How to unclog your mental river
Finding Balance: Creation vs. Consumption in the Information Age
You may have noticed I've been creating more lately… pottery, guitar, and blog posts flowing more frequently.
This burst of creativity came from a realization: I'd been consuming far more than I was creating, and my mind was paying the price.
The Creative Process
When I create, I'm metabolizing creative ideas, energy, and life force into something tangible.
My favorite ways to create all involve my hands: shaping clay into pottery, coaxing music from guitar strings, and translating thoughts into written words.
There's something deeply satisfying about this physical connection to creation.
The Consumption Trap
My consumption habits, on the other hand, center around my eyes and mouth.
I've been drawn to Asian snacks (those soy sauce crackers and honey butter chips are incredible, and don't get me started on my endless love for boba 😍) and YouTube videos.
There's nothing inherently wrong with either… YouTube is a treasure trove of knowledge and inspiration, and snackos provide exciting flavors and textures and joy!.
I love watching creators force steel into unique Damascus patterns, following tech news channels, enjoying Corridor Crew's brain-tickling content, and learning interesting things from modern Bill Nye types, like Sabine Hossenfelder (a physics researcher.)
But here's what I've discovered: just as too many snacks without exercise clogs up my body, consuming more than I create clogs up my mind.
I take in ideas and experiences faster than I can process them, leaving my brain feeling saturated and unwilling to absorb more.
Like how filling myself up with mochi, pocky, and boba kills my motivation to exercise, when I fill myself up with YouTube videos, I don’t want to create anything.
The Information Age Paradox
We've moved far beyond the early "information age."
I remember the 90s… waiting 10 minutes to find an MP3, another 10 to download it, then transferring it to my iPod, all while keeping the phone line free.
Research meant manually sifting through books and forums instead of asking ChatGPT for instant answers (with citations hopefully to check the facts 🤨)
These amazing tools have given us pocket-sized portals to humanity's entire knowledge base.
But finding information isn't our challenge anymore.
For most topics, I can easily find 25 articles supporting one view and 25 contradicting it completely.
The real challenge lies in processing, curating, and drawing useful conclusions with enough certainty to be helpful. This requires internal mastery.
The Solution: Creative Balance
I've found that creating at least as much as I consume helps me maintain my center. It's like taking a good run after indulging in pocky, chocolate, and mochi… the physical activity clears the sugar high and makes me crave a healthy meal once I've showered and changed.
When my creation outpaces my consumption, ideas flow through me more freely, creating space for new input without the mental congestion.
This balance allows me to enjoy the occasional YouTube binge without losing my grounding. The river flows at a sustainable pace instead of flooding faster than it can drain.
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Have you noticed this pattern in your own life? How do you find your center, process information more smoothly, and stay grounded in our age of infinite information?
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Photo Credit: Rex Loyer