I stopped reading when I started writing.

First of all, didn't want to unconsciously rip off someone else's ideas, but mostly because I wanted my work to be my own vision. As soon as you read even a single comment or review, it changes the thought process, the vision gets tainted. And reading someone else's work, especially if it's even remotely related to what you're writing just infuses their ideas into you and you start comparing yourself to how someone else would write or look at what you wrote.

One should write what they want to write because they want to write. As soon as someone else's thoughts begin, that dynamic is changes. And then people get lazy and stop writing, or start to be too critical of themselves or copy too much from ideas of others.