Reading is vague. It could mean anything, and can absolutely be shallow. Successful people just have a portion of their life that produces something valuable to others. You can be a celebrated boxer while not even knowing how to read. Taleb once mentioned the story of a futures trader who made a killing with green lumber while thinking it was literally lumber painted green. The trader didn't know the first thing about the product itself, but they knew and could perform the actions that really mattered to the goal of trading.

Many professions require reading to be successful, but it's more the case that getting the necessary information would not be realistically possible without reading at some point. People in that position don't read for its own sake in their work life (whether they read for pleasure is another story), they go find the information they need in the format it exists in. This is then confused as "reading makes you successful" but it is as trivial a statement as "having the right information makes you successful"

I suspect that people who disdain reading for pleasure have never tried it as an adult. In every book there is a unique perspective and story that you can learn from. As an example, I recently read the Wheel of Time series because I like fantasy novels. Post-reading, I have a greater understanding of personal growth and how people change over time due to life experiences. It wasn't a nirvana state that was reached, but it gave me a unique perspective of people in various scenarios, many relatable to the real world.

Do "successful" people in fact read more? It might be true, it certainly sounds good. But I don't know if we can so easily make that assumption. I recall a section of "The Millionaire Next Door" where most of the people interviewed chalked up their success to some combination of "Luck" and "Hard Work". Education was a bit lower on the list, and I don't remember anything about reading in one's spare time.

> Do "successful" people in fact read more? It might be true, it certainly sounds good.

There are also people like myself for whom "success" means getting to read everything that we want. Well, not everything, because at some point in life one gets to acknowledge that death is a thing that actually happens and that will interrupt said reading, but other than that reading and the thought that there will always be interesting books for us to read is one of the main thing that keeps us (as I think I'm not the only one thinking like that) feeling alive.