I believe that most people feel the need for self-improvement. Obviously not psychopaths or sociopaths (what’s the difference?) and maybe not even those in the lowest economic strata of society, but I’m talking about the rest of us. Fortunately, methods which we can use to improve ourselves are plentiful.
Books are an obvious method to improve ourselves. Charlie Munger said that “making friends among the eminent dead” is a sure-fire way to improve ourselves. In other words, read the notables who went before us.
It’s amazing that many of the problems we face today have vexed mankind for several millennia. Reading the ancient Greeks and Romans shows that the nature of man hasn’t changed much in several thousand years. It might also provide a key insight to a problem we are wrestling with.
The problem with this of course is that it is not easy. The “notable dead” are not always easy to read. It often takes concentrated effort to get through the great thinkers of yesteryear. But they had to come up with the idea and then commit it to paper, so the effort required to read and digest the material seems small in comparison to that.
Of course it’s always easier to flip on the game or our favorite show, but that is an option for relaxing, which, while necessary, does little in the way of improving ourselves.
It always seems to come down to easy versus hard. Those things that are good for us (diet, exercise, reading the eminent dead, saving for retirement, buying life insurance J, etc.) tend to be hard while those things that are not good for us (overindulgence, sloth, brain candy, etc.) tend to be easy.
But if making the time to read the eminent dead is not in the cards, there is always audio books. Not only are these available for purchase on Amazon, but my local library has literally thousands of titles available for check-out or for download to a Kindle or iPad. Additionally, there are thousands of TED talks available online that are downloadable to your device of choice.
The information we need to improve ourselves is readily available. Not only is it available, but it is most likely available in a format that is conducive to your lifestyle and learning preference. (Of course it helps to know your circle of competence). So the only thing left to do is to budget the time. I know time is a tremendously valuable resource to all of us, but what could be a more valuable use of our time than embarking on a systematic program of self-improvement?