You Don't Need More Content – You Need Better Attention
Reading Henrik Karlsson° got me thinking about the importance of high quality ‘inputs’.
Every day, we wade through dozens of blog posts, when our reading list is full. We browse book reviews, despite having shelves of unread greatness. We scan Rotten Tomatoes, while our watchlist already contains more masterpieces than we could watch in years.
Consuming excellence isn’t a search problem. It’s a focus problem. I know which blogs have a low ‘hit’ rate. I know early on when a book isn’t good. I know I rarely gain anything from visiting a news site.
So don’t be sentimental. Be ruthless. And be aware of how short your day/week/year/life is. How many books will you read in a lifetime? Less than you think. Stop reading that average book your friend recommended and loved. Stop following that blog that isn’t interesting, just because they’re a sweet person. Abandon that dull TV show at episode three, not episode ten.
But cutting out the mediocre isn’t enough. You not only have to consume great content, you have to engage it. Wrestle with the ideas. Connect them to your experience. Talk and write about them. Only then can they be digested and become part of your thinking.
I catch myself failing at this constantly. Loosely reading ten mediocre but easy articles instead of engaging with the exceptional one. Despite knowing that one hour deeply processing a great article yields more value than ten hours of shallow reading.
So let’s not forget: excellence isn’t hidden. The challenge isn’t finding it – it’s choosing to engage with it.
Process more, consume less.
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