improving your information diet
justifying your consumption
Many people consume content, but not many create it, and there’s no surprise to why that is. It’s easier to eat a meal than it is to prepare one. Consumption is near instant gratification while production requires patience. If you need convincing, just look at the ratio of virtually any YouTube video.1
one video, millions of views
a handful of commenters, countless more lurkers
The cynics out there will say that most people are lazy, and that could be true, but I find that overly diminishing and unproductive. More charitably, I feel people aren’t aware of the merits of creation, one of which is that it makes consumption so much better.
For instance, I used to read for a singular purpose. If I read fiction, I did it for the escapism, if it was non-fiction, I read to improve some aspect of myself. But now as a writer, who’s consistently been publishing for 9-months (yay), I read for technique, word-choice, and to be impressed.
When I read on my Kindle, I highlight in two colors: yellow for highlights relevant to the content of the book (e.g. when a character foreshadows something), and blue for stuff I’d like to emulate in my own work - it could be a new word, an interesting structure to a sentence, or a masterful deployment of a metaphor. Creating hasn’t taken away from consuming, it has only added to it. Reading has become an active past time because I can appreciate good form and notice it when I see it.
(See below: Tarantino gushing over Director Brian De Palma)2
I believe making stuff is a lot like exercising. When you regularly workout you look better and feel better. The food you’re consuming is being put to use, you’re not just accumulating layers of fat around your core, you’re burning it to grow stronger and be more capable. In the same way, producing “puts to use” the content you’ve been consuming. Consumption becomes more meaningful because it will fuel the references and inspirations in your work. You’re not mindlessly scrolling on TikTok, you’re actively seeking fodder for voracious creativity.
Just like working out, you’ll start to notice that consuming garbage results in garbage performance. It’s like going to the gym after a heavy night of drinking. You’ll immediately notice that you’re drained of energy and can’t manage to bench as much as last week. Consuming junk is akin to slowly poisoning yourself. When you have the intention of performing (producing) you’ll be more critical of what you consume. You’ll stop drinking booze and opt for the club soda with lime. You’ll close your gluttony of YouTube tabs and pick up Steinbeck.
I can personally attest to this. As your inbox friend who is recovering from a YouTube addiction, let me tell you, making stuff has changed me to seek out richer, nutrient-dense content. I no longer binge watch CNBC, JRE, or whatever else the algorithm serves me. I’m reading more newsletters, books, and watch the occasional lecture. My information diet has improved because I care to make my writing better—the symbiotic relationship between producing and consuming has become evident. So try to create something, anything. Your information diet will improve. Your consumption will be more meaningful. Your content will become source material.
Yours,
-Rahul
P.S. a reminder you can reply directly to oldmanrahul@substack.com, or you can tweet me @oldmanrahul about this edition. Thanks for reading and supporting my writing :)
This is a known phenomena. See the 1% rule or Zipf’s law