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It is very probable—almost certain—that the great mass of men . . .were utterly unconscious, that their conditions, or their minds were capable of improvement. They not only looked upon the educated few as superior beings; but they supposed themselves to be naturally incapable of rising to equality. To immancipate the mind from this false and under estimate of itself, is the great task which printing came into the world to perform.

—Abraham Lincoln

Authors are the rock-star teachers. They spread knowedge and ideas across space and time to both challenge and enlighten our minds. Authors like John Locke, Adam Smith and Thomas Paine, still teach us today even though they have long since passed. I think that Stephen King put it best when he equated reading and writing with telepathy. As King explains, when we read books we are not just reading words, but thoughts. Through printed words we can read the thoughts of some of the greatest minds ever to exist on Earth as if we were in their heads when the thoughts occurred to them. It is much easier to read those thoughts and build on them, than it is to think them ourselves and expect to — in addition to that effort — come up with anything new.

Books are the technology that power progress. Technological advances have historically eliminated repetitive tasks. The printing press has made it easy for people to disseminate useful knowledge quickly and cheaply. Prior to the printing press, if you wanted to share knowledge with someone, you were limited by whom you could physically talk to, or by how many people you could write to. Prior to the printing press, humans were still capable of great ideas and advances, they were just incapable of spreading them quickly and efficiently. With the invention of the printing press, the advances of The Renaissance that took place in Florence Italy were able to spread to the whole of Europe and led directly to the Age of Enlightenment. In turn the Age of Enlightenment gave birth to modern democracies.

In truth, I expected to find that reading was essential in my research of learning. Still, I’m amazed at how indispensable a tool reading was among the open-source educated. Even George Washington, who is more noted for his bravery than his intellect, used reading as an indespensible tool in developing his good judgement. When George Washington realized that he would likely be in command of the Continental Army, one of his first actions was to order six books on the subject. Washington had never commanded a unit larger than a regiment so when he realized that the had a lot to learn, he turned to books.

Even though he had ready access to Lord Fairfax’s impressive library as a teenager, George Washington seems not to have a reputation as a reader among historians. For instance Joseph J. Ellis, in His Excellency, George Washington, gives the impression that Washington did not read excessively. There is evidence, however, to the contrary. Consider the following passage from Henry Cabot Lodge’s George Washington:

. . .the idea sometimes put forward that Washington cared nothing for reading or for books is an idle one. He read at Greenway Court and everywhere else when he had a chance, and he read well and to some purpose, studying men and events in books as he did in the world, and though he never talked of his reading, preserving silence on that as on other things concerning himself, no one ever was able to record an instance in which he showed himself ignorant of history or of literature. He was never a learned man, but so far as his own language could carry him he was an educated one.

The key phrase about Washington’s reading is that he read to some purpose. We see in Washington a process of problem solving in which reading was an integral part. As the colonies were gearing up for war, Washington ordered the aforementioned six books on war fighting. While the thought of Washington cramming for war like a student at mid-terms may seem odd, Washington was by his own admission, unqualified for the job.

We see his problem-solving pattern emerge again when he became President. Once in office he sent for all the papers of each department of the confederation, read them and took notes. He then summarized all of the contents of each document. He did this thoughout his presidency when dealing with official documents. As Cabot stated, “He knew more at the start about the facts in each and every department of the public business than any other one man, and he continued to know more throughout his administration.” Even in retirement the pattern emerged where, according to Ellis, he would schedule two hours a night for reading (mostly current events) and correspondence.

It appears Washington read to ensure that he was as prepared as he could be for the monumental tasks that were his. His reading shaped his thinking and usually preceded action. In other words, reading for Washington was not an idle leisure pursuit. It was necessary research to inform and guide his actions and choices. Informed decisions lead to good judgment—a defining characteristic of George Washington.

Given the consistency of the pattern, and Washington’s elusive nature as a biographical subject (he rarely wrote or talked about himself) it’s fair to assume that he at least could have been a more avid reader than historians give him credit for. Regardless, whether avid or sporatic, reading was an important strategy for learning in the education of Washington.

Two of Washington’s most trusted generals, Nathanial Greene and Henry Knox, were both open-source educated as well — and largely through books. Knox was a book-seller prior to the revolution, and Greene frequented his shop. Both men believed one could become educated by studying books, and both men proved indispensable to the cause of the revolution, as did another of Washington’s open-source educated friends, Benjamin Franklin.

As an apprentice at his brother’s print shop Franklin would sneak books away from the shop and read well into the night. Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin, An American Life, states that books were the most important formative influence in Franklin’s life. Some of the books Franklin read, such as Cotton Mather’s Bonifacias: Essays to Do Good, and Daniel Dafoe’s An Essay upon Projects shaped Franklin’s thinking about the importance of forming volunteer community organizations and associations. He also read and was influence by many of the authors of the Enlightenment, such as John Locke and David Hume.

In Franklin’s club for mental and community improvement, the Junto, the members thought it would be useful to pool their books into one place. This allowed each of the members of the Junto the ability to study what the other members had been studying. Through this effort the first lending library in America was born.

As a writer, Franklin himself became a rock-star teacher with the publication of his autobiography. Franklin cared deeply about his fellow man, and used his autobiography to convey the lessons he had learned in his own meritocratic rise to prominence. He consciously was trying to create an American archetype that other American’s could emulate. And emulate Franklin they did. Franklin’s autobiography influenced many great Americans, including Abraham Lincoln.

In spite of his eloquence, Abraham Lincoln was our country’s least formally educated president. He had less than a year of formal schooling. By today’s standards, what Lincoln received would amount to a kindergarten or first grade education. He lived in a log cabin with a dirt floor until the age of ten surrounded by a family that lacked literacy. His father, Thomas Lincoln, could barely sign his own name. His birth mother signed her name with an “X.” Where Benjamin Franklin, The Wright brothers, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell would benefit from well-read and even educated families, Abraham Lincoln did not have even that. How then, did this man born into the woods of Kentucky, make himself worthy to contend for and win the highest office in the land?

Simply put, the people Lincoln chose to emulate were not the ones in his immediate surroundings. Lincoln read constantly throughout his life. In his reading he met with men of a different time that he consciously chose to emulate, notably George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Lincoln biographer, William Lee Miller, writes dismissively about Lincoln’s reading of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, stating, “Although Lincoln apparently did read, at some time in his youth, that ubiquitous American classic The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin . . .he never refers to it.” I disagree with Miller’s characterization of the effect of Franklin’s autobiography on Lincoln. While it may be true that he never referred to it, there can be a lot ascertained by judging the effects of the book on Lincoln by his actions. Franklin’s autobiography would have reinforced Lincoln’s eerily similar approach to Franklin’s method of improving his mind if it was not itself directly responsible for it.

Franklin’s autobiography touted by Carl Van Doren as “the first masterpiece of autobiography by a self-made man,” would have had particular resonance with the ambitious young Lincoln. It would provide a road map out of poverty for those who wished to follow Franklin’s example. Franklin was keenly aware that his biography could have this effect and was careful to craft his image as a striving pilgrim from humble beginnings. Franklin writes, “Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessings of God, so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.”

Through imitation or not, Lincoln’s behavior mirrored Franklin’s. When Franklin declared, “From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books,” it’s hard not to imagine Lincoln sensing its importance as a road map out of obscurity. Lincoln, like Franklin, became a great reader. His love of reading starting in childhood but lasted throughout the rest of his life. While in Congress, Lincoln secured lodging across the street from the Library of Congress where he spent so much time reading that his fellow congressmen labeled him a “book-worm.”

Perhaps this is coincidental, but the young Lincoln had the inclination to rise above his circumstances, and Franklin’s autobiography showed him that it was possible as well as prescribed a course of action. Furthermore, it’s the course of action that Lincoln fatefully took. I chose Franklin and Lincoln to study because they are both simply open-source educated, not because I suspected there was a closer connection. That was a surprise. Like the rest of the open-source educated alumni, they exhibit the same pattern for learning. It’s fascinating to me that Lincoln, whose pattern for learning mirrors Franklin’s, read Franklin’s book which Franklin wrote in the hopes that others, like Lincoln, would follow his example. So, yes, it could be coincidental that they follow the same learning pattern, but I think it is more probably causal. In other words, without Franklin, or more accurately, without the book Franklin wrote about his life, we might not even know that Abraham Lincoln ever existed.

Franklin’s wasn’t the only biography that influenced Lincoln—so was Washington’s. He read the inaccurate but heroic version of Washington’s life by Parson Weems where Washington’s honesty is manifested in his inability to fib about cutting down a cherry tree. Although this story is a lie, it may have contributed to the development of Lincoln’s honesty so perhaps we can forgive Weems for it. Lincoln also read the biography of Washington by David Ramsay.

Lincoln’s reading of American history was also broad. Another book Lincoln read in his youth was William Grimshaw’s celebratory History of the United States, as well as the Revised Statutes of Indiana, which in addition to legal texts, contained the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, and the first twelve amendments.

As a boy, books were scarce and as a result Lincoln would read and reread the books he could find. In addition to the books previously mentioned, Lincoln read and probably reread Pilgrims Progress, Aesop’s Fables, the Arabian Nights, Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet , and Richard III. He also read and was known to quote the King James Bible.

In Lincoln’s Virtues, William Lee Millers notes that Lincoln’s early childhood is surprisingly without mentors. While Lincoln does not praise anyone for his education or guidance, someone taught him to read—most probably during his one year of school as a young boy.

I find myself asking, how much help in education is essential? In Lincoln’s case, he had almost no help, not even from his family who couldn’t help him because they lacked literacy. While he would eventually find contemporaries and collaborators, who would help him become the man he yearned to be, until Lincoln’s early twenties, the only people who sustained him were long since dead—icons like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and William Shakespeare.

Reading as a key strategy among the open-source educated is still relevant. Michael Dell is a good example of how reading makes a difference. In the Dell family it was a given that Michael would go to college. Although he started on the path to medical school at the University of Texas, to the dismay of his parents, Michael dropped out at the age of 18 to pursue a business opportunity that we all know today as Dell computers.

In his book, Direct from Dell, it is clear that Michael Dell has an inquisitive mind and a drive for understanding. One of the ways that he tries to satiate his curiosity is through reading. When he was 12, for instance, he became interested in stamp collecting so he naturally—or at least naturally to him—started reading stamp journals. This knowledge was critical as he used it to embark on his first business venture (speculating on stamps) and made a cool $2,000.

Woven throughout his book is the thread that reading is a wellspring of new ideas and insights. Dell references magazines more than books. Passages like the following are common:

Reading through an electronics magazine one day, I saw a story about something called a chip set for a computer. Now everyone in the business knows what a chip set is, but when Gordon Campbell started a company called Chips & Technologies, the idea was new.

While references to magazine reading abound there are sparse references to books. It is certainly possible that Michael Dell reads a lot of books—he just did not reference them as influential in his own book the way he did the magazines he read. This may be because of the innovative nature of the computer industry itself in which Dell was immersed. Magazines, and not books, were probably the best source of information, especially in the early 90’s.

The one book that Dell does reference is Built to Last, which is written by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. Built to Last is the result of a research study done by two Stanford Professors who were interested in what variables allowed enduring, iconic companies to reach their vaunted stature. Specifically, Dell cites the book in reference to how his company sets “big hairy audacious goals.” It is clear that a good portion of the reading Dell does is for some purpose. Like George Washington, Dell reads to inform his decisions and guide his actions.

In building expertise, it is clear that the open-source educated used reading as an essential strategy to improve their minds. It helped prepare Washington for war, and helped make Franklin one of the wisest men of his age. From a generation away, Lincoln learned from the examples from both from printed words on a page. When Sir Isacc Newton proclaimed, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” the giants he was referring to were authors — the rock-star teachers.

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