40+FAB Blog

Taking time to read

Some say that the two most important skills to learn from an education system is the ability to read and the ability to count. In other words the literacy and numeracy skill.

In 1820 it is believed that only about 12% of the world population were able to read and write, today that number stands at about 84%. At no other time have we had so many literate people as we do today, and the plethora of information available has superseded that available at any other time in history.

We are in an age of what is called the ‘Information Revolution’. The ability to thrive is heavily dependent on ones assimilation of information. This is where reading comes in as anything that is being done today is written down in some document somewhere and it can be learned and replicated.

The wealthiest and most successful persons in any field you can think of will tell you that they are ardent readers, and this has kept them astute in their area of expertise. 


A scientist called Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”, he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today knowledge is doubling about every 13 months. 

Whatever you learnt a year ago is possibly outdated today based on these statistics. You wouldn’t open a can of food with an expiry date of last year and attempt to eat it would you? So why would you want to embark on any endeavour with outdated information?

There is no better way to catch up on latest knowledge than reading about it and with the availability of various sources of information out there, no one has an excuse to not know.


Make reading a regular habit and you will discover that it keeps you at the top of your game.