A handful of books that I’ve read over the years were so insightful and full of wisdom that I marked them as books I must reread. This weekend, I revisited one of them. I read it a year ago and got immense value from it because it simplified concepts I’d been trying to make sense of.

Rereading parts of the book this weekend, I walked away with additional insights. I began wondering why I missed them the first time. The material in the book hadn’t changed, so it had to be something to do with me.

When I first read this book, my understanding of concepts discussed in it was nonexistent. I was green, with a massive knowledge gap that I was trying to fill. Since then, I’ve consumed lots of long-form content to better understand these concepts. Applying that understanding, I’ve reflected on my successes and failures. All of this has given me a better theoretical and practical understanding of these concepts, which I view as my foundation. 

With books that contain an abundance of wisdom, it’s not always possible to absorb all of it on first reading. The wisdom is layered, in a sense. Understanding one aspect of a concept unlocks your ability to understand something deeper about it. Your ability to understand deeply builds on itself.  

Recognizing how this layering effect works, I now I want to make it a priority to revisit books that I thought were packed with wisdom and that were written by people who’ve mastered concepts that I too want to master.