The Need to Read
November 2022 In the science fiction books I read as a kid, reading had often been replaced by some more efficient way of acquiring knowledge.
2022 年 11 月 在我小时候读过的科幻小说中，阅读常常被一些更有效的获取知识的方式所取代。
Mysterious "tapes" would load it into one's brain like a program being loaded into a computer.
神秘的“磁带”会将其加载到人的大脑中，就像程序被加载到计算机中一样。
That sort of thing is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
这种事情不太可能很快发生。
Not just because it would be hard to build a replacement for reading, but because even if one existed, it would be insufficient.
不仅因为很难建立一种阅读的替代品，而且因为即使存在，也还不够。
Reading about
阅读关于
x doesn't just teach you about x; it also teaches you how to write.
x 不只是教你关于 x 的知识；它还教你关于 x 的知识。它还教你如何写作。
[ 1 ] Would that matter?
[1] 这有关系吗？
If we replaced reading, would anyone need to be good at writing?
如果我们取代阅读，有人需要擅长写作吗？
The reason it would matter is that writing is not just a way to convey ideas, but also a way to have them.
之所以重要，是因为写作不仅是传达想法的一种方式，而且还是一种拥有想法的方式。
A good writer doesn't just think, and then write down what he thought, as a sort of transcript.
一个好的作家不会只是思考，然后把他的想法写下来，作为一种记录。
A good writer will almost always discover new things in the process of writing.
一个好的作家在写作的过程中几乎总会发现新的东西。
And there is, as far
到目前为止，还有
as I know, no substitute for this kind of discovery.
据我所知，这种发现无可替代。
Talking about your ideas with other people is a good way to develop them.
与其他人讨论您的想法是发展它们的好方法。
But even after doing this, you'll find you still discover new things when you sit down to write.
但即使这样做之后，当你坐下来写作时，你仍然会发现新的东西。
There is a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing .
有一种思考，只有通过写作才能完成。
There are of course kinds of thinking that can be done without writing.
当然，有些思考是不需要写作就可以完成的。
If you don't need to go too deeply into a problem, you can
如果你不需要太深入地探讨问题，你可以
solve it without writing.
不写就解决。
If you're thinking about how two pieces of machinery should fit together, writing about it probably won't help much.
如果您正在考虑如何将两台机器组装在一起，那么写下来可能不会有太大帮助。
And when a problem can be described formally, you can sometimes solve it in your head.
当一个问题可以被正式描述时，你有时可以在头脑中解决它。
But if you need to solve a complicated, ill-defined problem, it will almost always help to write about it.
但如果你需要解决一个复杂的、不明确的问题，写下来几乎总是有帮助的。
Which in turn means that someone who's not good at writing will almost always be at a disadvantage in solving such
这反过来意味着不擅长写作的人在解决此类问题时几乎总是处于劣势
problems.
问题。
You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well.
不写好就无法思考，不读好就无法写好。
And I mean that last "well" in both senses.
我的意思是最后一个“好”的意思是两种意义上的。
You have to be good at reading, and read good things.
一定要善于读书，读好书。
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