Sheel Mohnot is a successful VC/entrepreneur from silicon valley, he recently said in a podcast that he hasn’t read a single book in the last 15 years, his goto place to find new information is podcasts. He says: “most podcasts by authors contain 80% of their book’s content, so why would I waste my time reading their book?”
He’s got a point, but there’s a little caveat.
When we read books, we process information differently than when we are listening to a podcast. In a podcast, something can be said and explained, it stays with us for that moment but for the most part it’s just a surface level discourse that the host has with the guest. Even if listened carefully, most second order thoughts don’t occur inside our brains because we get too overwhelmed with information, basically it’s hard to capture everything that’s said in a podcast and there’s not enough depth. Simplification is preferred over a complex discourse which can make the core knowledge deviate from the intended message.
With books, you will avoid such problems and have second order thoughts and an in-depth view into the information.