Today, Alexis von Konigslow explains how she reads to protect her organic intelligence and deep comprehension skills.
Why I was Afraid to Engage with the News
Sometimes I worry that reading the news is above my paygrade, or that I’m being pushed to believe that it is.
Here’s an example: I was reading articles about Trump’s invasion rhetoric, then was surprised when it suddenly stopped. Our then provisional, now permanent PM called him, reporters said. Whatever happened in that phone call convinced him to lay off the 51st state threats, they said. Carney was a banker. He understands financial levers. He probably threatened something to do with bonds. That makes sense, I said in subsequent conversations with friends, although it didn’t really make sense to me. I’ll level with you. I don’t know that much about bonds. I certainly don’t know anything about global financial levers. I started by looking up the terms. The AI loaded without my consent on all my devices chimed in, offering to help, to explain, to summarize the hard stuff for me.
I’m concerned about environmental costs of AI. I’m worried about errors and hallucinations, too. But, I have to admit, I was so overwhelmed that I considered taking it up on its offer. But then I paused.
Reading is more involved than just unlocking words. Reading comprehension, real understanding, means figuring out context too. Reading well requires deep dives.
How I Almost Ruined Reading Ten Years Ago
Let’s rewind a decade. When my son was little, I worked at night so that I could be with him during the day.
The days themselves were joyful, fun, frenetic and fast moving. We went to park to class to park together, and as we walked from place to place, he pointed at signs and asked me to read them to him. I loved those times because they gave me a bit of a breather too. He pointed, I read out mechanically, and I let my thoughts wander. Eventually, he started pointing and telling me what was written on all the signs. I remember looking down at him in wonder: he’d memorized some but was audibly sounding out others. It became clear that he was teaching himself to read this way.
Cool, I thought. I then consulted parenting books just to make sure. Not cool, said the manuals. Parents shouldn’t teach reading haphazardly, or they run the risk of confusing their kids. They should have a plan. OK, I thought. I could do that.
The books themselves didn’t agree with what I was doing, but they didn’t agree with each other either, so formulating a plan was rough. Kids should learn to read by being presented with books, said some, like some kind of literary osmosis. Kids should learn by sounding out words. Kids should learn with phonics, or flash cards, or diphones. I went out and tried it all. My child is a sweetheart and put up with all of it, all the while still asking me questions and teaching himself to read on his own, in his own time, thank goodness.
The one thing all the parenting books did agree on was that I shouldn’t just teach decoding words, that I should teach him to read to understand context and subtext and to read between the lines as well. That required background information. That was advice that I could get behind, and not only because it seemed harder to make a mess out of than reading itself.
The books’ advice, everyone’s advice, was to read as much as you could to your child, as widely as you could, and present as much material as possible. Dive into as many subjects as you can. Dive often, and dive deep. That’s the guidance that I remember most from that period.
I also recognized that it was advice that was relevant to my own life. When I read the news, I remembered, I often worried that I was missing stuff. The more info you have, the books all pointed out, the more you can read between the lines. Be sure to fill yourselves with information. This, I realized, meant me too.
How I Live the Deep Dive Method
Luckily, my child has loved this strategy. He’s a deep diver by nature. He’s one of the completist kids for whom “collect them all” makes sense and becomes a fun and hilarious life mission.
Plays, books and TV shows have become fun entry points. We saw The Three Sisters by Inua Ellams, a phenomenal adaptation of The Three Sisters set in Nigeria during the Biafran War, and we took deep dives into Nigerian history. My son read Time Atlas by Robert Hegarty and History as It Happened: A Map by Map Guide published by DK. His parents are reading The Fortunes of Africa by Martin Meredith and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rooney. We watched Young Sheldon and have been reading entries into the world of Physics like The Elegant Universe by Brian Green and Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Sometimes questions inspire other questions, and sometimes missions just materialize. We’ve been reading about code breaking during the second world war, the history of video game consoles, the history of US elections, the history of all of soccer, and all histories and timelines of all Zelda games, to name a few deep dives.
My son lets experiences inspire him, and, when he has a question, he works to answer it completely. I’m so inspired by that. I’m trying to live that way too.
I took a deep dive into the Chernobyl nuclear accident, and that inspired a whole novel. I’ve read a ton about the Covid epidemic and climate change and children’s development, and those deep dives are inspiring the next one. I’m trying to do it more often. I’m trying to do it more widely. When I have a question, I try to find a way to dive deep.
Deep Dive with Me
I’m still fighting through the news. I want to understand this situation that we’re all in, and I’m not going to ask an AI copilot to do it for me.
So even though it scares me, I’m learning about economics. I’m reading The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson and Dr. Strangelove’s Game by Paul Strathern. Those books have led to other questions, so I’m also reading about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the life of Ignaz Semmelweis, the history of asbestos, etc. I’m also reading about the French Revolution. Maybe I’m going back too far. Maybe I’m filling gaps that I shouldn’t have had before. I’ll level with you again. There are gaps in my knowledge, and I’m afraid they might be nig ones.
I’m going on more deep dives besides. I’m getting in on dives with friends. I have a friend interested in music, so I’m reading The World in Six Songs and I Heard There was a Secret Chord by Daniel Levitin.
I’m enjoying the process. I’m getting in on friends’ deep dives. I’m giving myself the confidence that even if I’m doing it imperfectly, even if I don’t understand every little thing, I’m engaging in the news and world events, and I’m protecting my organic intelligence.
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Alexis von Konigslow is the author of The Capacity for Infinite Happiness. She has degrees in mathematical physics from Queen’s University and creative writing from the University of Guelph. She lives in Toronto with her family.
