoughts.

Nietzsche doesn’t attribute his inspiration to reading books. Quite the opposite: he states multiple times that his best ideas came to him while being out on a walk, while being physically active in the real world.

For example, he famously came up with his concept of the Eternal Recurrence while looking at a rock during one of his hikes in the Swiss Alps.

[gnj]

I think Nietzche would be legitimately impressed with how many people have taken that first step towards not reading.

[willb]

I completely agree. I do believe that one ability we lost as individuals in our modern society today is the ability to tolerate boredom. I’ve noticed that whenever I find myself in long periods of silence, my first instinct is to watch something on YouTube or play a game to past the time. When I’m on a train ride or long walk, my first instinct is to play music. It’s gotten to the point where I have to have something on in the background in order for me to focus. This is a habit of constantly needing stimulation that I’ve been trying to kick by reading more books. After watching Nietzsche and Schopenhauer’s critique of reading too many books though, I now think my new approach to life should be as follows: read more than I’ve been reading now, but with long periods of silence in between to allow my mind to process what I’ve learned. It’s when we are bored when our creativity and imagination thrive. Boredom was once something that needed a remedy, hence the rise of ever present entertainment. However, in this day and age, enduring boredom and letting your mind wander to new places is a vital skill to have that will put you above everyone else.

[Brooder]

The key is not reading too many books...But reading the RIGHT books, and not wasting time with mediocre content. Select just a few of the best ones and you can learn a wealth of wisdom.

[MosesRabuka]

“Throw away your books stop letting yourself be distracted” ~ Marcus Aurelius

[noahpincus]

Love Nietzsche’s extremism. Hike for 8 hrs or write for 8 hrs

[adamaces]

The most valuable advice is to pause and reflect on what you have just read. Sometimes people are chastised, especially in schools, for reading too slowly. I am not a slow reader! I'm pausing and taking upon myself deeper contemplation of the topic as well as an entire branch of new ideas may hit me from a single line I have read. I have to put down my book and begin writing the new topic as inspiration hits.

People who read too fast are missing out on the deeper meanings, or they are reading terribly written books, either of the two are a waste of time.

[jamesembrey]

No book has ever given me the almost religious experience of walking in nature on a beautiful day. Wonderful video bro.

[Markipedia]

So basically Nietzsche wants you to "think out of the books"

[milascave]

He slowed down his reading because of his bad eyesight, really. Before that, he read more books then most of us have heard of.
However, in his last and strangest book, "Ecce Homo" he did say, in thetranslation that I read, "to read a book first thing in the morning is simply depraved."
Geeze, tell us how you really feel.
But of course, over reading is NOT the problem that most peolpe have nowadays.

[saimak]

The huge majority do not read, and get along just fine. All is well. Some of the wisest people I know don't read.
Nietzsche read voraciously, so yes, of course he would say that.
Nietzsche is effectively contrarian here. Most people should read more.

[mildsauce]

Ive found times in my life where I was most 'under the gun' to complete a task I would often take long walks. Perhaps some intuitive thing sprung up from within me and informed this.

[zoehltsen]

This was really encouraging to me. As someone who had to cram 3 semesters into 2, I spent the last year as a sedentary house plant. The few moments where I went for a jog rewarded me with insight into what I was writing at that given moment. I'm encouraged to dedicate more time to exercise and less time to social media

[daddymcsnacks_]

I'm outside daily, which I truly have always enjoyed. I've asked the question to myself before, can someone read too much that they can't come up with their own ideas? The problem with not reading enough is you come up with ideas that you think are original but someone 200 years ( or longer) ago already had that and wrote about it. The latter happens to me more. People forget just how unentertaining life once was, which had people sitting around pondering all sorts of things. In modern time's we get filled with distractions and trivial nonsense.

[nicolaswhitehouse]

A even better way to think freely is not walking only but swimming. When your swim, all your body is activated, not just your feet when hiking. Your mind and your body is always on flow with perfect synchronicity, instantly you become more creative when you’re swim. A must for people who want to think correctly in my opinion.

[aeriscreatesidk]

Honestly, as a teenager, here and there when I'm bored and want to make ideas. I completely agree with Neitzsche and Schopenhauer here though, walking is the best tool for thinking. It's also nice when you are feeling down at times

And this helped me ALOT, it's kind of true, I'm an absolute addict when it comes to books

Thank you for the video. You're work is great! 👍

[jmiller]

I'm reminded of the old "Twilight Zone" tv episode wherein a bookish chap is the lone survivor of WWIII; far from lamenting the loss of his fellow humans, he is overjoyed that he now has all the time he needs for reading...he amasses a huge pile of books on the front steps of the Library and then accidentally breaks his glasses.

[StreetsOfVancouverChannel]

Dear Jette,

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of well being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. Even if one were to walk for one’s health and it were constantly one section ahead – I would still say walk! Besides, it is also apparent that in walking, one constantly gets as close to well-being as possible, even if one does not quite reach it – but by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Health and salvation can only be found in motion. If anyone denies that motion exists, I do as Diogenes did, I walk. If anyone denies that health resides in motion, then I walk away from morbid objections. Thus if one keeps on walking, everything will be alright. And out in the country you have all the advantages; you do not risk being stopped before you are safe and happy outside your gate, nor do you run the risk of being intercepted on your way home. I remember exactly what happened to me a while ago and what has happened frequently since then. I had been walking for an hour and a half and had done a great deal of thinking, and with the help of motion had become very agreeable person to myself. What bliss, and, as you may imagine, what care did I not take to bring my bliss home as safely as possible. Thus, I hurry along, with downcast eyes I steal through the streets, so to speak; confident that I am entitled to the sidewalk, I do not consider it necessary to look about at all (for thereby one is so easily intercepted, just as one is looking about in order to avoid) and thus hasten along the sidewalk with my bliss (for the ordinance forbidding one to carry anything on the sidewalk does not extend to bliss, which makes a person lighter) – and run directly into a man who is suffering from illness and who therefore with downcast eyes, defiant because of this illness, does not even think he must look about when he is not entitled to the sidewalk. I was stopped. It was quite an exalted gentleman who now honoured me with his conversation. Thus, all was lost. After the conversation ended, there was only one thing left to do, instead of going home, to go walking again.

Yours, Soren Kierkegaard

From ‘Letter to Henrietta Lund’, 1847 (trans. Henrik Rosenmeier, 1978

[RaffiMaurer]

Loved Schopenhauer’s quote about internal motion requiring an external counterpart. As a child I hated exercise or sport of virtually any kind and poured scorn on those who spent hours on them. This changed dramatically as I aged and I realised the degree to which my mental and physical well-being depended on this. Now I’m the one who many think is crazy, refusing to let a day elapse without some kind of cardio exercise. It hasn’t cured me of my fundamental problems but I’m certainly less restless when I’ve been exercising regularly and I now can’t imagine life without it.

[juanro]

Nietzsche: “Don’t read too many books. Except mine, those are okay.”

[uncommonsensewithpastormar]

I very much agree with Nietzsche and Schopenhauer on the sin of reading too much. While I walk the dog nearly an hour a day, it is not in walking, but in writing that I come up with the most original ideas.