TLDR:
- Respect yourself and value your time. Be intentional with the information you consume rather than allowing arbitrary algorithms to have full reign.
Akin to “watch what you eat,” watch what information your brain is eating
To be too open with the information you expose yourself to is no better than having zero respect for yourself, as though you have low self-worth.
Those success stories you constantly obsess over and fantasize about being in their shoes, the reality is that it either a pyramid scheme waiting to be exposed, or came after several failures over the years, experiencing 20 lows for every 1 high, with an investment of blood, sweat, tears, and huge mood swings they’re too embarrassed to share, for how many people do you think you’ll come across that are humble and open about accepting failure?
Social media has created such an environment that the feedback loop must be 100% positive by creating an illusion of what their life is like, so like helicopter parents, there’s literally no room for failure, as the masses won’t find that appealing at all.
Given that time could be as scarce as it is abundant for your next-door neighbor, why not be deliberate with what information you choose to consume, rather than surrendering to arbitrary algorithms that just want to shove certain content up your face?
As an entrepreneur (or even just a simple human being), if you want to have consistent, high-quality output in what it is you’re trying to build, then one of the best disciplines to build is the pursuit of wisdom: choosing and having full authority over what it is you want to consume.
By refusing your brain to process nonsense information into your long-term memory, you’ll be one step closer to being intentional with the life you live away from what it is you’re trying to build, facilitating a good output in the process as David Perell talks about.
And that is the power of a controlled media diet.