Ask HN: How did you go from consuming to producing | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How did you go from consuming to producing

7 pointsquietthrow4 comments

I would like to limit my 'consumption' (of information) and focus on 'creating' or 'producting' something to bring more engagement to my day to day life.

I came to this conclusion as I have recently realized (and this may be obvious to others already) that while there is a absurd amount of benefit of having worlds information at your finger tips, one negative side effect is that consumption of information is so high we don't even realize it..kinda like fish not noticing water. Specially consumption without focus. In other words I'd consuming all kinds of information that may be very interesting but may never be materially useful to me or my goals. But having focus by virtue of producing I can leverage having access to the worlds information by being able to get all the information I need about something I am working on.

Long winded way of saying that I want to move from be a consumer of things to producer of something (Even if its super small at the beginning)

1) What kinds of things have you tried when you began your shift? 2) What is some advice you would give to a beginner who intends t make this transition to increase their odds of 'transitioning/sticking'

You might be more successful in finding a way to achieve your goals embedding this tendency of yours in the path.

With regards to informations. There is not one bit of informations out there which doesn't move the stock/bond/money markets.

Perhaps you are just a news&market type guy, who finds relevant bits of information and then retroactively tries to model how the markets will behave, you do this by analyzing how widespread is the knowledge of this particular bit of information and how are people reacting to it as they (like you) become knowledgeable.

There is no shame in betting on other people's reactions, matter of fact it's the best way to make money on a risk adjusted basis.

Creating Amazon or Google as a way to profit off the rise of the internet is a terrible bet on a risk-adjusted basis, what you'd want to do is create a portfolio of internet companies in 1995, then sell when things became frothy in 1997, resist the temptation to short the bubble for 3 years and then buy again once the bubble popped in 2001.

Given the similarities of information consumption and habits/addiction, have you tried going cold turkey for a day, two, a week? Realistically a week should be nothing in the grand scheme of things.

During that period you could replace the time you would use to watch videos, play games, etc with anything that doesn't involve consuming information.

The goal would be to become bored once again and that way regain control over one's attention in order to be able to apply or withhold it intentionally, kind of like how it used to be when there was no internet and no digital devices surrounding you 24/7.

Then, when control over attention is established, you could work from there, no longer being so torn towards that passive entertainment (in disguise).

Good luck :)

Thanks for the concern and the luck.

I would say I don’t have a addiction. Sorry if it came across that way. By most common standards I am already a outlier I feel. I don’t do social media, news or mindlessly browsing in general. I don’t watch tv either. I mostly read some books and may be an economist article here and there during a week. Online consumption might be 2-3 hours per week at the most in extreme cases. Mostly is 5-10 mins a day.

I guess for me I feel I dont produce anything (at work ) or in personal life. Personal life is mostly playing a what seems like a perpetual catch-up on “life chores”.

In that sense may be I am in a rut and need to do something “productive” (for myself). Like literally and metaphorically. :)

That clarifies it and I've been feeling the same way for quite some time. Intrinsic goal-directed motivation seems hard to come by and being productive in complete vacuum unrealistic for most.

Perhaps it would be a good start to seek companionship with those already involved in something that feels worthwhile to you.

Now there's several cool online communities (thinking of FOSS projects or speedrunning) but those might be too shallow depending on the depth of the engagement you can muster.

There's also the possibility of IRL involvement there with meetups or such. And this could be a window to something more, who knows?

Smaller interest groups also form in the context of universities, although whether you become aware of them or get access depends on specifics.

There might also be non-tech communities near you, perhaps gardening, miniature trains (big in Germany) or model engineering to which the above also applies. I find that being in your head all the time like it is with science/technology can become burdensome so how about a more "physical" pursuit for a change?

Sorry if this self-evident. It's difficult to assess from afar and I don't have first-hand experience which I realise you were asking for, but I guessed this is better than no answer.

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