Unless you are planning to infringe (which is knowing in itself), this is very bizarre advice.
Reading a patent is more likely to make you not infringe upon it than to make you knowingly infringe upon it.
Reading a patent is more likely to make you not infringe upon it than to make you knowingly infringe upon it.
For people who are writing novel software it can be better to always avoid reading patents, that way they can honestly state they haven't read a specific patent.
Perverse incentives indeed.