I used to hate reading books.
My ADHD brain would wander after two sentences, and I’d feel like an idiot.. couldn’t concentrate or focus on the material.
But then I discovered a ‘useful delusion’ that changed everything.
I’ve been using an app called Readwise for 3 years now. It’s helped me read nearly every day since.
And was today I was thinking..
There’s ONE feature that gets overlooked,
but not for the reason you might think.
The infinite scroll.
An analogy:
Think of debit cards vs cash.
With debit cards: it’s digital. we can’t touch it, so we have less pain when we spend it. We indulge.
With cash: we tend to be more frugal. it hurts to physically hand our money over. We reserve.
In the case of reading digitally,
Since I can’t see how thick a book is in my library I have less emotional fear when deciding to read it.
I indulge.
For example:
The book by Manly P Hall, “Secret Teachings Of All Ages” is 672 page book pages. Hefty one.
But on my phone, it turns it into a small, thin rectangle, I carry with me everywhere.
In other words,
When I can’t see how big and scary a book is.
I’m more likely to read it since I don’t have the visual pain of seeing its full size.
So when I infinitely scroll
I just keep reading, and it’s hard to stop.
Before I couldn’t even read 3 pages of a book without my mind wandering.
Think about it like this:
If you’re walking in darkness at night you cant see what’s in front of you.. but if you have a flashlight that helps you see a few steps ahead?
This is all you need to tread for eternity.
Yeah, infinite scroll.
Add this with the 2 other features.
1. Voiceover
2. Speed adjustment
Then I can listen to books for hours.
On physical books
When I’ve metastasized the book, understood it, comprehended it, internalized it, externalized it, its actual concepts, and if I honestly found value in it?
I’ll go ahead and purchase the physical copy.
Add it to my physical library.
Then bask in the glory of a physical, tactile, environment of knowledge, in my creative space.
I can flip through the pages, knowing the territory.
This is huge..So important today when critical thinking is harder to come by.
Post-modernity is a thing.
Where the capitalist realism has commodified everything “sacred, real, and true”, repackaged it into surface memes, tourist attractions, and trendy names for Starbucks lattes’.
I’ve definitely taken part in getting a book but never reading it. It sits on the shelf untouched. Symbolising knowledge I wished I had, but ohhhh I could be perfectly content just staring at it. (With a little guilt in the background)
But with this useful delusion: the infinite scroll
I find my relationship to physical books has changed. They no longer function as aesthetics of knowledge. They’ve become totems of the authors and thinkers I’ve genuinely walked with.
Post-modernity is overcome.
My reverence for not just books,
But the knowledge they contain has deepened
And this is needed, especially today.
As I’m writing this,
72% of the world today is under authoritarian rule. Parasitic facebook algorithms and propaganda trolling operations make critical thinking nearly impossible.
All this to say, read more. Learn more. Think more.
There’s a reason why the first thing that all authoritarian governments remove is education. The books. The teachers. The journalists.
Read to protect your mind and sovereignty.
Read to train your mind to critically think.
Read, because in these chaotic times with the current regime taking over America, your knowledge is what can’t be taken away.
And if reading is difficult for you,
Watch this quick tutorial on my favorite app that helped me start reading with ADHD here
Happy learning!
~ Akino