The Man Who Reads 1,000 Articles a Day

Robert Cottrell reads 1,000 articles a day.

But the verb ‘to read’ isn’t exactly right to describe what he does. Ingest is a little bit closer. But it doesn’t quite hit it on the nose, either. Ingestion implies that what he’s doing is a mechanical, rote activity.

No, Robert Cottrell eats articles. With gusto and verve.

He’s a former Moscow bureau chief for The Economist and the Financial Times. Now he spends most of his time writing The Browser, a daily newsletter where he shares five of the best articles of the day with his thousands of subscribers.

We’re sitting in my office in Chinatown and he’s swiping through a recent superorganizers interview. I’ve, somewhat nervously, told this master of manuscripts to read an article and tell me completely honestly what’s going through his head — in real-time.

We turn to my Tiago Forte profile from a few weeks ago. He tries and tastes, swipes and samples.

“At this point I’m wondering who Tiago Forte is?” he says. “That is the context I wanted up top, in order to interpret everything that follows.” I can almost see him rolling the article around in his mouth, taking flavor notes.

A little further down the article, “Well, I’ve already parted company with the narrator at the point where he discusses Evernote.” He’s got one long finger on his iPad, scrolling in rapid staccato bursts. “But he does use Things, which I use too. So I’m kind of for and against — I’m on his team, and I’m not.”

Then finally, the verdict: “I'm reading this with pleasure. You write well,” he says. I breathe a sigh of relief.

I passed the first test. But I’m left with a ton of lingering questions. How does he physically manage to read so much in a day? What makes an article high quality? What are his best sources for high quality reads?

We talk about all of this in more in today’s interview.

Let’s get into it!

Robert spends his life looking for great writing

I’m able to read a thousand pieces of journalism a day, which I think makes me the most read person in the world.

Not the best read, mind you, but the most read. I’ve taken account of somewhere between 3 and 5 million pieces of writing over the last 10 years.

So if there’s anybody out there who has read more than that I would like to meet them.

I’m limited by my physical capacity to read so many pieces a day, and so the trouble is optimizing my time so that not only do I follow the things that I know I like, but that I somehow manage to discover the things that I don’t know about.

What I'm trying to do is find pieces of writing each day which are of lasting value.

I want something that’s enjoyable to read in the moment, but will also be worth reading if it turns up in three, six or 12 months’ time.

Pieces with lasting value do three things: share really interesting ideas, deploy strong arguments, and have particularly fine writing — typically in first person.

By nature, a lot of breaking news pieces will not have lasting value.

He uses his iPad as his reading workhorse

The first thing I do when I get out of bed is read the New York Times — really for my own personal satisfaction. The morning is when I'm feeling fresh and the most receptive. That's when I feel good.

I do this on my iPad. The iPad is my workhorse.

I do an awful lot of my reading on public transport and the iPad allows me to continue to be productive. Half an hour on the tube can be some of my most productive time.

Once I’ve read the New York Times, then I’ll start in on looking at my Feedly with a heart full of hope.