I was at a conference, talking about “The Filter Bubble” and “Linchpin”, two important business books. One person asked me: “I don’t have the time to read these books. Do you know where I can get a brief summary?”

Ha?

You find the time and money to go to a conference, spend 2-3 days outside of your workplace, and you can’t find the time to read each book?

Ha?

Imagine your mechanic telling you he didn’t read up on the latest brake rotors because he has to drive his son to soccer practice before he gets to fix your brakes.

Or your doctor not reading up on the newest research because he doesn’t have time.

Or the quarterback not reading up on the latest playbook because he has other things to do.

Why is it okay in marketing to not to know?

Why do we expect all other trades to be up on all the new developments/research but it’s ok for marketers not to know? Sure, we can all discuss the newest Groupon bashing, the next Twitter advertising scheme but we’re not up on the newest insights on customer behavior, macroeconomic data and societal changes? Why are we willing to invest days in conferences filled with case studies and talks we can read somewhere else or watch later on-demand but are not willing to invest $9.99 per week for a book?

Sure, there are so clunkers, badly written books that should be the length of a blog post. But there are lot of books that make you think and change everything.

Where can you find training material that can change the way you think and work for $9.99? Here.

And, if you’re too cheap for that, at least read up weekly on business blogs. Here are some good ones. They’re free, just need your time.