Input and Output

Things I’ve learned from blogging 500 days in a row . . .

I’ve noticed two correlations between “reading” and writing over the last two years.

There’s a negative correlation between scrolling and writing. The mindless consuming of “content” online—whether it be pictures on National Geographic, my social media feed, or YouTube shorts about “How to Get Chiseled Abs Without Eating Veggies”—demotivates me to do the hard work of finding the right words to articulate my perspective. If writing is a creative appetite for words , those sources of food are not nourishment.

There’s a positive correlation between reading and writing. When I feed my curiosity with literature—whether it be Robert Frost’s poetry, a long article in The New Yorker, or a full-length book—I’m compelled to write. My eagerness to do the work is significantly higher. Immediately. Substantive material is like healthy fuel, regardless if I agree with it or not.

The correlation between what I am consuming and my creative impulse—the input and output equation—is not immediately obvious and rarely linear. In other words, I don’t read about something and write about that same thing. It’s deeper. More cellular. More in the depths of my psyche.

If I’m lacking motivation, self-confidence, deep curiosity, or drive, I need to take a hard look at the “calories” I’ve been consuming. I usually find the cause right away.

We need more—not fewer!—people like us that are unwilling to continue in ways like this. Which means we need folks willing to create and build and write and speak. But are they willing to critically look at their consumption habits?