I love the hot take here Nick! My wife is big on the perspective you should never finish a bad book (wisdom she received from her mom) and she has influenced me to move on from the 90% of books that you mention.

Personally, I love both books and podcasts, and think that both are worthwhile, but not if consumed indiscriminately.

Here are some of the things that I think about when I’m thinking about consuming information:

• Blogs are the best source of “just in time” information, then podcasts, then books. Things move so quick that many books are outdated by the time of publication. There are gazillions of people blogging however, so if you need to learn how to do something, Google is your friend (or YouTube if you need the visuals)
• Podcasts are great for introducing you to new people and ideas. The fact that you can hear their voices makes a big difference over the written word, and the fact that you can’t see their faces means that you are freed up to multitask (real multitasking, not inefficient task switching)
• Books are good for really wrapping your mind around a concept. Sometimes you just need something looked at in depth to really “get it”
• Re-reading good books is a tremendously high value activity. I picked this point up from Naval Ravikant and I think it applies equally well to fiction and non-fiction. Re-reading a good book is a much more profitable use of time than reading a bad book.
• Be careful about not getting carried away. I’ve finally reached the point where I subscribe to more podcasts than I can keep up with. This creates pressure to always be “plugged in” so I can whittle down my queue. Also, because I own a Kindle, I can easily read when I’m on a walk. It’s nice that in our modern society we can find time to consume information while doing something else, but sometimes the most profitable thing to do is to just unwind and let your mind wander. I heard a great definition of solitude that was a state where your mind is free from the presence of other minds. Solitude has tremendous value in our always on culture.
• The library is a great resource for making sure you don’t buy bad books. You can check it out and if it’s no good, no problem. If it turns out to be life-changing, you can go buy a copy. The Kindle is the best friend of the library. With the Libby app on my phone I can check a book out from the library and send it to my Kindle and be reading it 30 seconds later.