How to Be Original

http://30sleeps.com/blog/2008/03/09/original-ideas/

by loquace • 18 years ago

10 3 18 years ago

> [Reading:] The more ideas you consume, the more you have to cook with.

"Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking." --Albert Einstein

jraines• 18 years ago

Sure, there's probably a point of diminishing returns. But at what age and volume of reading is it reached? Probably varies by person and profession. Mark Cuban seems to attribute a lot of his early success to voracious reading habits (trade pubs and technical manuals, though. Probably not what Einstein was referring to).

kingkongrevenge2• 18 years ago

> what [...] volume of reading is [diminishing returns] reached?

I think the volume is pretty damn low if you limit your intake to dense, high quality sources. The key word here is actionable. How often do you come across something that actually changes your plans or the way you're doing things? It's really very rare, in any field. It certainly doesn't require a daily investment, and probably not even a weekly investment.

A few time I've either been traveling or in crunch mode for a few weeks and been unable to waste time perusing the journals and feeds I usually do. When I finally had a chance to catch up, I found that I could rapidly skim the pile of stuff I would have wasted many hours reading and pick out all the salient information in under an hour.

It's also important to remember we live in the google age and finding information is easy. There's a tendency to suck down information thinking it might be handy later, but a JIT approach to reading and research is probably a lot more efficient. When what to do isn't obvious you can find what's been written fast. Remember that you probably have access through your library to lexis-nexis and other databases that allow you to search pretty much everything that gets published.

People like to procrastinate by reading blogs and "news items" and pretend they're actually doing useful research. In terms of real applicability they'd usually do just as well reading Seventeen Magazine. I'm as guilty as anyone, of course.

How to Be Original

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