The Golden One - October 20, 2026


Is Reading Books a Waste of Time？

Hosted by
Marcus Follin
Mentioned
Moby Dick
Insanity – African Murders Swedish Man, Gets One Year In Prison

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

163.81

Word count

1,884

Sentence count

89

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.800 Is reading books a waste of time, you might ask. Yes, no, it depends, maybe.
00:00:07.120 I will endeavor to respond to this question in this fine video, but first, on a somewhat related
00:00:13.680 note, we have a message from the sponsor of this video. Insightious is a book summary service for
00:00:20.400 chads who are interested in the kind of books you see before you as I scroll through their
00:00:26.560 web page here. So a bit of history, a bit of politics, a bit of philosophy, a bit of spirituality,
00:00:33.920 esoteric matters. So the good stuff, the stuff I like myself. So an insight is around 20 minutes
00:00:42.080 and the key concepts of a certain book, they are presented. So I usually listen to the insights
00:00:49.120 when I reduce my cortisol in the evening by painting some Warhammer. So yes, I am an enjoyer
00:00:55.280 of insight just myself that is why i am confident in recommending the service to you my dear
00:01:02.160 audience so you can use the code golden one and you will receive 75 percent off the first month
00:01:09.360 for monthly billing now i can highly recommend the insight on practical idealism by the infamous
00:01:16.880 kalergi i got inspired to read the entire book actually so i will probably make a podcast episode
00:01:24.400 or a video on it so yes plenty of interesting insights as you can see before you so check it
00:01:30.480 out first link in the description box below so do check it out now then on to the question at hand
00:01:38.960 first and foremost a personal disclaimer you might ask especially if you've been with me for
00:01:45.840 at least a few years i haven't really been writing any book reviews as of late but i have
00:01:51.200 over these last few years i've written a fair few and i've read a fair few books and as you can see
00:01:56.320 behind me as well i have you know um a collection of books not even all of the books are seen some
00:02:03.440 of them are out of sight from the camera but anyway just on a personal note i sort of have to
00:02:10.560 do it it's sort of part of my job being a content creator having a podcast i made 70 episodes by now
00:02:17.840 by the way, which is quite cool
00:02:20.160 if you think about it. Speaking of which
00:02:22.140 I will of course talk about the situation in
00:02:24.160 France. I will do it in my
00:02:26.120 next podcast episode which will be out
00:02:28.280 in a few days. So if you think
00:02:30.380 why haven't I made a video on it, I'll make a long
00:02:32.320 podcast episode about the situation
00:02:34.400 in France because there is a lot
00:02:36.200 to unpack. So
00:02:38.120 yeah, stay tuned for that.
00:02:40.560 Now anyway, I do try
00:02:42.200 to read a book
00:02:43.600 before every podcast episode if
00:02:46.180 need to if i need to get some more insights also of course i've written two books dauntless and
00:02:51.300 demigod mentality i'm writing on my third book at the moment the great re-migration it will be out
00:02:58.100 sometime hopefully early next year now in order for me to you know get a good
00:03:03.860 overview of a situation so right now i'm reading a book
00:03:07.060 so right now i'm reading a book about vietnam so what i will write in my upcoming book is
00:03:23.060 is about vietnam during the second part of the 20th century especially regarding their
00:03:31.140 deportations of their ethnic Chinese population. And also of course the
00:03:38.040 ongoing struggle against the French and the Americans. So I need to have a good
00:03:42.540 overview for me to write myself, for me to talk about it in a common podcast or
00:03:47.160 even to make a video. I need to have a good understanding so I can make an
00:03:51.120 interesting analysis of my own. If I am supposed to write something compelling
00:03:56.940 for you, my dear readers, if you intend to read my book or if you just listen to this video or if
00:04:03.600 you listen to a podcast, in order for me to, you know, come with an interesting, insightful analysis
00:04:09.820 of a certain topic, whatever it might be, it's good for me to have more knowledge that I can
00:04:16.360 get from a book because reading a book, you know, this amount of information, it's something else
00:04:21.980 than you can get from just reading random posts on X or whatever it might be.
00:04:27.140 So the reason I read is because I have to.
00:04:30.360 So I'm not saying that you need to read as much as I do
00:04:33.320 because it might not be part of your job
00:04:35.580 and it might actually be something that takes away time
00:04:39.140 that you can do other things with.
00:04:42.660 Then also, of course, you can see some science fiction books there as well,
00:04:45.980 The Horus Heresy, and that is because I like reading.
00:04:48.200 It's a hobby of mine.
00:04:49.300 it's just something I enjoy doing and I've always enjoyed reading so just a
00:04:53.620 personal preference. So long disclaimer I'm getting to the the main point of the
00:04:59.960 video and that is is reading books a waste of time it all depends it all
00:05:05.120 depends what I want to say and this is something I'll make a separate video on
00:05:08.620 I'll make a rant I'll clickbait you when I make the video probably there is this
00:05:13.360 tendency among many right-wing guys to instead of focus on realpolitik advancing gaining power in
00:05:22.080 the world you focus on having the hottest take the best take being the most knowledgeable being
00:05:28.520 the most enlightened and you know i understand this impulse as well i also want to be um an
00:05:33.900 enlightened mage here in my esoteric library coming with the the deepest and most profound
00:05:41.340 insights, the most philosophically talented. I understand the impulse, but ultimately what
00:05:47.300 matters right here, right now, is political power. Everything else is very, very secondary. So
00:05:52.900 primary focus, getting political power. Otherwise our civilization will continue to decline. Look
00:06:00.940 at France, for example. So there must never be a sensation of wanting to be the one with the 0.74
00:06:06.960 hottest takes instead of the one who pursues power in society. So very important disclaimer as well.
00:06:14.580 Now then, can you fit in reading books into your overall schedule without it taking time or focus
00:06:20.820 away from your own pursuit? Maybe in some cases it can help you in your pursuit for power. If you
00:06:27.280 study law, for example, you will have to read a lot as it is. So then you sort of have to read no
00:06:32.580 matter if you want to or not. If you pursue a political path maybe it's not you know a book
00:06:39.640 about Vietnam you need to read but maybe it's something about political theory so that you can
00:06:43.640 be sharper in your in your political game. Of course self-improvement books always good so you
00:06:49.180 can be the best version of yourself that will be beneficial no matter what you do. So promoting my
00:06:55.360 own Dauntless Endeavor God mentality here as well you need to read them you absolutely need to read
00:07:00.040 Anything else is madness. So that is something that can help you, no matter which path you want to pursue.
00:07:08.040 Then again, the danger is when it becomes an intellectual pursuit for the sake of it.
00:07:14.040 It becomes a danger when you want to have the most pure interpretation of Evola's work.
00:07:21.040 You know, I like reading Evola as well, but Evola is not someone we should look at for political advice.
00:07:28.660 He writes mainly about esoteric matters and magic. There he is interesting. Political stuff, not so much.
00:07:35.000 There are others you can read if you want a better understanding. And also you need to read a book with a purpose.
00:07:40.020 You cannot only read a book for the sake of having said, oh, I'm so well read. I've read all of these classics.
00:07:46.000 You need to read a book with a purpose. Same thing if you go into the gym. What are you doing in the gym?
00:07:51.480 Are you going to the gym so you can say that you've been to the gym or are you going into the gym to
00:07:55.800 actually put in some work, actually get stronger in the heavy compound movements.
00:08:00.780 Two different things. Same as reading a book. Are you digesting what you're
00:08:05.880 reading? Are you understanding what you're reading? Can you get a good... can you
00:08:10.380 develop a good way of thinking from reading a book? Can you apply it in your
00:08:14.300 own life? You know, again, my main point in this video is that results in life,
00:08:21.240 So that is what matters. Being intellectual, it can be good if it helps you in some capacity in your quest to go upwards in life.
00:08:30.940 Now then, also on a quite practical level, does it fit in your everyday schedule to read books?
00:08:37.220 When I went to high school, I had some time on the train.
00:08:41.900 I took the train to high school so then I could read.
00:08:44.120 It was a nice, you know, routine in the morning and in the afternoon.
00:08:49.120 So I always had a book with me because it suited quite fine to read for 30-40 minutes.
00:08:53.860 To read for 30-40 minutes, that is better than to mindlessly scroll.
00:08:58.640 I still think you should be on social media.
00:09:00.720 You should be on X.
00:09:01.500 You should comment on, you know, politicians' posts to promote our message, etc.
00:09:06.220 But when it comes to your own development in the mind, it can be good to read to, you know, retain focus and attention.
00:09:12.260 So be mindful also about training your mind and your brain.
00:09:17.060 And that's where books can be good to, you know, learn how to have a bit longer attention span.
00:09:23.260 So you're not getting this TikTok brain that you need constant stimuli from, you know, flashing lights and obnoxious sounds.
00:09:30.080 So reading books, it's a bit like gym training.
00:09:32.660 It's something good that I recommend you to do, but it must be for a higher purpose.
00:09:36.620 So that is how I approach it.
00:09:39.080 Anyway, hopefully that was a good response to the question at hand that I've gotten a few times.
00:09:45.240 So I read a lot of books because, one, I enjoy it, two, because I sort of have to in my work, as it were.
00:09:54.780 Should you do it? It depends on where you are in life.
00:09:58.720 The main thing would be to view it as a way to exactly the same thing as a gym.
00:10:04.140 you read a book for a specific purpose, you want a specific insight, you want to develop your
00:10:09.080 thinking, you want to expand your mind, something like that. A bad reason to read a book is to say
00:10:16.260 that you've read a book. And also, let's not be pretentious. You can read a classic and you can
00:10:22.920 say that it's bad. Moby Dick, for example, not enjoyable in the least to read. I did not enjoy
00:10:30.080 reading it at all i'm not gonna pretend i did so um anyway that said do head over check out
00:10:37.280 insightchess.com do also head over to legiogloria.com order don't listen them god mentality
00:10:42.960 you can also order some nice garments marine wool made in lithuania good stuff good stuff indeed
00:11:00.080 Thank you.