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Honestly, I think it’s a bit of botha way to soften an opinion, showing balance, yes and no. On one hand, audiobooks have really taken offbecome suddenly popular/successful in the last few years, and I get why — they’re perfect for people who are always on the gobusy, moving around, without time to stop. You can listen to a book while you’re commuting, doing the dishes, or going for a run, so they let you multitaskdo several things at once in a way that reading obviously doesn’t. In that sense, they’ve made books far more accessibleeasy to get or use, especially for busy people who’d otherwise never find the time to sit down with a novel.

That saida linking phrase to introduce a contrasting point, I don’t think it’s exactly the same experience. When you read, you’re actively engaging withinteracting with, paying close attention to the text — you can pause, reread a sentence, and really picture things in your own way. With audiobooks, a narrator’s voice and tone shape how you interpret the story, which can be great, but it also takes away some of that personal imagination. Plus, it’s easy to zone outstop paying attention without meaning to and miss a whole chunk without even realising it.

So overall, I’d say audiobooks are a fantastic alternative, but they offer a different experience rather than an identical one. It really comes down tois ultimately decided by personal preference — some people are visual learners who need to see the words, while others find listening just as immersive.

I think reading definitely plays a role, but I wouldn’t go as far as calling it essential. A lot of successful people creditacknowledge that someone/something is responsible for a good result books for broadening their thinkingexpanding one’s knowledge or perspective, and there’s something to that — reading regularly exposes you to new ideas and different ways of solving problems, which can genuinely give you an edgegive you an advantage over others, especially in business or leadership roles. It’s also a pretty low-effortrequiring little work or energy way to learn from other people’s experience without having to make all the mistakes yourself.

On the other hand, I don’t think you can pin success down toidentify one specific cause or reason for something one single habit. Plenty of people have thrivedgrown or developed very successfully without being big readers — they might learn through hands-on experience, mentorship, or just trial and errortrying different methods until you find one that works instead. So I’d say it’s more of a contributing factorone of several things that helps cause a result than a golden rule. It’s also worth pointing out that quality matters more than quantity here; someone who reads one thoughtful book a month and actually reflects on it probably gets more out of it than someone who races through a book a week just to tick a boxdo something just to meet a requirement, without real engagement.

So overall, I reckonthink or believe (informal) reading is a useful tool rather than a strict requirement. It can definitely sharpen your thinkingmake your thinking clearer or more focused and give you an advantage, but plenty of other habits — discipline, networking, resilience — matter just as much, if not more.

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