November 17, 2025
You don't have dyslexia, you’re just bad at reading. If this sentence makes you defensive, you have the most to gain from reading this.
When I say that you are bad at reading, I do not use an accusatory tone. You are bad at reading in the same way that I’m bad at Badminton. I don’t practice playing Badminton, so I’m bad at it.
A little while ago, I published a semi-complete list of books that I’ve read, not including the reading I had to do in school. I am aware that this is considered a faux pas; however, I think it’s important to set an example.
This list completely mogs most people, and I don’t even think I’ve read enough books. Studies now show that students at elite universities can’t read whole books.
They have no reading stamina because they’ve never practiced it. Reading improves focus, which is one of the many benefits of this activity.
If you never read, you simply won’t have any reading stamina. How much better would your life be if you could just sit down and read for hours?
A few months ago, I made an eleven-hour video, which took about sixteen hours to record and about fifty hours to edit. This required a tremendous amount of focus and discipline spread out over weeks.
As much as that may sound like a superpower, the reality is that the bar is now very low. Nobody can read or focus, and so in comparison, what I achieved sounds like a Herculean feat.
If you want this superpower, you should start by reading daily for 10-15 minutes. Slog your way through it. Increase the amount daily by a little bit, and soon, you’ll be able to read for longer.
I learnt to read by recognizing words as pictures. I look just above the centre of words, and allow my peripheral vision to take in the word as an image. Ironically enough, this is apparently how dyslexic people learn to read.
I do not read a word letter by letter, unless it is a foreign word with which I am unfamiliar. This allows me to read faster, and even though this skill was widely known a few decades ago, it seems to have almost disappeared.