The Balance of Consuming vs Creating

One needs the other and vice versa

Drawing by the author

It feels good to consume things.

Food and sweets of course, but also media. Consuming Netflix. Consuming social media. Consuming our screens. Consuming video games and email newsletters. Even reading books and listening to podcasts and engaging in other things that feel nutritious for our brains are ultimately acts of consumption.

There is nothing inherently wrong with consumption. It provides everything from entertainment to enrichment and education. Consuming is even one of the essential requirements of being able to turn the equation around and to create. Most acts of creation are acts of remixing, and if you have nothing to remix, it’s hard to create. The best authors are also the best readers.

But if all you do is consume, you might feel like something is missing.

Creativity, as an act or a process, is part of being human. If the nature of being a cat involves sleeping, attacking things, and being aloof, then somewhere in the nature of being a human is the desire and ability to be creative.

The danger is forgetting that and thinking the only people who can create things are artists or professional “creators.” It’s far too easy to settle into an autopilot consumption mode. Entire industries…