Lifelong learning helps you be happier, earn more, and stay healthier. Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan) writes: 'A private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones... the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly...Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.' it is a well known psychological fact that it is the most incompetent who are the most confident of their abilities and the most intelligent who are full of doubt. . It's equally well established that the more readily admit you don't know things, the faster you learn. So stop beating yourself up for buying too many books... All those books you haven't read are indeed a sign of your ignorance. But if you know how ignorant you are, you're way ahead of the vast majority of other people.