Visual Nudge: How to Improve Your Quality of Consumption
The algorithms are designed to keep us as “users,” but the world needs us to be creators. When we move from being passive consumers to active curators, we learn better and build a body of work that matters.
Tanmay Vora
The quality of our consumption determines the quality of what we create. This is critical in a world with infinite noise.
Before the era of algorithm dominated feeds, my consumption was intentional. I relied on the trusty RSS feeds to subscribe to blogs from people I admired. It was almost like active curation of what you attend to. This agency of choosing whose ideas I consumed was the foundation of my learning. Building relationships with those people was a huge bonus. I still use this “pull” method to read, learn, and create.
In contrast, today’s consumption is ruled by bottomless feeds that are engineered to keep us hooked, rather than helped. And we subconsciously trade intentionality with mindless scrolling.
To break this cycle, here are three practices that help me:
1) Curating my feeds/mails:
I prefer RSS feeds, newsletter subscriptions, podcasts and books where I can exercise an active choice. Thumb rule is to engage with slow media – the one that takes time, effort, and nuance to create.
2) Seeking, not scrolling:
I think it was Austin Kleon who said that we should actively search (and now ask AI) rather than passively scroll. Search has agency, scroll is automatic.
3) The 2:1 Rule:
For every two hours of consumption, I commit to an hour of creation – taking notes, making notes and synthesizing ideas visually.
The Bottom Line:
The algorithms are designed to keep us as “users,” but the world needs us to be creators. When we move from being passive consumers to active curators, we learn better and build a body of work that matters.
Key Question
- How do you protect your “creative fuel” from the noise of the feed?
BONUS: