What you realize when you read about any topic, at any time.

I have always liked reading. Sometimes it’s been more of an addiction than a like, but It’s one of those confessable habits that define your personality and provide you with a different perspective on life.

It is a relatively common hobby. Many people like reading, and although there are some who don’t, there is a consensus that reading is a beneficial habit, regardless of whether you practice it or not. In this article, I would like to explain why, in my opinion, reading is good, and reading about different topics is even better.

Seeing the world through different eyes, through the eyes of those who wrote the books you read, that captivated your imagination, expands your understanding, and you see better and clearer. You see how things truly are. This article explains what I think we can learn by the exercise of looking broadly at the world (and the universe).

First, what exactly do you mean by “any topic”?

When talking about reading, most people subconsciously associate it with a particular topic, like science fiction, romance, art or history. You can find real experts in some of those areas that read everything that falls in their hands about their like. That is great, and I personally enjoy a conversation with them, because they can provide me with some excellent hints on what is worth and worthless reading from the topics they love so much. They can save you some time as you may have to read a lot before you stumble upon seeing those gems-books or even never get to find them.

However, I have a different approach. Really it is not an “approach”, but more like a “taste.” I like reading about any topic (truth be said, “almost any” topic).

So, what do I mean precisely about “any topic”? I mean that I enjoy learning, so I find pleasure in reading about something I know nothing about or know little about. The topics cover any aspect of human endeavor: history, math, science fiction, biology, anthropology, economics, spiritualism, thrillers…

I think this is explained better with a list (not exhaustive) of some of the latest books I have read:

• “History of Impressionism,” by John Rewald (Currently reading)
• “Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction,” by Derek Thompson
• “Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts Hardcover,” by Christopher de Hamel
• “Factfulness,” by Hans Rosling
• “The Egg and the Dinosaur,” by Jorge Bolivar (second time around)
• “The last days of the Incas,” by Kim MacQuarrie
• “Brief history of the crusades,” by Juan Ignacio Cuesta
• “Now. The physics of time,” by Richard A. Muller
• “The secrets of consciousness,” Various authors. Scientific American Articles
• “May the mathematics be with you,” by Clara Grima
• “The Three-Body Problem,” by Cixin Liu

…As you can see, that’s a nice potpourri.

What I understood

So, here is the core assertion of my article: after many years of reading about those -and many other- topics, I have come to a few conclusions. Some of you may agree with these; others may deeply disagree, but I think many people will have similar feelings or draw similar conclusions to these:

Nothing matters too much. The internet is full of very moving stories from people who came to this conclusion after a dramatic event in their lives. The death of a loved one, some lousy prognosis of a severe illness, etc. Only then can they realize that things they had considered very important in their lives are, with this new perspective, much less consequential. Science books are great at teaching how incredibly insignificant we are. History books teach us a few lessons about what happened before us. Both types of books help putting things into context. The bottom line that now I realize (and the next points will reinforce it) that we should understand that nothing that happens in our lives is really too important.

Obviously, as part of your own life experience, they are essential for you personally. But if there is something good about reading it is that it allows you to look beyond your own world and limitations. There, in the vastness of space and time, our daily matters are like a speck of dust in the middle of a tropical storm. Insignificant. You may say this is not true on a personal level; still, it is absolutely undeniable for the bigger picture of things. The beautiful thing about this bath of humbleness is that it is an incredibly powerful insight to experience a full life.

If you internalize this lesson, you will be able to minimize those aspects of life that have a negative impact on your life experience and you will enjoy more those (equally short) moments that make life a gift.

There are more things that we humans do not know than things we know.

In the basements of many of our fears lies ignorance. Yet, all of us are mostly ignorant of almost everything. Even the brightest human mind, the scientist, philosopher, renaissance-man that you may have idealized as a really smart person, knew only a tiny fraction of all that is possible to know or learn. Was he/she a brilliant mathematician? What did he/she know about politics? A great politician with insightful quotes? Cool, but what did he/she know about biology? Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying this is good or bad, I’m just saying “not knowing” is the rule and not the exception.

Furthermore, not knowing something is the trigger for scientific advances. Accept that there are aspects of reality for which we, both as individuals and as a global intelligence, do not have an answer. That is ok.

Embrace ignorance. Few things in life are more enjoyable than learning something new.

Humans are not special. Yeah, I know hearing this, hurts, and some people will disagree with me. I don’t mean that a loved one or a friend is not special for you; I mean that homo sapiens as a species is not that extraordinary.

Here are some facts. We are not the most abundant species on the planet, we’re not the ones that have inhabited the earth for longer, we’re not the fastest, largest or most influential. Still, some people will argue that we’re the most adaptable or the ones with the highest level of consciousness. That may be right. But, so what?

To illustrate why that doesn’t mean much, I came up with the following analogy. I call it the “first bird”. Just imagine a few million years ago, the first animal that could actually take off and fly. The first one that could for the first time see things “from above”. Can you almost hear its thoughts -metaphorically speaking- when it was flying over the virgin savanna or rainforest, saying: ”I am the top of the evolution? No other being can do what I do…”

We are like that first bird, believing that we’re unique because no other animal can do what we can do. Equally sad and naive.

The universe works at a scale that our minds cannot comprehend. One of the reasons why people believe weird things. They have so much trouble understanding our place in the universe because the universe works in scales (of time, amounts, and sizes) that humans are not capable of comprehending. When we say that something is “intuitive” this generally means that it sounds familiar or reasonable. But the parameters of the universe are totally out of our daily lives, and consequently, they can be extremely counter-intuitive. That doesn’t make them less real, just harder -or even impossible- to grasp Let me give you a couple of examples: scientists estimate the universe to be 18 billion years old; that is 6,570,000,000,000‬ days. Let’s say that average human life is 80 years, which is 29200 days. Or let’s try another example: the estimated number of stars in the universe: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, or a “1” with 24 zeros after it (1 septillion in the American numbering system; 1 quadrillion in the European system). If we could visit one star system each second of our life (that its 3,600 stars every hour!), what percentage of the universe would we have visited by the time our life came to an end? Well, basically 0% (to be more precise, 0.0000002% of the universe).

On the other side of the scale, we have the very small. There are 1.0038*1026 atoms in a liter of water. That is, there are more atoms in the bottle of Coca Cola in your fridge than stars in the universe.

No human mind can visualize those numbers. It is simply beyond our capabilities. Don’t be scared about that; be amazed.

(NOTE: that we cannot imagine them does not mean that we cannot work with them! That is why mathematics and physics are such incredible tools).

That you can formulate a question, does not imply there is an answer for it. I call this the “semantic trap”. Take this sentence, for instance: “did the cow fly over the blackened rainbow?” What does that mean? Well… nothing. Syntactically it is totally fine: there is a subject, a verb, and an adverb, etc. Semantically, though, it is totally meaningless. I’m totally confident you noticed it. And very few people will try to answer it because it clearly makes no sense.
However, when you ask this one: “what is the meaning of life?”
Things get interesting. In this case, many people will provide an answer because they will understand this is a meaningful (semantically correct) question and, consequently, it must have an answer. I think there are some questions that sound like they must have an answer, but actually, they do not.

And many of what we take as the “deepest questions” fall into this category.

As one master, much wiser than me, said: “if you want the right answers, ask the right questions”

The only quest that is worth chasing is the quest for happiness. Who will disagree with this? Not many, I presume. However, the point here is that that most people will understand that we’re talking about “what makes you feel happy.’’ However, what I’m referring to (and what most philosophical streams refer to) is “the mindset for being happy.” The mindset which is not linked to a momentary “shot of happiness” that our current materialistic (materialistic=first world) approach to living provides.

I’m talking about a deep feeling of luck just to have been born. And if you are lucky enough to have been born in a developed country, with loving parents and no severe illnesses; well, you are really, really, lucky. If you’re reading this, there is a high probability that you fall into that category of the super-lucky. Yet depression and anxiety are on the rise. So sad and unfair.

As another book title reads: “More Plato, Less Prozac” (I think the original title is “Plato, not Prozac”, but I like more the literal translation of the Spanish version of the title).

The universe existed before us and it will continue existing when we are gone, and I mean it both at a personal level and on a larger scale (as a species). Take any human being: any master, criminal, prophet, or even regular joe. Cesar, Buddha, Erik the Red, Sitting Bull, Einstein, or Jack, the ripper. Anyone. From any culture at any time in human history. Now think: was there anything going on before they were born? Sure, there was. And once they died, did life go on? Well, of course.

The same will happen with you and with all the rest of humanity (note: this does not depend on your religious beliefs. AFAIK there is no religion that claims that when you die, the world will end. The universe is unaware of your expectations).

By pure coincidence, I stumbled upon this video that puts human history in the big picture of planetary evolution. Three minutes to cultivate your humbleness here.

Just sit, relax, and enjoy your 2.6 inches travel to New York. That’s what a 75-year long life allows you to do.

The era of the great nations is fading away. And for our survival, it better be quick. The city-states once ruled the world: Angkor, Tenochtitlan, Babylon, Uruk, Yinxu. All flourished and vanished. The same happened with the great empires: Roman, Mongolian, Spanish, or Chinese. All gone.

Lasts centuries has been the age of the world-leading nations: Spanish, French and British empires, the USA, and the next one coming is China.

The only way we can overcome a global ecological disaster is by a massive, cross-nation change in our vision of the world. Up to the 20th century, if a tribe, city, or nation were doing something wrong with their environment, the most impacted would be themselves. The deforestation of the Eastern Island is a good example, and also the Mayans seem to have undergone a lousy planning disaster.

But in today’s world, the decisions made by ignorant, short-sighted rulers have an impact not only on the unlucky citizens of that particular region or country but on the neighbor populations as well and often on a global scale. We should all start understanding that when the Amazonian rainforest burns, it’s not only a Brazilian matter but yours too. You have to breathe to survive, and 20% of the world’s oxygen comes from the Amazonia, so whatever decisions are made somewhere in the world, they will to a greater or lesser extent also affect you. Even if you’re not aware of it.

Is this or that country not trying to reduce its greenhouse-effect emissions? If they’re not, not only their sea levels will rise. Yours, too. Regardless of where you are in the world.

The times when one country could say “this is my small part of the blue marble, and I can do whatever I want here because no one should care”, makes no sense in this connected, struggling world anymore.

Reading is still one of the funniest, most efficient ways for someone to broaden his/her vision of the world. For most of human history, reading (and writing) was delegated to a bunch of privileged people (usually sort of monks, with a lot of spare time and their food and survival subsidized by the alms of illiterate people). Then Gutenberg came up with the paper press, and the history of humanity changed forever (one thousand thanks Johannes!). Reading about different things, provide us with the right birds-eye view of the human endeavors and allows us to see beyond our limitations. We can see the world through someone else’s eyes, follow someone else’s steps or hear someone’s thoughts and eventually write our own story, either metaphorically speaking (by living your own life) or literally (by start writing, as I just did here).

So, keep reading and encourage all your close ones to read as much as possible. Doing that will help them become better versions of themselves.