Reading is important, and I have heard this advice many times, yet I never took it to say reading is the only thing that matters. The advice on reading 500 pages a day will not work for most people, indeed!

Here is a good succinct and practical advice from Naval:

"Reading science, math, and philosophy one hour per day will likely put you at the upper echelon of human success within seven years" (https://mobile.twitter.com/naval/status/871415571551629312?l...)

Just one hour! Doing that consistently can be hard but very beneficial.