Most of What You’re Reading Is Making You Less Creative
We’re drowning in content but starving for real ideas. The best ones aren’t trending — they’re hidden where no one is looking.
Most people believe more content leads to better ideas. The truth is, more content just makes you more distracted.
I realized this while passing a broken streetlight.
Inside its hollowed frame, a nest of birds had made their home — not in something pristine, but in something forgotten.
They didn’t wait for the perfect conditions. They used what others ignored.
And it made me wonder: How often do we miss our best ideas because we’re too busy scrolling for them?
In 1971, economist Herbert Simon warned:
"A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."
We think we're feeding our creativity, but we’re actually starving it…
trading deep noticing for endless distraction. What could’ve been a fresh thought gets buried under a pile of reheated content.
Allen Arnold said it best:
When we give into formula, we try to set the wildness of the creative process in stone. What was once undiscovered country becomes a paved, predictable route. Risk is replaced with rules and repetition. When that happens, the artist goes on auto-pilot. Passion gives way to predictability. And the heart grows numb. The result is predictable sameness."
Predictable sameness is what happens when we stop looking up.
When we settle for secondhand thoughts instead of listening for the ones meant for us.
The good ideas? They’re not in your feed. They’re in the forgotten, the broken, the overlooked places above you — the places most people don’t bother to see.
The question isn’t: “Where can I find a good idea?”
It’s: “Am I willing to look up instead of scrolling down?”
Still chasing ideas in your feed? Or have you found something better? I’d love to hear — what’s one “broken streetlight” moment that sparked something real for you?
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I agree with doomscrolling not generating ideas, but what is your take on books?