Creation vs Consumption

I recently wrote about my latest personal experiment: going on an information diet. It’s only been a few weeks but one thing is clear: I’m creating far more than I’m consuming and it feels great.

It’s a rather simple idea to create more than you consume. In reality though it’s quite hard to do. It’s so easy to be a lump on the couch and watch an entire Netflix series like House of Cards. Effortless to read endless Tweets or Hacker News for an hour. Or for me it’s playing a favorite PC game and time traveling 3 hours into the future.

How do you feel after these activities? Are you ready to get some real work done or create something great? I’m not.

All of these consumption experiences are are designed to keep you engaged for as long as possible. And it’s no wonder we fall into these traps - It’s so easy and really comfortable.

But like everything else, the more you do something the more you want to continue doing it. Momentum and habit are two very powerful things. They can be used for creating just as easily as consuming and that’s exactly what I’ve been experiencing.

One final thought: creating is not for everyone. I’m just guessing but likely 99% of the worlds content, ideas and stuff is created by just 1% (or less) of the population.

I like the idea of being part of that 1%. In practice though, it will be much harder.