Why the grand strategist/visionary needs the discipline of books [Updated]

Echoing a recent off-hand comment from ZenPundit regarding books, I'm reading this great (but awkwardly written, style-wise) book entitled, A Corporate Solution to Global Poverty (Lodge & Wilson).

Absent the recent meeting of minds with Neil Nyren and Putnam (negotiations continue on details), I don't think I could have made head nor tails from this book. It is dense, a bit esoteric, and challenging. I probably would have skimmed most and gotten very little from it.

But, armed with the agreed-upon thesis of Vol. III, this book is a bit of a revelation, tripping all sorts of wires.

My point? You need some guiding arc for the encapsulation of your current thinking for your reading to have real impact. You need some governing dynamic for where you're hoping to go intellectually.

An example from this book: Alexander Hamilton was our Deng Xiaoping, or America's Lee Kuan Yew. I have Chernoff's bio on my desk, ready to be read. Now I know why.

Somebody like me, without this sort of overarching focus, can get very anxious, almost depressed (lotsa insomnia this summer, for example, which I didn't fear particularly, because I sensed the basic driver). With it, everything always seems to be snapping into place, or very exciting.

I told Neil I simply needed a book deal in place by Labor Day to give order to my life--so to speak. The release date meant little to me; the start date was everything.

That was just an instinctive guess on my part, but now reading this book I realize how imperative it was for me.

Upshot?

The visionary type is incapable of what most would call "pleasure reading." The pleasure comes from connecting the reading to goals, the "discovery" factor being everything.

Know yourself, know your happiness.