“Reading” is a struggle for me

Oddly, this is something I’ve never publicly mentioned before, nor have I randomly come across it in my own web searches.

But:

“Reading” is a struggle for me.

It is, quite literally, the hardest thing I do ever day.

And as someone who writes computer code for a living, and has to spend much of my life, every day, reading to learn and keep abreast of new development and news, it may seem surprising.

But when you think about it: reading is not a natural skill humans possess.

It is something people have to be taught, learn and practise.

And I believe (base on past reading, ironically) it is something that was once designed to separate classes of people.

I am not ashamed to say reading is a major difficulty for me.

Recall memory is another even bigger problem I deal with every day.

Ironically, I write a lot down to remember.

But have a great visual memory (and no, written words are not “visual”. I can’t tell you why, but it don’t correlate for me).
I have an “index” mind, meaning I know where to find what I have once seen quite easily.
And even though I forget nouns (especially people’s names), I never forge a face.

And I’m the the person strangers will approach on an intersection to ask for directions or help.

All this to say: it’s OK to struggle with so-called “simple every day tasks.

The people who truly master reading – especially fast reading – are rare.
They also master high skilled jobs, like: lawyers; politicians; scientists (?); certain types of information workers.
But they are the exception we hear about, not the rule.

The rest of us struggle.
Every. Single. Day.

I call it “brute forcing my way through life”.
We may look smart.
We may look like we know what we’re doing.
But it’s brute force and adaptation that makes it look that way.

Reading is hard.
Learning is harder.
Both are learnt skills.

Accepting and figuring out how to adapt will set you free and give you a hand in stay ahead.