A lot of times, it is easy to get captured by the fact of staying “current.”
That’s what our modern attention economy is built upon.
How much can I cram in?
How much can I keep up?
What is everyone talking about?
The thing is that most of the time, that is a false choice.
In too many instances, what everyone is talking about is already too late.
Take for example everything that is going on in the White House right now.
It is pretty easy to get caught up in the day to day noise that is the Trump presidency.
Trump tweets, that’s news.
Trump mocks, that’s news.
Trump threatens, that’s news.
On and on. Every utterance and every remark is covered like it is the biggest, most important story of the day.
And, you get trapped.
Trapped by anxiety because you feel like something terrible is imminent.
Trapped by anger because he says something that is obviously a lie or BS.
Trapped by a feeling of being stuck on a treadmill because it is never ending.
That’s all just noise at a certain point.
Tim Ferriss wrote about taking a news diet or a news break a long while back and in the months since Donald Trump has been president, I’ve found myself doing something similar. Maybe not completely news free, but as close as possible.
Because what I have learned about staying on top of everything is that you can be well informed, but dumb.
The noise, the constant upkeep is great. But you can’t ever really know enough.
Its better to go deep.
Deep is the enemy of the immediate. It is the enemy of the constant noise.
Deep allows you to understand what is going on and to frame it in context. Context is king.
Because if you just chase your tail, you are going to be tired and fatigued.
If you are deep, you are going to know what is really problematic. You are going to know how to tackle a problem from multiple angles.
Being deep isn’t dumb at all.
This rant may feel like its about Donald Trump, and it is. But it isn’t. This rant is really about everything. You only have so much attention. Where you spend it is important to control.