Originally Lai figured he had no hope of getting much formal education, and often compared himself to the self-educated scholar Wang Yun-wu. So when he was in school he read widely, even covering "existentialism," which was in vogue for a time. Though Lai read a lot of famous books as a youthful intellectual, he had a particular reaction to existentialism.
原本賴英照也自以為今生與學歷無緣，常自詡要像王雲五，當個沒有學位的學者，所以唸農校時他也廣泛地涉獵各種書籍，包括當時流行的「存在主義」，都煞有介事地潛心研讀。