The Algorithm Will Never Show You This [WRAP 209]

Hey Reader,

I was standing in Ryan Holiday’s bookstore in Bastrop, Texas a couple months ago—a place called The Painted Porch—when I picked up a book titled Rules for a Knight.

The book is a final letter written in 1483 from a knight to his children, penned the day before his eventual death in the Battle of Slaughter Bridge. And I can tell you with near certainty that Amazon would never have recommended it to me based on my purchase history. It wouldn’t show up in an Audible suggestion. No algorithm on earth connects “guy who just bought a book about email marketing or high fantasy” to a random letter—even though the editor of the book happens to be the actor Ethan Hawke.

But there it was, right in front of me. And I picked it up because the cover—and Hawke’s name—caught my eye. That’s the thing about bookstores.

Before I get into that, a quick question for you…

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Would this be useful for you? Even a “maybe, tell me more” is enough—just hit reply.

Okay, back to the bookstore.

💡 One Big Idea: What the Algorithm Can’t Do

Amazon is great at personalization. You bought these three books, so you’ll probably like this fourth one. And honestly, most of the time that works. I’ve found a ton of good books that way.

But personalization has a cost, and the cost is serendipity.

When everything you see is based on what you’ve already chosen, you stop discovering things you didn’t know you wanted. The algorithm draws a circle around your past behavior and says, “Here, stay in here. You’ll like it.” And you probably will. But you’ll never be surprised.

A bookstore doesn’t know anything about you. It just puts things on shelves. And because of that, you walk past medieval literature on your way to the latest sci-fi releases. You see a novel with a beautiful cover next to a biography you’ve never heard of. You pick up something because a staff member wrote a handwritten note about why they loved it.

That’s discovery. That’s stumbling into something you didn’t know you needed.

I was in the Painted Porch for maybe thirty minutes and I walked out with Rules for a Knight along with a book of Rumi’s poetry, Matthew McConaughey’s Poems and Prayers, and Ryan’s new book Wisdom Takes Work. That’s a Sufi poet, a knight’s last letter, a movie star, and a Stoic philosopher. No recommendation engine on earth would have put those four in my cart.

And here’s the part I think applies beyond bookstores: we’ve let algorithms curate so much of our lives—what we read, watch, listen to, even who we follow—that we’ve lost the habit of wandering. We scroll instead of browse. We optimize instead of explore.

I think there’s real value in putting yourself in rooms, stores, conversations, and situations where you don’t control what shows up next. Where something can catch your eye that was never meant for you specifically, and you’re better for it.

The Painted Porch also has a 17-foot book chimney made of 2,000 books, 4,000 screws, and six gallons of glue. It weighs 19,000 pounds. People try to pull the books out. The glue has something to say about that.

Seth Godin would call that remarkable—not just great, but worth remarking on. If you’re ever in the Austin area, it’s about 30 minutes east of town. Go see it. I bet you’ll leave with a book you never would have found online.

📹 Video to Watch: My Tour of the Painted Porch

Speaking of the Painted Porch, I filmed a walkthrough of the bookstore with some of my book recommendations while I was there. You can see the book chimney, the kids section (which is great), and hear me read some Rumi out loud in the middle of the store like a weirdo.

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If you want to feel like you’re browsing a great bookstore for a few minutes without leaving your couch, this one’s for you.

📰 Article to Read: The 4 Levels of Reading

So you wandered into a bookstore and found something unexpected. Great. But what do you actually do with it once you sit down?

​This article from The Culturist breaks down philosopher Mortimer Adler's framework for how to read well — not just more, but better.

Adler identified four levels: elementary (understanding the words), inspectional (skimming with purpose), analytical (slow, deliberate engagement with the argument), and syntopical (reading multiple books on the same subject and forming your own thinking).

The line that stuck with me:

Most of us—myself included—spend a lot of time at levels one and two. We read, we skim, we move on. But the real value is in levels three and four, where you're not just consuming a book but having a conversation with it. And that feels like the natural next step from today's Big Idea: discovery gets the book in your hands, but depth is what makes it matter.

Thanks for reading the WRAP, talk again soon!

Matt Ragland

p.s. if you really want to dive deep on the process of reading—and suggestions about what to read—check out my brother Mark's Substack, Myth & Meaning.