[Reflection] #11: Taking the Time to Read and Read Well
I’ve noticed that the longer my articles get, the more people ask trivial questions—the answers to which are already in the article. The longer the text, the more people can’t be bothered to read because their attention span is quite limited, and at some point they give up or skim through.
This happens more and more often, and getting these kinds of questions annoys me, because I think:
(1) I took the time to write this long article, available for free. All you have to do is read (or Ctrl+F to find the answer), it’s not that hard.
(2) It’s disrespectful to treat me like a free consultant who spends precious time answering trivial questions.
However, my reaction to these questions – admittedly stupid – deserves some reflection on my part. Because JB, next to me, doesn’t react the same way at all to the same comments. He tells me: “the more comments/questions, the better for SEO”.
But the behaviors that annoy us in others are precious indicators – to help us move forward.
It’s important to ask yourself: “What bothers me about this behavior?” The answer to that question turns out to be a reflection of yourself.
So I asked myself: when have I behaved like them: skimming, following advice half-heartedly, and asking stupid questions?
Well, I’m mortified to admit I’ve done it many times.
I particularly read a book called The Japanese Skincare Revolution (Amazon link) where a 70-year-old woman with skin as young as a 30-year-old shares all her beauty tips to get skin like hers. I read this book about ten years ago, but never took the time to apply 100% of the advice before forming my own opinion. Since she didn’t have specific advice for acne-prone skin, I didn’t dig deeper; I just picked 2-3 tips and applied them now and then. But I should have applied them all for at least 3 months before concluding that only 2-3 tips worked for me.
So I decided to re-read all my favorite books and take the time to read them – because I read very fast and have a good memory, but I often skip details that turn out to be important.
I bought all the books by the woman in question, even in Japanese,to get more explanations on each method. I’m going to apply them religiously for 3 months, and only at the end can I conclude whether they work for me or not.
In parallel, I’ll follow video courses more diligently on Masterclass.
All precious knowledge is already within reach for ages, and just like my lazy readers, I don’t take the time to simply read or consult it.
To free up time for reading, I’ve decided to take a break from social media – no more posting story after story, and only going there to check some important news once or twice a day. If I have something to say, I’ll rather use the blog.
See you in 3 months to see if the Japanese lady’s method works. I took before photos to compare my skin before/after; you can see the results here
