Why I Consume So Much Darn Content

In a previous post I noted some of my favorite newsletters, but those were not the only ways I continue to learn. Through my years in tech I’ve realized staying current and continuing to learn pay out over time and improve my leadership capabilities.

Podcasts, Reddit, newsletters, blogs, books, the available content is endless in our age of information. There are many titans of industry that claim reading (or consuming) is key to getting ahead in one’s line of business. Consuming content keeps your brain fresh, iterating on ideas and validating or invalidating long-held beliefs.

If you’re struggling to get into the rhythm of continuous learning, hopefully this can shed some light on the benefits.

Note: for our purposes, “content” is considered any form of ingestible artifact created for individuals to read, watch, or hear: blogs, podcasts, newsletters, LinkedIn posts, news articles, presentations, speakers, courses, Reddit, the list goes on and on.

New Ideas

Plain and simple, if you silo yourself and don’t look across the industry landscape, the only new ideas will come from your own brain. Unfortunately your ability to come up with new ideas are likely to cap out at a certain point, regardless of how brilliant you are. That big ol’ brain only contains so many original concepts.