consume – From the desk of Adam Thomas

This week I wrote about three principles

Do – Go do. There is a wide chasm between people who just say they want to do it, those who go through the intellectual rigor, and those who actually execute. Anyone who does that has no choice but to become effective because operating comes with lessons, especially in failure. So, whatever you want to do, please, go and do.

Consume – What we digest is what we ultimately use to create our opinions. All ideas have a starting point. Nothing materializes out of thin air. What we consume physically, emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually creates our ideas. Staying vigilant on what we digest is just as important as keeping an eye on what we do or who we talk to, because if our start is bad, then we doom the idea from the start (GIGO). The other thing to remember is that this is a limited resource. The outer limits are real, so guard what you know, and defend against taking on too much to soon,

Talk – The difference between understanding and ‘thinking you understand’ is huge. That gap remains large if you don’t talk about what you know to other people. Through talking, you get a chance to build understanding and catch up on ideas you thought you knew. Just watch out for your ego (it is going to want to stay safe).

I think these three things are the bedrock of learning and mastering any skill. This principle is open enough to try all disciplines. By doing, talking, and consuming things I get completely engaged. The skill becomes my world, meaning I can’t escape it since it consumes everything.

It also stands as a great measure of where my priorities are. If I look at my calendar and I don’t see those three principles during the week, then I know I get scattered. It is a steady heuristic for my focus, and if I look randomly, I can see just where it lies. Understanding my focus makes me more effective.

I read too much

When I came up with the idea to read 100 books in a year in late 2014, I only looked at the number as the goal. I thought 100 is an impressive number, and I figured that the more I did in terms of reading, the better I was. I finished and soon realized that although I had consumed a lot that year, I left 2015 on the “outer limits. ”

But first, a bigger lesson on what we consume.

The GIGO Principle

Carlin is one of my favorite thinkers.

We are what we consume. When I was younger, I heard the concept of garbage in garbage out (GIGO). For those unfamiliar, it’s a programming term. It means that if you feed a computer garbage data, you get a garbage answer. It isn’t the computers fault that the answer isn’t right, it’s the programmer for starting it off on the wrong foot.

As I got older, I started to see my mind as a computer. I noticed the more I put bad stuff into it (shallow experiences and opinions) the more my own opinions and experiences became shallow.

The Outer Limits

Realizing I read too much.

I learned this lesson the hard way, taking my mind, one that was once sharp, and dulling it over drinks and shallow arguments about who was the better running back that week. As I got older, I realized that I was in the middle of wasting my potential, and my reading project was born in 2013.

I started slow, spending 2013 investing in my book collection. In 2014, I added more (also started writing here much more – that is no coincidence) books to the collection, and by 2015, I started with the ambitious goal of 100 books. By the end, I ended up making that video, realizing that there is no such thing as unlimited runway. No matter how much you want to do, you have to stop at some point and collect yourself.

We are creatures of our enviroment

What we digest is what we ultimately use to create our opinions. All ideas have a starting point. Nothing materializes out of thin air. What we consume physically, emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually creates our ideas. Staying vigilant on what we digest is just as important as keeping an eye on what we do or who we talk to, because if our start is bad, then we doom the idea from the start (GIGO). The other thing to remember is that this is a limited resource. The outer limits are real, so guard what you know, and defend against taking on too much to soon,