II.
We’re Stuck in Consumption Loops.
A Digital Garden is a place that makes it possible to make connections between all of the things that you are consuming. You can write about a certain topic and connect it to all of the other things that have to do with that topic or something adjacent to it.
You can see the ways that all of your interests are interconnected, as if you’re looking at the ways that a forest of trees are connected below ground. You can actually see the way that your thought processes, your interests, your takeaways are starting to all be interwoven.
The person who got me into this idea of taking notes is Odysseas, on YouTube. He has a video called “Mindful Consumption” where he makes a point that we’re really in a daze when we’re online.
Online resources today are more accessible than ever; they can literally change your life. But we’re definitely intaking more information than we ever should be. If a pilgrim saw the amount of information that we intake on a single day, they would just burst. And frankly, I think we don’t know what to do with all of it most of the time either.
Something I have observed in myself recently is that I can’t remember names. Not just people’s names, but also the names of TV shows and movies—any names ever.
What that can mean is that I’m missing a lot of smaller points. When you’re scrolling mindlessly, you might see a video that you agree with, but you never fully take the time to think to yourself, why? You might see an article that you disagree with and it rubs up against your understanding of its argument, and you may tease those feelings apart and figure out what you really think about its subject.
This is how you get stuck in a consumption loop and never really create anything—you’re not inviting your own thought processes into the conversation. Most of the time, inviting your own thought processes into the conversation is how art is made.
In Ayan Artan’s Substack article titled in defense of pretension, she makes some incredible points about the rise of anti-intellectualism, the falling literacy rates, and all of the things that are implicated when we devalue art and reading in our society. We’ve opened a door to a level of callousness and inhumanity that we should not get comfortable with.
Like I said, the phrase “create more than you consume” has its place and validity, but there’s also something to be said for, “I’m not going to speak more than I listen.” Any art that has ever been made has been influenced by all of the art that the artist consumed before it.
But if we know that, as artists, not consuming other art is not an option, then let’s stop putting so much energy into shaming ourselves for consumption.
Instead, say, okay, if I am going to consume this material, let’s make sure that I am there as I am consuming it, and I am active as I am consuming it. It’s the difference between passively watching a TV show and scrolling on your phone versus watching the show, taking notes, pausing when you have an interesting thought, pausing when you think:
“Oh, that reminded me of this.”
“Oh, I didn’t like that part.”
“Why didn’t I like that part? What would I have done differently?”
It’s leaning in.
In college, I had a professor who was a very old woman, and she was very iconic. Everybody just worshiped the ground that she walked on because she knew something that we didn’t. We knew that as soon as we walked into the room.
On the first day of class, she didn’t even say anything as we came in. She was just sitting there. And then, with her body, she started showing us how leaned in we should be—how deeply we should be listening. Any time that we weren’t up working on something with her, she was very adamant that we were sitting up straight and leaned in, fully listening the whole time.
That’s the difference between mindless consumption and consumption that actually makes creation inevitable.
A Digital Garden is a place that makes it possible to make connections between all of the things that you are consuming. You can write about a certain topic and connect it to all of the other things that have to do with that topic or something adjacent to it.
You can see the ways that all of your interests are interconnected, as if you’re looking at the ways that a forest of trees are connected below ground. You can actually see the way that your thought processes, your interests, your takeaways are starting to all be interwoven.
The person who got me into this idea of taking notes is Odysseas, on YouTube. He has a video called “Mindful Consumption” where he makes a point that we’re really in a daze when we’re online.
Online resources today are more accessible than ever; they can literally change your life. But we’re definitely intaking more information than we ever should be. If a pilgrim saw the amount of information that we intake on a single day, they would just burst. And frankly, I think we don’t know what to do with all of it most of the time either.
Something I have observed in myself recently is that I can’t remember names. Not just people’s names, but also the names of TV shows and movies—any names ever.
What that can mean is that I’m missing a lot of smaller points. When you’re scrolling mindlessly, you might see a video that you agree with, but you never fully take the time to think to yourself, why? You might see an article that you disagree with and it rubs up against your understanding of its argument, and you may tease those feelings apart and figure out what you really think about its subject.
This is how you get stuck in a consumption loop and never really create anything—you’re not inviting your own thought processes into the conversation. Most of the time, inviting your own thought processes into the conversation is how art is made.
In Ayan Artan’s Substack article titled in defense of pretension, she makes some incredible points about the rise of anti-intellectualism, the falling literacy rates, and all of the things that are implicated when we devalue art and reading in our society. We’ve opened a door to a level of callousness and inhumanity that we should not get comfortable with.
Like I said, the phrase “create more than you consume” has its place and validity, but there’s also something to be said for, “I’m not going to speak more than I listen.” Any art that has ever been made has been influenced by all of the art that the artist consumed before it.
But if we know that, as artists, not consuming other art is not an option, then let’s stop putting so much energy into shaming ourselves for consumption.
Instead, say, okay, if I am going to consume this material, let’s make sure that I am there as I am consuming it, and I am active as I am consuming it. It’s the difference between passively watching a TV show and scrolling on your phone versus watching the show, taking notes, pausing when you have an interesting thought, pausing when you think:
“Oh, that reminded me of this.”
“Oh, I didn’t like that part.”
“Why didn’t I like that part? What would I have done differently?”
It’s leaning in.
In college, I had a professor who was a very old woman, and she was very iconic. Everybody just worshiped the ground that she walked on because she knew something that we didn’t. We knew that as soon as we walked into the room.
On the first day of class, she didn’t even say anything as we came in. She was just sitting there. And then, with her body, she started showing us how leaned in we should be—how deeply we should be listening. Any time that we weren’t up working on something with her, she was very adamant that we were sitting up straight and leaned in, fully listening the whole time.
That’s the difference between mindless consumption and consumption that actually makes creation inevitable.
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