How to learn from a book before you even read it

I'm a big fan of books. It's amazing how much you can learn or be entertained by a small, portable packet of papers that you only paid ten to twenty dollars for. But I recently realized a problem with books. Because a book usually takes a significant amount of time to read, I can only read a few each year. I used to be able to read many books in one year, but now I'm pretty busy so that's not feasible anymore.

So what should I do about this? Be depressed and contemplate the shortness of life? Surely there's a better solution. And it dawned on me recently.

I've been thinking about the fact that books have an advantage on podcasts. These are two things I love to spend my free time on. But the advantage that books have is that each book has an ending. When you finish a book, you feel like you've accomplished something. And hopefully you have gained something valuable as well--like gaining useful information or having read a memorable story that will stick with you. But podcasts, in general, never end. They just keep on going as long as people subscribe. To be fair, this can also be viewed as an advantage podcasts have over books, because they can be like a long-term companion. But if you want a feeling of accomplishment, a book is a better way to get it. All this was leading me to the question: how do I balance my information consumption time between podcasts and books?

Then I thought, "Oh, there's this book I've been thinking about reading (Algorithms to Live By) that might talk about this question, or something like it." But this lead me to think, "Do I really have to read a book to answer one question?" which lead me to this insight: You don't have to read a book to benefit from it. Instead, you could ask yourself, "What will this book probably say about the question that I have?" Think of an answer, and use that answer to improve your life.

So what's my answer for the question that I had? (How do I balance my information consumption time between podcasts and books?) I realized that the answer comes from the advantages that each medium has. Books are better for giving you a sense of accomplishment. Podcasts are better companions. So we can simplify it to this question: Do you want to be getting things done or do you want more friends? If the answer is getting things done, read more books; it it's to have more friends, listen to podcasts (and maybe find more friends, if you actually have that need). There are obviously other factors that can be considered to fine tune your decisions, but sometimes a simple if-then statement can be very helpful for cutting through confusion and indecision.

So to summarize, if you feel like there are too many books to read, you can benefit from a book without even reading it by asking yourself what the book will probably say about some question, then use that answer to more forward with some decision. I may still read the book Algorithms to Live By, because it still seems like it could be valuable, but as it is, the book has helped me just by existing.