Something to Keep
“The more you create, the more powerful you become. The more you consume, the more powerful others become.”
James Clear
A Second Look
The debate between creating and consuming content comes up often in the productivity space. I find myself thinking about this: what’s the right balance between creating and consuming? Is consuming other people’s content that bad? In fact, I spent so much time thinking about enjoyment vs distration that I wrote a long-form essay at some point. In the productivity space, consuming someone else’s content is considered downright evil, but I don’t think that’s the case. How else would someone like Austin Kleon be able to talk about music, books, and movies? This is but one example. I think all creators are consumers. Kurt Cobain used to go to see bands play all the time, even when Nirvana was becoming extremely popular. Tom Cruise said he watches a movie every day.
The truth is, consuming and creating aren’t opposites. They are part of the same loop. Consuming informs your creation process. This explains why all creators are obsessive consumers. Now here’s something that you don’t hear about in the productivity space: consuming is a problem when it doesn’t lead to anything. When you don’t write an article, or take down notes, or don’t write a song, then you’re just wasting your time. Consumption is at its best when it feeds creation. Note that I said that consumption should feed creation, not substitute it.
So instead of consuming everything, do it with intent. Find the content that aligns with your goals and personal taste. When you’re done consuming that content, create with urgency, even if what you produce at first is relatively small. Like a tweet, a question, or a newsletter article. Who knows? Someone might like it.
Something I Liked
Something I love watching is a YouTube channel called Archipel, which focuses on Japanese creators. My favorite videos are those that focus on manga artists. There are several videos on the topic on YouTube, but I find most of those videos loud and obnoxious. There’s something almost quiet and meditative about the mini-documentaries from Archipel.