Do you find that boiling everything down to a soundbite or small phrase helps you improve your critical thinking and logical reasoning skills? Or do you find it is valuable just for the dopamine hit and feel-goods of cementing your already established worldviews and perspectives?

The reason I read books is because the author's perspectives are, often, wildly different from mine. Because of this difference, it helps me understand other people, and understand my own actions.

I feel like taking everything down to one-liners and ignoring "anything that doesn't resonate" is just avoiding the real work of thinking about yourself and your place in society. For example - Lao Tzu's perspectives about technology and how to balance external desires with my own personal views on how to integrate technology into my life have been immensely helpful in raising a family - I'm not sure I would've gotten that with just soundbites.