Create More, Consume Less

Last week, I was browsing YouTube and came across a video about a habit that will change your life. Being a sucker for seeing what other people deem life-changing, I watched the video.

If you search the internet for resources on habits, you'll notice there are countless articles and videos touting the virtues of habits followed by highly successful people. Millionaires, CEOs, actors and actresses, other people deemed important. People whose lifestyles, circumstances, and personalities likely don't match your own.

This video was not one of those. Its premise was simple: When you have the urge to consume, try to create instead.

Now, obviously they don't mean in all circumstances. There are plenty of things, such as consuming food and water, that you simply can't avoid. But what about the other kinds of consumption?

We live in a world where everything is heavily marketed and packaged for our easy digestion. Algorithmic feeds trying to figure out what content will get us to use their services just a bit longer. Everything ultra-processed into what author Cal Newport refers to as digital Doritos. Technically harmless ingredients, broken down to their base forms, and then put back together into something irresistible. Like that bag of Doritos you know you shouldn't eat in one sitting but do anyway.

I would rather not spend all my free time for the rest of my life consuming bags of digital Doritos. Given the choice between being a consumer and a creator, I'd rather be a creator, and I hope you would too.

So, if creation is key to reducing this kind of consumption, what does that look like? What would it mean for me to create instead of mindlessly consume? How do I curate a life where creating is the default? What defines creating? Those are great questions, and I don't have the answers. Not yet anyway. For now, the important thing is that I'm thinking about it, and I'm looking forward to seeing what I come up with.