You Are What You Watch

I have many interests. From trail running to programming to financial independence to crypto to minimalism to… (many more).

My excitement for each of these interests varies over time. A few years ago I was all in on creating videos. Then it was wild camping. Then solo travel. Then indie hacking.

And I’ve come to realize this variation is rooted in what I consume. The blogs I read, the videos I watch, and the podcasts I listen to. This may sound like a basic observation. But it has a profound impact on our lives.

Consuming content will motivate me to move in that direction. E.g., watching adventure videos on YouTube makes me more likely to go on my own adventures. I don’t have statistics to back up this claim — but I have enough anecdotes to know it is true for me.

Put another way: become who you want to be by consuming the right content.

Find people you want to be like and consume their content. If you are anything like me you’ll find yourself excited about the topic in just a few hours. And if you keep going, results will start to show. Real results.

When I follow ultra-marathon races I run further. When I read about money I save more. When I watch programming videos I want to improve my craft.

What I consume determines where I am going. What I am thinking.

I’ve known this for years. But my recent trip down the indie hacking rabbit hole has reminded me of just how malleable my brain is. Whatever I feed it, it will take it in. And it will believe this tiny slice of the world is everything there is.

Pick your sources carefully. Curate your feed aggressively. Have a healthy media diet.

This doesn’t mean avoiding opinions conflicting with yours. But it does mean that you should be selective when it comes to feeding your mind. Seek out opposing views — but seek out the best quality. Like junk food there is junk content. Tastes good going down but it won’t have any lasting fulfilment. Instead, it will destroy your body and mind.

Social media is an obvious technology to bring up in this discussion. Can it be a useful tool for finding and following healthy sources? Or is it all doomed?

In my experience the risk is that you are not in control. An algorithm is. And this algorithm is not designed to feed you good, healthy content. Sadly, the opposite is often the case. So for now I’m keeping my distance.

Strict diets don’t work. They just build up tension until we snap. And then it is back to binge eating. Treat your media diet the same. It is okay to have cheat days. A meme here and there is fine. But doom-scrolling on a daily basis is not.

Consume healthy content and your view of the world will improve in no time. I know it has for me and I’m grateful for it.