Culture shapes how you think. It changes your life in small ways that you only notice later.
But before we talk about how culture helps you, let’s be clear on what we’re talking about.
When I say “culture,” I don’t mean fancy events or knowing the name of every artist in a museum. I’m talking about the basic, human version of culture: values, habits, knowledge, experiences. The things we learn over time that shape how we see the world. That’s the kind of culture I want you to build for yourself.
And the simplest, most effective way to build that? Reading.
Reading is not just a school activity. It’s not homework. It’s the tool that sharpens your thinking and expands your mind. It’s how you grow your vocabulary, yes, but more than that — it’s how you learn to express yourself, to understand things you couldn’t before.
Paper books, digital articles, even a well-written newsletter. The format doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re feeding your brain with things that challenge you to think better.
Every day, we scroll through so much information. News, posts, articles. Some of it teaches us something new. A word we didn’t know. A concept we never heard before. But here’s the catch: it only adds to your culture if you take a moment to understand it.
It’s like cooking. Having all the ingredients is useless if you never mix them into a recipe. Reading works the same way. You can consume a lot, but if you never pause to digest it, you’re just piling up unused information.
And when you read with intention, something powerful happens: you start connecting ideas. You begin to write better, explain better, think clearer. One skill leads to another.
There’s also this thing we don’t talk enough about: knowledge fades if you don’t use it. How many things from school have you already forgotten? Probably more than you’d like to admit. Some of it, maybe it’s fine to forget. But a lot of useful knowledge simply disappears because we don’t keep it alive.
Regular reading is like exercising your brain. It keeps your knowledge fresh. It helps you avoid silly mistakes in writing, thinking, or even in conversations.
But now comes the tricky part: not all reading is good reading.
I see many people, especially young ones, consuming tons of useless content online. Reading gossip, shallow articles, endless memes. The problem isn’t the fun. The problem is when you fill your head with so much noise that it becomes hard to focus on things that truly matter.
Another trap is “decorating” knowledge. People read a lot but don’t reflect. They repeat what they read, but they can’t explain it in their own words. This is not real learning. This is just showing off.
In the next years, I believe one of our biggest challenges will be choosing well what we read. With so much information around us, the winners will be those who know how to select, reflect, and really understand what’s happening.
It’s not about reading more. It’s about reading better.
That’s how you build real culture in your life.
