“You Need to Learn How to Read”
Kevin knew how to light a fire under people’s asses.
He would give you the right answer, but it would sting.
Kevin had no formal education (didn’t even graduate high school), yet he had a reputation for solving some of the most complex, gnarly software challenges. It was why he was always bubbling to the top of any organization he joined.
What was his secret? Many things. Tenacity. Curiosity. A willingness to ask dumb questions.
And reading.
I know you’re thinking to yourself. Reading? Isn’t that something everyone learns in elementary school?
Yes, but adults are lazy.
I’m lazy.
Hell, I used to read books from cover to cover. Now? If I see that an article has a 5-minute read time, I bookmark it rather than start it.
I’m proud of you for making it this far!
AI Amplifies The Problem.
We already live in information overload.
AI just makes it 2x to 10x worse.
Now people are generating 5,000-word essays in seconds, and readers are using AI to compress them back down to a few bullet points.
We skim just to survive.
Actual, word-by-word reading is a lost art.
And it’s more important than ever.
Kevin, Meet Steve Yegge
On the Pragmatic Engineer podcast, Steve said exactly what Kevin harped on 10 years ago.
…something that’s contentious, but it’s just the reality of the world. Most people can’t read. I’ve ruined much of my work in my life. I’ve just completely gone down the wrong path by overestimating people’s ability to read. And I think that reading is, if anything, getting harder to come by as a skill these days.
And this is the situation that we’re in right now is that Claude Code makes you read a lot. So I think we’re in a weird limbo for the rest of this year. Until the UIs arrive that are good enough for everybody who can’t read. Everybody who can’t read is going to be a severe disadvantage.”
So there you have it.
The best AI outputs come from well-crafted, accurate prompts and requests.
Unfortunately, most people in AI are trying to move so fast that they don’t even attempt to read.
They just YOLO and respond “Looks good! Do it!”
I mean, I know I have.
Slowing Down to Speed Up
The problem is obvious, but few people will actually fix it.
Therein lies the opportunity to stand out.
If you’re one of the few who actually read and think deeply about what AI outputs, you can learn, refine, and improve much faster than those who just accept and move on.
Learning to read slowly and thoroughly may be the new superpower in an era where most people can’t be bothered.
I’m going to lean into it.