How to Become a Scholar

Curiosity drives in many people the desire to become knowledgeable, but it needs a huge amount of dedication to reach a level of erudition in a field of knowledge not many people are able to achieve. Meeting, reading or listening to scholars may not only provoke respect but also a certain level of envy, making it understandable that someone decides to pursue a similar path. Nowadays we have the technology, resources and convenience to offer many people the opportunity to delve deep into their personal studies. Instead many humans prefer to grift on social media or chase after academic recognition.

No Shortcuts on Your Path to Erudition

As Nassim Taleb points out, there are no schortcuts in life, so you have to read for several hours a day for decades in order to become a scholar. Out of intellectual curiosity you will cultivate the habit to reading books and understanding them. As important will be to develop a bullshit filter to realise which books are worth (re)reading and which not.

The Scholar as a Bullshit Filter

The big problem with bullshit can be understood through Brandolini's Law: It takes more energy to refute bullshit than to produce it. An ordinary person doesn't have enough time and mental resources to delve deeply into a subject because they would have to read hundreds, if not thousands, of books to form a comprehensive understanding. You can't become an expert in everything, so you must make a decision. History, medicine, statistics – in our daily lives, we encounter all these things, but we neither have the time to study literature in sufficient depth nor accumulate our own experiences. In such a situation, we must decide in whom to place our trust. Who is right? Therefore, one must be able to recognize who is a scholar and who is not. The scholar acts as a bullshit filter. You don't always have to agree with their ideas and conclusions, but due to their extensive knowledge, they can immediately discern when someone is talking nonsense. The scholar saves you a lot of time and mental resources when you want to delve deeper into a subject.

Filtering the Right Books is Essential if You Want to Become a Scholar

As there exist millions of books out there you will not be able to read even a small percentage of available literature in your lifetime, meaning that you will need good selection mechanisms for choosing your books to read.

Lindybook.com is a valuable resource for this endeavour. The Lindy Effect suggests that the longer a book has been around, the longer it is likely to be around in the future. Lindybook.com curates lists of books that have stood the test of time, making them excellent choices for serious readers. By exploring the recommendations on this platform, you can discover timeless classics and foundational texts that will enrich your understanding of various subjects.

Read a Lot, But Read Quality Books

What does it mean when a book has quality? It fulfills a function (in the best case more than one), it entertains you, teaches you a certain subject or gives inspiration for your business or everyday life. But to be truly of quality it has to do that across generations. Quality books are lindy books because they remain relevant for decades or centuries.
Read more about the Lindy Effect.

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Write your ideas down and start blogging about a lindy topic. Your insights and writing will improve with time, as the number of read lindy books rises.

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