One of my primary motivations for publicly blogging – now 920 days in a row – is to improve by ability to synthesize. I write to learn, both about myself and the world around me.
What I write about is effectively what I think about on a daily basis. The topics are heavily influenced by the material that I consume. I have lately become far more cognizant of this impact…and I have taken special care in thinking more about what I read…what I watch…what I listen to…because this content directly affects what I think about…what I dream about…and really how I spend my time.
In diving deeper on this, I realized that a great deal of my day is spent in “reckless discovery mode.” I think it takes some nuance to realize this, but I believe that most people – myself included – spend probably 10-100x too much time aimlessly finding things.
Never before in history has this been the case (to this magnitude).
Newsfeeds, newsletters, emails, texts, etc. they are all throwing information at me. I see thousands of topics a day. Phones are casinos.
More and more, I have questioned the value of this careless discovery. Passive discovery is valuable, in bites, but I think I have over-indexed on its value. I have spent way too much time in this mode, just barely scratching the surface of dozens of semi-relevant topics.
Rather, I want to prioritize purposeful consumption because I see that as the most direct means to compounding value of time. If I invest in learning about certain material – rather than swipe aimlessly – I will more directly build on prior knowledge. I will also satiate my budding interest in a variety of complicated historical fields that I want to learn more about.
Today – starting September 1st, 2018 – I want to try out an experiment.
I am building a personal curriculum…Effectively making a short list of big topics I want to explore over a month period. I’ll be taking notes on each subject and sharing my learnings.
I am really excited to try this out…perhaps the “challenge” will only last a month. But perhaps it will stick and I will continue for years to come.
Follow along here.
Also published on Medium.