A client related this story. They were interviewing a candidate for a high-level executive position at a very prominent company. During the interview, they asked the candidate, “What kind of books do you read?” The candidate’s response was, “I don’t really read books.” The “really” wasn’t necessary, the person just doesn’t read books.
Perhaps a follow on question might have been, “What do you read?” Or maybe, “Where do you get your information?” Or “Do you consider yourself a lifelong learner?”
This is an interesting situation and one that is becoming more common. There are a significant number of people that simply don’t read books. I’ve spoken to people who have never read an entire book in their life.
Are books out-of-date? Do modern people get their information from other sources? If it is social media, there isn’t much depth. Websites? I have seen really good information via websites. Television, movies and other audio/visual media have tremendous potential, although only rarely have I seen that potential realized.
For the best piece of journalism I’ve even seen via a website, I’ll refer you to a story the New York Times did about an avalanche that occurred at Stevens Pass and killed several people in February, 2012. Search for “Snow Fall,” or “The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek.” The use of the printed word, embedded videos with interviews and explanations, charts and hyperlinks, is simply the finest web-based storytelling I’ve ever seen. If you’ve got five minutes, give it a brief overview. But allot yourself an hour to read and experience the entire story. It’s remarkable.
But I digress. Isn’t storytelling what we’re talking about when we discuss the use of various media? I don’t mean storytelling in the limited sense of telling a story from our experience. I mean storytelling in the broadest sense—fiction or non-fiction, short-story or long, easy reading or technically challenging and slow going. What I love about the best books is that the author, if they’ve done their job, distills years or decades of learning down to a relatively short message. What a gift to the reader!
As far as the best medium for conveying that message, a book, whether ink-on-paper, an e-book or pdf, is often an awfully good way to do it. The Avalanche story shows that mixed media can be more effective than a static book. Illustrations in a book can help but imbedded videos, links, charts and more can certainly be a superior means of storytelling.
I’ve yet to see a book-length presentation that compares to the New York Times story but I have to think it has been done; maybe a textbook? It probably isn’t done more because it is so much work to prepare and present.
Getting back to our candidate. If you were interviewing this person for a very high-level job, and they said, “I don’t really read books,” would you consider them for the job? Would you probe further? Would you keep them under consideration and talk to others? Or would this be a disqualifier for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Me? For me this response, and I’m showing a bias here, is an indication of a lack of intellectual curiosity or even laziness. My opinion is that we’ve got a lot of people in the world who don’t think deeply about anything, don’t reason things out and tend to just believe things. An effective executive needs to be a critical thinker. This response, for me, would disqualify the candidate.
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