# Building a broad base of knowledge "In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time -- none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads--and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out." - Charlie Munger Charlie, and his partner, fellow billionaire investor Warren Buffett, are literally two of the smartest people to have ever walked the Earth. One may think they would sit and read only books on investing, accounting, and finance from sunrise to sunset. And they do, but not to the exclusion of all else. Instead, they read broadly about a number of different subjects, Warren has noted he particularly likes biographies. Elon Musk too, the billionaire entrepreneur, has spanned the disciplines from fiction like Dune, Waiting for Godot, or The Lord of the Rings to of course non-fiction like the biography of Benjamin Franklin and The Art of War. Not only are the great movers and shifters of our time able to create and accomplish what seems like the impossible, but they can intelligently speak about the world across multiple disciplines. Lately, I've been tinkering with this idea and thinking about becoming a more well rounded learner. For me, the desire is threefold. One, I've always held a secret desire to be a bit of a *renaissance man* - or a person with many skills, interests and areas of knowledge. Secondly, I believe, at least as of this writing, that a wider pool of knowledge will help me on my quest to achieve mastery of the art of communication. I'll be able to better relate to others, understand the world more, and have much interesting things to discuss when communicating. Knowledge compounds, and you never know when the fields of literature, calculus, and history might all intersect into something incredible. Third, I have had a tendency to be a bit restless and lose focus if I keep banging my head against the same topic for too long without any variety, so setting up a system of learning where I can expose my curiosity to different areas might be able to satiate that [[Shiny object syndrome & the propensity to render ourselves useless|shiny object syndrome]] when it comes to learning. Topic A is the main focus, but when that gets to be a bit old, simply move on to topic B or C for a bit, then return to Topic A and complete it, and move on. I'm not sure if this is going to play out like it has been in my head - only time will tell. But I do know that having a deeper and wider understanding of the world makes life more interesting and fun. And at the end of the day, learning is a beautiful thing, so why not experiment with it and figure out what works best for each of us? To learning!