Alright, let’s get into something that really grinds my gears these days. It’s this pervasive, chest-thumping mantra you hear echoing through the canyons of the Manosphere, the Hustle Bro headquarters, the Church of Perpetual Grind: “I don’t read books, I get shit done.”
You hear it all the time. Some dude in a podcast interview, slicked-back hair gleaming under the studio lights, bragging about how he hasn’t read a book since college (if he even went). “Reading is passive,” he smirks. “While you’re turning pages, I’m closing deals!” It’s delivered like a badge of honor, this proud declaration of ignorance. As if thinking, learning, absorbing knowledge accumulated over centuries is somehow less manly, less effective, than just blindly charging forward like a rhino with a concussion.
Let me tell you, I used to nod along to that bullshit. Thought reading was for professors, poets, and people who didn’t have real work to do. My heroes were guys who did things, built things, broke things. Reading felt slow, weak, like hiding from the fight. Getting shit done? That sounded like power. That sounded like winning.
What a fucking idiot I was.
Because here’s the dirty little secret the “Get Shit Done” crowd doesn’t want you to know: Willful ignorance isn’t strength; it’s a goddamn vulnerability. It’s leaving your flank wide open, walking into a minefield without a map, thinking sheer momentum will protect you. And spoiler alert: it won’t.
Why is this anti-intellectual posturing so damn popular? Psychology, mostly. It offers an easy out. Thinking is hard. Reading challenging books takes time and effort. Grappling with complex ideas can be uncomfortable, forcing you to question your own assumptions. It’s much easier to adopt a simple “Just Do It” mentality, confusing frantic activity with actual progress. It taps into cognitive ease – simple, confident declarations feel truer than nuanced arguments. It reinforces a simplistic identity: “I’m a doer, not a thinker,” which can be comforting if you’re insecure about your own intellect.
And who benefits from you proudly strapping on these intellectual blinders? The gurus, the hucksters, the manipulators. That’s who. Think about it from their economic perspective: An audience that doesn’t read widely, that doesn’t engage in critical thinking, is infinitely easier to sell shit to. They can peddle recycled ideas, flawed logic, simplistic solutions to complex problems, and you won’t have the background knowledge to call bullshit. You become dependent on their information – their courses, their seminars, their “secrets.” Keeping you dumb keeps you dependent. It’s the Howard Zinn question again: Cui bono? Who profits when the masses are encouraged to stop thinking critically? Those selling easy answers and demanding obedience.
Now, let’s flip the script. What’s the real power that comes from actually using your fucking brain, from engaging with the accumulated wisdom (and stupidity, learn from that too) of humanity?
- Better Decisions: Understanding history helps you recognize patterns, avoid repeating catastrophic mistakes (personal and societal). Understanding psychology helps you navigate relationships, negotiations, and spot manipulation tactics (like the ones used by the gurus!). Understanding economics helps you see through financial scams and make smarter choices with your resources. Knowledge provides context, turning blind guesses into informed decisions.
- Real Problem Solving: You think complex problems get solved by just “hustling harder”? Bullshit. They require analysis, creativity, drawing connections between different fields – things that are fueled by a broad knowledge base. Reading exposes you to different frameworks, different ways of thinking, different solutions you’d never stumble upon just by “doing.”
- Manipulation Resistance: This is huge. Reading widely – history, philosophy, science, literature – trains your critical thinking muscles. You learn to spot logical fallacies, identify propaganda, question assumptions. You become infinitely harder to fool, whether it’s by a politician, a marketer, or some smooth-talking dude selling you a crypto course. Bill Hicks built a career on questioning the official narrative – that requires a working bullshit detector, sharpened by knowledge.
- Deeper Skill Mastery: Sure, you can learn some things by doing. But mastering any complex skill – whether it’s coding, engineering, strategic planning, medicine, even high-level crafts – requires deep theoretical understanding alongside practical application. You need the “why” as well as the “how.”
Think about Bruce Lee. Was he just a guy who “did” punches and kicks? Fuck no. He was a voracious reader, a philosopher, constantly studying anatomy, kinesiology, other martial arts, philosophy (East and West). He absorbed knowledge, synthesized it, questioned everything, and then applied it to create something revolutionary. His action was powerful precisely because it was informed by deep thought and understanding. That’s Hemingway’s iceberg – the visible action is just the tip; the real power lies in the mass of knowledge and thought beneath the surface. Think about leaders who lasted – Grant wasn’t just a general; he wrote famously clear memoirs. Churchill wasn’t just a politician; he was a historian and Nobel laureate in Literature. Deep thought fueled effective action.
This isn’t about becoming some passive academic who never gets their hands dirty. It’s about recognizing that informed action beats blind action every single time. It’s about doing the right shit, not just more shit. It’s about strategy over brute force. It’s about building your mental arsenal, not just your physical one or your bank account (which is probably being drained by gurus if you refuse to read).
So, next time you hear some asshole bragging about how he doesn’t read books because he’s too busy “crushing it,” recognize it for the pathetic cope it is. He’s not strong; he’s vulnerable. He’s not efficient; he’s likely just busy being stupid. Real power lies in knowing your shit. Real strength involves using that wrinkly grey thing between your ears.
Pick up a goddamn book. Learn something. Think critically. It won’t make you weak; it’ll make you dangerous – dangerous to the people who profit from your ignorance. And that sounds like getting some real shit done to me.
