You Must Read to Lead

Many “smart” people aren’t actually smart. They just know a lot of trivia. Sure, they can tell you all sorts of facts, they have a library of big thick books filled with enormous words, or they can give you the up-to-the-minute news about a political race. But can they tell you what any of this means? Do they do anything important with this information? Of course not. And these types have always existed. Seneca spoke critically of literary snobs who could speculate for hours about whether The Iliad or The Odyssey was written first, or who the real author was (a debate that rages on today). He disliked hearing people chatter about which Roman general did this or that first, or which received this or that honor. “Far too many good brains,” he said, “have been afflicted by the pointless enthusiasm for useless knowledge. Harry Truman famously said that not all all readers are leaders but all leader are readers—they have to be. And they certainly aren’t reading to impress people or for the mental gymnastics. It’s to get better! It’s to find things they can use. Not at the dinner table or on Twitter, but in their real lives. The same must be true to us. We have to learn how to read to be better leaders, better people, better citizens. We must learn how to read for our own benefit—and so that we might have aid to offer to a friend in pain, or a soul in crisis. Seneca’s point was that only knowledge that does us good is worth knowing. Everything else is trivia. If you’re looking to be a better reader—to build a real reading practice—the Stoics can help. We built out some of their best insights into our Daily Stoic: Read-to-Lead Reading Challenge. It’s going to walk you through more than a dozen actionable challenges that will help you elevate your game as a reader, learn how to think more critically and discover important books that will change your life. We’ve got videos and worksheets and all sorts of recommendations and strategies for you. If you’ve liked any of our other courses, you’ll love this one—it’s awesome, it’s actionable and it will help you get a better ROI out of one of the most important ways we spend our time and enrich our minds. Give it a shot. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  You must read to lead. Many smart people aren't actually smart. They just know a lot of trivia. Sure, they can tell you all sorts of facts. They have a library of big, thick books filled with enormous words, or they can give you up-to-the-minute news about a political race. But what they can't tell you is what any of this means. They can't do anything important with this information. That's not why they read. And these types have always existed. Seneca spoke critically of literary snobs who could speculate for hours about whether the Iliad or the Odyssey was written first, or who the real author was, a debate that rages on today. He really disliked hearing people chatter about which

• 1:10Ryan Holiday?

  Roman general did this or that, or received this or that honor. "Far too many good brains," he said, "have been afflicted by the pointless enthusiasm for useless knowledge." Harry Truman famously said that "not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers." They have to be. And these leaders certainly aren't reading to impress people or for the mental gymnastics. It was to get better. It's to find things they can use, not at the dinner table or on Twitter, but in their real lives. The same must be true for us. We have to learn how to read to be better leaders, better people, better citizens. We must learn how to read for our own benefit, and so that we might have aid to offer to

• 1:53Ryan Holiday?

  a friend in pain or a soul in crisis. Seneca's point was that only knowledge that does us real good is worth knowing. Everything else is trivia. If you're looking to be a better reader or to build a real reading practice in your life, the Stoics can help. We built out some of their best insights into our Daily Stoic Read to Lead Reading Challenge. It's going to walk you through more than a dozen actionable challenges that will help you elevate your game as a reader, learn how to think more critically, and discover important books that will change your life. If you've liked any of our other courses or challenges, you'll love this one. It's awesome, it's actionable, and it will help you get a better ROI out of one of the most important ways we spend our time and enrich

• 2:34Ryan Holiday?

  our minds. Give it a shot. And again, I think this is one of the best challenges and courses we've ever done. It's built on a lot of my reading practices. There's videos from me. There's a workbook from me. There's all sorts of awesome stuff. You can check it out at dailystoic.com/reading.