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Founder Reality with George Pu. Real talk from a technical founder building AI-powered businesses in the trenches. No highlight reel, no startup theater – just honest insights from someone who codes, ships, and scales.
Every week, George breaks down the messy, unfiltered decisions behind building a bootstrap software company. From saying yes to projects you don't know how to build, to navigating AI hype vs. reality, to the mental models that actually matter for technical founders.
Whether you're a developer thinking about starting a company, a founder scaling your first product, or a technical leader building AI features, this show gives you the frameworks and hard-won lessons you won't find in the startup content circus.
George Pu is a software engineer turned founder building multiple AI-powered businesses. He's bootstrapped companies, shipped products that matter, and learned the hard way what works and what's just noise.
Follow along as he builds in public and shares what's really happening behind the scenes.
New episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
George Pu (00:00)
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Founder reality podcast. I'm your host, George pu And today I want to talk a little bit more about, you know, the habit of learning, right? So we've been doing learning topics for a few episodes now, and I just realized a very important thing from yesterday, my visit to the bookstore. And I wanted to share that with you guys about, and there's a lot of takeout. I think it might inform you, it might help you learn a lot faster. But you know, long story short, I was at a bookstore just like yesterday afternoon.
and I have the strangest experience. I went in and I saw, okay, self-help books, great check. And I was reading a few books. my business books check, read a few books, best sellers check, read a few books. But the problem is like, I actually found myself unable to start and unable to go past chapter one of like all of those books. And I was like flipping through a lot of the books and I was like, okay, I'm trying to get it to get to the point. And I just couldn't, right?
And it wasn't really because I was distracted. wasn't because I was lazy, right? Because I physically yesterday just could not tolerate how long it actually took for the books to get to the point. And there are just so many books out there, thousands of books, right? There was like 40 pages of backstory before the framework. There was like entire chapters that could just be one paragraph and journey narratives. I I just needed a destination. And that kind of freaked me out a little bit, to be honest. Like after walking out of the bookstore, was like, George, like you used to really like.
reading books, right? I remember the college days where I buy so many books from Amazon and I'll be consuming them and every four months I have to move to another residence. So I have to carry all those books back to back with me, you know, going all the blocks and putting them in new dorm room. So I still remember that and I think six years ago, seven years ago, that was what it was like, you know, so carrying books, bringing it and everyone said, George, you have too many books. You should really donate them or sell them, but it's refused. So even today I still have those books at my house and
Well, my reading habit has definitely transformed in the last couple of years. I guess I'm reading, reading more audio books and being reading more Kindle books. I just don't buy a lot of like hardcover books is because the space constraints of my house. So, that, has definitely happened, but I realized that, you know, after walking into this bookstore and after reading through most of the books, I realized that, okay, I'm not actually being lazy. I'm not actually reading less. I'm actually reading more, you know, than ever.
where I, since AI came out, I've just stopped reading the wrong way. And it took me about 10 years, you know, since my college, I started to figure this out. So let me tell you first about like one of the most useless book I've read in the past year. And it's a book, don't read it, but you know, cause it's a book called Trailblazer by Mark Benioff, which is like the CEO of Salesforce. And I used to read some of the books by him. He has some good books like the cloud. think the cloud book was pretty good, but I finished Trailblazer, but the whole thing, and then I closed it.
My first thought read it was like, what an absolute waste of time. You know, it was basically just 300 pages of a billionaire congratulating himself for being socially conscious, you know, self-proving, self-congratulation, self-performance, whatever, right? But the takeaway is that there's actually nothing in it, you know, that talks about how he built sales for zero insight in like what he did and how he got to the point where he has, right? Not projection, you know, just projection, just performance.
And it was really disappointing after reading that book. And, and I, I counted myself about basically doing the exercise in my head about, George, like how many books do I actually like enjoy reading? How many books do I actually remember, you know, for this day? And I can probably count with like both hands, right? So basically less than 10, probably like five or six books that have been like life changing. That's been like making a difference. And I realized that the thing about Mark Benioff, it's not just singling him out. There's so many, so many authors. They're not wrong to write the books that they did.
They're just serving a different audience, right? People who want to be inspired, people want to be helped, people want to feel like those stories make them engaged, right? And take them out of their, you know, maybe miserable, boring life. So, but I am no longer that audience, right? And neither are you if you're actually trying to build something. Because here's what I realized after reading so many books for so many years, most business books or self-help books are written for people who want to read. They're not for people who want to build.
And that's a huge difference. Right. And I actually haven't thought about that for quite a long time. When you want to read, you want the journey, right? You want the backstory. You want to feel like you're learning. You want to understand every context there is before you make that mental decision in your mind, whether to do something or not. But when you're basically trying to build something, you want the insight for 30 seconds. You don't have all the time in the world to do slow reading chapter by chapter. Right. You probably already read a lot online by emails. You read blog posts, you read different forums.
So you don't have patience to go through like 400 pages of books just to get to one point, right? So that's basically personally my situation. I couldn't really get past all of the pages just because it's like boring to me. And I want to solve something, learn something quickly, keep it in my head or save it, and then move on to the next question. So it's a complete different use case, right? And this is where the performance trap comes in.
And you see it everywhere. And it's not just about founders. It's about everyone in the business world, right? Founders posting their reading lists and their blogs on Twitter. This month, I read these five books, it is like one or two books. And here's my top 10 books for entrepreneurs. Right. And I get it because I think a few years ago, I was doing the exact same thing as well, because society tells us like reading is basically equals to intellectual. Reading is self-improvement. Reading is becoming an actual serious person.
But here's actually the uncomfortable truth I've realized and nobody wants it out loud. If you're reading a business book or self-help book or whatever book, right? That's nonfiction and you're not immediately applying it into your business or if on yourself, you're basically procrastinating. You're not learning. You're just performing or you're performing that you're actually learning. Those are two very different things. And the book industry knows this, right? That's why they stretch 30 pages of insights into 30 hundred pages of filler because you people
books to feel productive, to feel helpful, to feel like there's something that their lives can actually change, right? And not to actually produce. And it's harsh to everyone who's reading a book. And I think I'm probably, you know, of all the people that I know, I'm the one that reads the most books. I understand why you might feel offended, but I do feel like reading has became a performance for the majority of people. And it also pushes a lot of people away from like reading because
A lot of people I know, of course, especially newer generation prefer TikTok, know, prefer Instagram, prefer more visual point of view, right? Short attention spans essentially. And for those folks, you're telling them, go read a 400 page books about, you know, how to build a startup. Go read a 500 books about why democracy dies, right? Go read a 600 books about, you know, different, different topics about, you know, how to be fit or how to work out, how to cook a book, how to be, you know, how to cook something, how to learn email marketing, how to read content marketing. So.
everything you learn, have to read 400 or 500 pages of books just to learn something. I think that's ridiculous. And I think that's pushing a lot of people away. Right. And it also creates this image like in those people's mind that, you know, reading equals to boring. Right. That's why on the subways and buses, you don't see people read anymore. And it's very sad, right. It's a very sad, you know, ⁓ environment. Like I see a lot of retirees still read a lot. I see a lot of people in their forties and fifties to read a lot, but going back to people who are in their youth or in their twenties or even thirties.
People don't read that much anymore and it's sad. And my personal take is this. I'm not anti-reading. So like I said, I still read a ton. I still read a lot. It's just like my habit of reading has changed a lot, right? I read audio books while I was working out. read Kindle on my iPhone. I read Libby for library books. They're not always available, but you know, whenever they do, I click it and it gets sent to my phone for like seven days. Physical books I buy as well, especially when they're worth it.
So my reading actually didn't decrease. just evolved. Right. So back in college, you know, college days, I think it was 2017, 2018, I will read everything cover to cover, right? I will read business books to catch up with what's going on. I will read self-help books just to feel motivated because I was a brook student at a time. I didn't know anything about the startup world. I didn't know anything about business. And I'm sure there's a lot of you guys who are listening who want to get into entrepreneurship and soul apprenticeship.
And you feel like you don't know where to start. And that is like the darkest time I think there could have to be in, right. And, and your first objective is to not try to not feel that, try to not feel helpless. And books are usually the ones that thing that people turn into. And, you know, I think that was fine. You know, I was starting out as well. didn't learn the basics, but then I started noticing a previous serious pattern is that most business books are actually generic. And I think.
they're generic to a point that millions of people can read it and those find, okay, this is so interesting, right? But specifically for people who actually want to do it, who want to apply it, it becomes a very hollow book. That's why if you go on Goodread or you go to Amazon, you go to the comment section, a lot of people actually say on any specific books, oh, I wish it has more frameworks. I wish it went into more details about it. I wish it just didn't tell an idea and disappear, right? The author. So we all feel that.
And I realized that yes, books are written for everyone, which is a problem because they meant they're written for no one specifically, right? The more books that I read, the more I realized that they're saying the same thing in different worlds. Right. So, and then basically I entered phase two, which is like a few years ago, I started getting more selective. I read about, you know, Naval essentially being really selective about what kind of books he read. I read that he basically flips through different books. He flips through to see if he interests him.
And if it doesn't, he just quickly flips through the rest of the book. And then if it doesn't interest him, he just throw it away. So that's his reading habits. So I started to do something similar as well. I'm like, okay, now I don't have like the tendency. I don't have the pressure on top of my head to basically have to go through each one of those pages. I used to do that, but now I don't. So phase two, I flip books in the bookstore. I read the chapter titles and I basically read the first and last chapter. And if it doesn't give me something actionable, I just put it down and I go to another book, right?
So, and you know what, most books actually failed that test, right? I stopped reading self-help books entirely recently because after reading a few of them, I realized that they actually seldom and they rarely make you actually do anything concrete. It does make you feel good. It makes you feel like, okay, I've learned this thing. You know, I've learned this thing has changed my life. You know, my life is now better because I, you know, I read a self-help book, you know, a few months after you'd forgotten it.
entirely sure the author is still in your head. Sure, the framework is still in your head, but you're not actually going to do it. Right. And unfortunately, most of the self-help books are designed this way in that you will always need your mentor, which is the author to tell you exactly what you need to, you know, what you need to do. You always rely on them. Right. It's like that's how those people like Jake Shetty, you know, Sahil Bhum and many others became successful is because they mastered the art, Mel Robbins as well. they mastered the art.
of letting people rely on them for lifelong learning, right? But the disingenuine thing, I think it's basically that those people, like the Mark Benioff example I listed out, they actually, they became successful not because they applied the learnings that they applied, right? So I was reading like a YouTube video just like yesterday and it was basically talking about like Jay Shetty, which is like the, you know, the monk essentially, right? The monk author, I'm sure you've heard of him.
essentially there was like a journalist who dig in and realized that he actually never went back to India and be a monk. So I was like, okay, that basically screwed up his image in my head. And I realized that, okay. And I digging in, I realized all those, most of those like self help authors, they make money from people who think by learning from those people, they can be better. Right. And it's, it's not genuine learning. It's just performance. All those books are designed to be lead magnets.
to get you hooked, to get you think that this person can help you. And then they will sell you a thousand dollar courses, 10 of thousand dollars of conference tickets, events tickets, just enriching themselves. And at the end of the day, you're the ones are holding the back. And I personally just feel really disingenuous about one particular self-help guru who's selling a $700 course for people who are not financially aware, right? And that's their target audience. I was thinking in my head, oh my God, like those people are people essentially
like, you know, on the bottom of society and you're trying to solve them a $700 course, $1400 course, and you're trying to get them to do a buy now pay later, right? Breaking it down to 12 month installments. I just feel in my head, Oh my God, this is so dark. And you know, basically having built some product financing myself, I was in this like, you know, financing world and I just find myself feeling like this is like disgusting. This is so dark and I just cannot, you know, take it. I can't imagine myself doing this.
Exploiting people so long story short. I just don't like Exploiting people and I think those self-help books are just too much over the tops But business books are something like that and and business books are even worse because people who are writing business books I'm sure you heard of it already, but this people who write business book. They are rarely entrepreneurs themselves They're really successful themselves. They're just content creators who are teaching you about how to do a certain thing and
I still remember, I'm sure I told you guys before, the two books I really enjoy are Zero to One by Peter Thiel because he has lived through it himself. He was like the PayPal mafia. So he started PayPal alongside with Elon Musk and other people. So he had experience of basically building a startup and it was really raw and it was really real. And Ben Horowitz, which is like the founder of ⁓ A16Z and his book was called The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
And you you read it and you can realize exactly how hard it is to be a founder. I read that book in 2016 when I was first here in, when I was my first semester in college and I people recommending it and I read it right away. I was like, wow, that was raw. And I was hard, right. Despite Peter Tio being a billionaire at a time of his writing, despite Bert Hallowitz being probably worth hundreds of million dollars and, and, and his startup at a time in the late 1990s was already worth hundreds of millions of dollars at a time. You know, like those people feel.
real to me, they feel like they are actually real people, right? With real experiences. And the problem by everything else that I have read, essentially everything else I've read since then, I just couldn't think of anything that I feel entirely excited about. Right? And that tells you the problem. If I couldn't even remember the book in front of you guys, it probably means that those books didn't make much of an impact in my head. If I can remember a book from eight, nine years ago, I probably, it's probably good, right? And that's something I think.
why you guys should still read books, right? So I made this podcast episode, not because I want to tell you not to read, but I want to tell you that there is something that you should still learn. There's some knowledge in the world that's still in the form of books, right? Don't be dis-persuaded by influencers, content creators, or other founders that basically, you don't have to read anything. can just, everything's online. The internet, the world wide web, it's online. can just read it online, right? That is not how it works, right? And I feel like,
The ones I love are the niche books. So recently there are a few books I really like. So the subtle art of not giving a fuck. think I read that in a day because it was raw, it was direct and actually challenged the subtle pressures in a really good way. I also yesterday I picked up this book called Value Investing by Bruce Greenwald and it's a really super niche book. And I think maybe that's like where I really grow now is by it's going to this like reading niche books.
And what that book was about is essentially going back to value investing like Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, and those people are really good at value investing. However, value investing is very different in the 20th century and the 21st century. So right now we're all about compound growth. We're all about growth strategies and we have AI, we have software technologies, and there are so many new elements that weren't there when Benjamin Graham wrote his book, The Intelligent Investor in the 1920s, I believe, or 30s.
My thing was that, you know, I actually felt that problem myself when I was trying to, you know, apply Warren Buffett's investing principles. I usually found that like, okay, I couldn't actually go anywhere because like I want, I'm interested in tech companies. want to invent, invest in tech companies, but most of those companies don't even have a storefront. So how do I actually invest in them and understand what's the fair market value? Right? So this book particularly solved that problem for me. It talked a lot about.
how to apply that in 21st century. ⁓ I found, just, long story short, I realized this book was for me because it solved a particular problem I was having at a time and I pick it up, I bought it and I brought that book home. So I'm going to read it. Right. So that's for me, you know, it was practical, it was specific. And that's when I realized that the best books are not the ones that sell the most copies. The best books are the ones written for a specific person with a specific problem. Right.
And right now I have to say I'm probably in phase three, which is like the builder system phase. So now I've gone fully format agnostic and AI assisted. And here's a workflow I want to share with you guys. Please try it out and let me know what you think. And I think in this way, you can learn a lot faster. You can learn a lot better than just, you know, and then just going recovered by cover. Right? So first of all, if you have an AI like, you know, chat gpt claude or Gemini. The first thing you should do.
is to ask Claude to summarize the book, right? To summarize the book, for example, like, really love this book called Value Investing by this author, you know, and I really want to learn if it's right for me. I actually did ask that yesterday. And, you know, can you summarize this book for me so I can understand exactly if it's worth reading? So I asked that. And of course, the AI gave me an answer right away. And a second thing I did is that I asked this question. Okay, so this book is good. So which chapter is it is actually worth reading, right? Based on my profile and what I'm building.
right and rank it by the most important to least important. So this is crucial because your AI probably knows about your profile specifically, right? So if you're, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a builder, if you're, if you're a financial analyst, if you work for a big firm, right? Or if you're just like a stay at home mom, anything's okay. But specifically what you're reading has to be for you. So I think getting a second opinion about whether these chapters are worth it, which is good, you know, like just ask it up, okay, based on my profile.
And I'm doing right now. Right. So that's good. So that tells you exactly, whether you should consider this book or not. it's gonna, and it's probably going to give you an honest response and then think about it yourself if it's worth it. Right. If it is asked AI to summarize those specific chapters, for example, if it says, okay, chapter three of the sovereign individual, it's a really good book. It's probably worth it for you. Okay. Now it gets interesting. So now you should ask it to summarize that, some summarize that chapter for you. Okay. What is chapter three specifically talk about?
It is something really interesting that can take away from, right? you know, step four, if it's still valuable, read those chapters actually, you know, maybe the borrow the book, maybe get a book, you know, whatever, maybe the whole book, you can read it after if you feel like those chapters are more exceptional. Actually, since I was starting to read the Solve Individual, it was a book from 1996. So it has like, I believe 12 chapters, roughly. So I actually started reading chapter three and four and 10 and then 11. And then when I had time, I read the other.
You know, I read the other chapters. So as you guys can see the most of the time, you know, I still have to buy the book It's very rare that I'd actually buy the book most of the time AI summaries is enough, right? And I know the author certainly hate me for this But you know before you judge this right as well as cheating or like not really reading let me ask you something, right? I want to ask you like what is the goal of reading the book, right? Is it to say that you have read a book or to actually extract knowledge and apply it right because
If it's to apply it, then this system works and it works 10 times faster. And it's not just about books. It's not just about reading a physical book or, you know, or Kindle or whatever. I also want to give an example about how to apply this to your learning framework. A few months ago, I decided to learn React. sure I might have told you guys a few episodes ago, I decided to learn React. And of course it's the front end development framework basically to build websites, to build apps on the internet.
And I watched tutorials, different types of red documentation. And I tried so hard to go through the videos to understand Ria hooks. And I realized I was basically, my mind was like wandering away when I was going through this book. So the, the teacher was being really good at basically like, you know, talking about the book and putting on the screen and all that. But I just realized I couldn't really get through it myself. I just like my mind is completely gone somewhere else. And it's not just this teacher. I realized I've tried this before.
I bought react books before and every time I got to the same text, I might just want to resolve it and close the book and move on. Right. So. However, you know, it could, you could argue that maybe this is not for me, but you know, I realized that I really want to learn this because it's a plight applicable in my work and I want to be assisting my software developers to help them become better developers. And I also want to be personally become a better developer so I can make better, funner decisions. So it's that easy. Right. But.
After almost getting fall asleep, you know, on the subway, I realized one thing. I realized that I'm never going to be a full-time developer. So that's not my path. So why am I learning like someone who's going to be a full-time developer? Right. So back in the, back in the days, 22nd, 2017, I was looking for my first internship. So I was reading syntax by syntax. was reading the algorithm books. I was getting through everything. It was hard, but I got through it. So, and I realized that today I'm not.
a developer, right? I'm not going to be a developer and I don't have to be perfect with my syntaxes, especially in the ages where you have this AI like cursor and clock code. So instead of what I did is I opened cursor, which is like an AI code editor, that's built on, you know, a basic VS code framework and add an AI on top of it. So it's pretty, it's free and it's, know, for you guys, if you want to try it out already, what I do is I started an empty project, right? And I asked cursor to teach me reahooks step by step.
By building something real, said, okay, I want to build a shopping cart, you know, application that's similar to Instacart, but on the web. So I want to use this project to help myself learn about react hooks, as well as how the rest of the elements really work in react. So can you teach me step by step and then tell me why we're doing this? And then if I have questions, I'll ask you. So that's how I did. And then after a few hours, I got it, you know, it's that easy. And I can tell you, I didn't just learn react hooks. I learned just about everything else without react. Right. And.
If I didn't understand anything, I still have chat gpt or Claude or Gemini AI to explain. And you know what? I learned it in a fraction of time, just a few hours. Like the courses itself, I think it's like 12 hours long and I just keep falling asleep and it's not even a swachh's fault. It's just my fault, right? Because I wasn't the reason why I think project-based learning really worked for me. It's because I wasn't really consuming information, right? I was building with information. So it was the same with books, right? The same with any learning. Like you cannot.
just learn it based on reading. You have to consume it, you have to live by it, right? I remember Sahil Bloom's book was pretty good. It's called Five Types of Wealth. And I read it, I still remember it, but I didn't really apply it in my life, right? And so I realized that I think maybe it had some change in my life or whatever, but I didn't really apply it in my life, right? So I think I just consumed it, I didn't really live by it. So by this date, a few months after, I'd probably already forgotten most of the stuff. So the same with any other book, same with any other learning.
If you really want to learn, you have to be serious. You have to apply it, right? It's like language learning as well. Anything. You can not just take courses or read books and expect to be fluent. You have to speak it. You have to use it to listen to it. And coming back to books, reading cover to cover, it's basically like watching language tutorial videos for a hundred hours and never having a conversation. Is it going to work? You have to be honest with me, right? Because building while learning is like living in a country.
first three months where you're learning that language, whether it's French or German or different languages, it's a complete different game. Why does immersion work in language learning? Because you're there, you're doing the things that you said you're gonna do, right? Same thing goes for everything else. The only way how to learn is to do something, right? And here are the things I believed. I didn't believe 10 years ago that I believe now, right? The truth first, like the first thing is that most business books can be summarized in one blog post. So...
I'm sure you guys already know this, you know, just, just try it, right? Like just try asking GPT to summarize a book whenever it is that you want to learn, especially about business books. And you'll see how well it generates that and you'll see, okay, I got the point. And is there any point to keep reading it? Probably not.
The actual insights might just be 30 pages max, right? So that's the first true that I've realized. Um, so I can save the hundreds of books I have in my backyard and just threw it away. And truth too, is like, if you can apply, if you cannot apply it in the next 30 days, don't even read it. Right. I used to read books about just like feeling good reading. That's fine. Do it in your spare time, whatever. But if it's about learning, if it's about self help, if it's about self-improvement, if it's about helping your business grow, I used to read a lot about future trends, a long-term strategy.
I feel smart, but I wasn't building anything with that information, right? It's not actionable. So if it's not actionable now, I just skip it. put in another day and I want to read something that can be actionable for me. For example, like value investing, right? I realized that I have an urgency of finishing that book. So I have more motivation to do it. So that's why I did. Right. And the third truth is that, you know, the format doesn't really matter. The application does. People actually hate audio books because they say audio books, don't get the intrinsic value of the author's point of view or whatever. disagree.
I think audiobooks is fine. example, like you listen to audiobooks while driving, perfectly fine. Doing Kindle chapters on your phone, perfectly fine. AI summary is even better. It doesn't really matter what the format is for the books, right? The one thing matters is like, we need to stop gatekeeping, how people should be consuming information. If we're already reading most of information from our phone and laptop anyways, what's wrong with listening to audiobooks? What's wrong with listening to Kindle, like watching looking Kindle on the subway or on my phone? Nothing's wrong with that.
What matters is like, what exactly, what exact value did you extract? Did you build something with it? Did you apply it? Does something in your life, right? If not, then it's useless, right? If it is, then it's helpful, of course. And the fourth truth is like reading lists are performance arts. So, I perfectly agree with this. I will not be building a reading list myself for my blog. You know, I just think it's performance, right? If I, if I actually do read something really good, I will make a blog post about it. Summarize with you guys.
I will, ⁓ put it on the podcast and tell you guys a summary. wouldn't be say, buy this book and really stop. Because I know that a lot of you guys are not going to be buying the books and just say, go buy the book. It's like being really disingenuous. Right. And that's not what I want to do. And I think that the fifth truth I wish I knew 10 years ago was that it's actually okay to quick books. If you, don't owe the author anything, right? If you're 20 pages in 30 pages, 50 pages in, and it's not delivering any value, it's time to put it down.
because your time is worth more than the author's feelings. And I probably don't care how you feel anyways. So here's the system I'm using now. And if you're free to steal it, right? The step one is to pick the format of books that should work for you, right? It could be audio books. It could be Kindle. It could be physical books. And actually like right now, even if you go to New York Times, Wall Street Journal or different newspapers, they already have the apps that they have an audio version for you to listen to anyways. So it proves that it's okay, completely okay to listen to that.
I don't personally care. just stopped just like soft forcing yourself to read in the ways that don't work for your life. Like if you don't want to carry a four page book on your way to commute, don't do it. Do audio book, put on your phone. Step two is like use AI as a filter, right? Before you invest 10 hours in a book, try to spend five minutes asking your AI, summarize this book for me based on my profile, you know, what chapters should I read and what are the three key takeaways, right? If it passes that, and if you feel like, okay, I'm pretty intrigued. I want to keep reading it. Read it.
Right. But if not move on and go to the next book. And the third is like, we are the chapter level and not cover to cover. Right. You don't really need the author's life story. You know, you don't, you don't need to the 40 page set up before it gets to a point. Read the introduction, read the first few chapters that matter and skip the rest. Right. And for the, the fourth step, which I think it's really important. I'm going to apply myself as well. Please apply immediately or don't read it. If you cannot use the insight from the book.
In the next 30 days, like why are you even reading it? Right. And this is coming from a builder's perspective. Save it for later for later, right. Or better yet forget about it and search for it when you actually do need it. Right. Step five, you know, for some people is that soft performing, right? Don't tell people that I read this one number of books every month. Don't post on Twitter. Don't post on Facebook or Instagram, right? You don't need to read a book to feel smart or look smarter. You don't need to read a book to feel productive. You read just to build or apply, right. Or don't read at all.
So just to close on this episode, I want to reiterate, I'm not saying books are dead. I'm just saying like the way we read them and the way we look at those books are broken. And we have been conditioned to basically treat books like secret objects, right? Finish where you started reading cover to cover and don't skip chapters. And we are forcing people to read hundreds of pages just to get to a point. I think that is really odd and it's the old way of learning. In a world where AI can summarize book in 60 seconds or even less, you can search for specific insights.
And your time is actually your most valuable asset. Why would you really like it's 1995, right? You wouldn't. And here's what I want you to do is to stop reading books, to feel productive, to stop reading books, just feel smart and start reading books to build. Right. And remember what you have built because that's the one that matters. And I'm saying this coming from a first time author who's just about to finish my first book. it's called the anti-unicorn, the consulting way. Right. And I wouldn't recommend everyone to read as well because I have.
being communicating with so many readers who go through the first few chapters and it really takes them a long time to finish the book or even get through the first half. So I'll tell you guys, yes, use chat, you can summarize it, it's perfectly fine. So if you're coming from me as an author, it can be applied to you. So I hope that helps. I'll see you next time.