Importance of Reading Books

 I am doing my master's right now in Physics and one thing that I learned so far is the importance of reading books. It may look typical for some but for me, it's an important realization. Let me elaborate -

Till now, I was the sort of person who just read the theories somehow and then start working on the problems or worse, moved to another one. In that way, it seems like you understood something but in reality, you don't have any in-depth knowledge whatsoever. So definitely, you gotta read books. But maybe, may not be the same reason as you think.

Recently, I have been leaning toward Philosophy a little bit. I am finding this branch very satisfactory and challenging. A deadly combination indeed. One concept I came across is 'Logos and Mythos'. In ancient Greece, it was recognized that these were two distinct ways of thinking and acquiring knowledge. Logos is referred to the logical and rational analysis of the phenomena in question. Whereas Mythos or Myths means word or story, understood as a tale or invented story which has nothing to do with reality and is solely perceived as a figment of human imagination.

The latter one is irrational in a way, right? Because it's not true. So, how the hell it survives for almost the span of whole human history? One of the reasons may be that we perceive the world as a sequence of stories. We all value material success but at the same time, we are also constantly going behind a meaningful story that we can resonate with. For example like, we all know to work hard to achieve our goals. Then the question comes, how do you know that you will live that long enough to even enjoy your success? Or, why we are assuming that working hard or working towards anything will bring any kind of change in our miserable lives, kind of a nihilistic view? But still, we prefer it because it gives meaning, it gives a sense of purpose. And when people do become successful like this, that is where the Mythos meets the Logos. This is also a sign of a healthy functional society.

Back to my original claim. When we read good books, we come across stories. For example, Let's say you are studying Quantum mechanics and choose to study David J. Griffiths. Whenever you are learning a new concept it's not like reciting just some formulas and exercises. He will walk you through the reason why we need those theories, the problems associated with other ones, etc. It's much more practical and easy to remember or implement as we are perceiving it using stories of one kind. 

I realized it after I started doing my masters and seriously helped me in a way by being a book warm. It's not about just reading Physics books either, I like to read books of any kind as long as they align with my curiosity; David Epstein talks about it too in his book 'Range'. I am about to finish '12 Rules For Life' by Dr. Jordon B. Peterson. Also, tried to read 'Will to Power' by Friedrich Nietzsche; but man! it's too complex to understand in one go.

But it's fascinating and helpful to have different perspectives about one thing. It widens your possibility of success, I guess. Indeed, Success is a smart process.