1. 18:18 16th Jan 2012

    Notes: 1

    Tags: productivitypersonalinspiration

    From “The Dangerous Effects of Reading” by David Tate:  In our personal lives we tend to optimize for one of two things: input or output. Reading or writing. Consuming or creating. The environment we live in – the prevailing culture – by default is optimized for consumption.   Even our personal computers are turning into devices that are optimized for consumption! This is terrible and dangerous. … I think we should all agree that getting faster at judging things is bad, but I think the real danger in having a super-efficient-filter is that your default mode is exclusion – you reject long enough and you lose the ability to create things that pass your own filter.  You stagnate at work for fear of everything you do being judged like every news article or viral video that you view. So how do you break the power of consumption? By creating your own things.  All the things you consume - somewhere somebody is making all this stuff, right? Adding anything (not just your opinion) to the world is creating – writing, drawing, dancing (not line-dancing which is not art but instead some sort of long-term psychological annoyance stress test). Normally when people think of ‘creating’ or ‘innovation’ they think of a naked hippie standing in the woods painting a tree, an alcoholic writer slaving away at a sad tale of a small town, or some tech geek coming up with some new way to annoy everyone by sharing every detail of their pointless life. Read more … ______________________ THIS. Yes, yes, yes. This is why I’m trying to make a conscious effort to create instead of consuming all the time, especially after reading The Shallows. Tates shares some great insight on creation and even some ideas. Check it out. 

    From “The Dangerous Effects of Reading” by David Tate: 

    In our personal lives we tend to optimize for one of two things: input or output. Reading or writing. Consuming or creating. The environment we live in – the prevailing culture – by default is optimized for consumption.   Even our personal computers are turning into devices that are optimized for consumption! This is terrible and dangerous.

    …

    I think we should all agree that getting faster at judging things is bad, but I think the real danger in having a super-efficient-filter is that your default mode is exclusion – you reject long enough and you lose the ability to create things that pass your own filter.  You stagnate at work for fear of everything you do being judged like every news article or viral video that you view.

    So how do you break the power of consumption? By creating your own things.  All the things you consume - somewhere somebody is making all this stuff, right?

    Adding anything (not just your opinion) to the world is creating – writing, drawing, dancing (not line-dancing which is not art but instead some sort of long-term psychological annoyance stress test). Normally when people think of ‘creating’ or ‘innovation’ they think of a naked hippie standing in the woods painting a tree, an alcoholic writer slaving away at a sad tale of a small town, or some tech geek coming up with some new way to annoy everyone by sharing every detail of their pointless life.

    ______________________
    THIS. Yes, yes, yes. This is why I’m trying to make a conscious effort to create instead of consuming all the time, especially after reading The Shallows. Tates shares some great insight on creation and even some ideas. Check it out. 
     
    1. havanaland posted this