Reading things that matter
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Have you checked your reading consumption lately? I have. I read fewer books on business and more books on life and spirituality. Granted I’m getting old, but I believe I’m not the only one that is changing.
I look at my Medium stream, and I feel sad. Half of the posts are about ’10 things you can do to be more productive’ or something similar. The other half are about how to make a better living (apparently Medium knows I read that stuff).
The same happens when I check my Twitter, Refind or Facebook. I rarely read tech news anymore. It’s become dull. Yet another bot. Another round. There is nothing wrong with them. It’s really me. I don’t care about it anymore. I care about people. I care about emotions. I care about people that make a difference. I don’t care about money, I don’t care about fame, I don’t care about glory.
Honestly, the posts I’ve most enjoyed recently were the ones from my pals Anca, Matjaz, and Adina. The reason why I liked them was twofold. For starters, they weren’t engaging in link batting. They didn’t want to find a catchy title, create impact or draw attention.
The second reason I liked them was that it showed me who they are. They opened themselves up and showed the reader what’s going under the hood.
I miss that on most other posts. I want to feel the human behind it. I want to feel what the other person feels. I don’t want to read about a new way to boost your sales. It’s not that it isn’t important, it’s just that I’m tired of only reading that.
I’m sure that if you’re a 21-year-old reading this, you won’t agree. And you shouldn’t. You need to learn the ropes. I’m just looking for something different. You can learn tactics anytime; you can’t learn to be a human being any time.
And speaking of this, seems I’m not the only one that feels like this. Medium just announced they’re refocusing their core goals to try to fix this. I think Matt nails it here when he says:
“Link-bait has given way to click-bait which has given way to slideshows which have given way to fake news. While tactics change and evolve over time, they’re all powered by the same thing: a business model predicated around the almighty pageview.”
Stop writing looking for the clicks, for the attention. I said it before; the creative process should be about you, not about what others think. I was reading this fantastic post about creativity and found a great quote that describes it to perfection:
“As long as you look for someone else to validate who you are by seeking their approval, you are setting yourself up for disaster. You have to be whole and complete in yourself. No one can give you that. You have to know who you are — what others say is irrelevant.”― Nic Sheff
Let’s be more human, let’s put a real voice behind what we write, what we teach, what we share. Watching my Facebook feed is painful, it’s full of pointless posts that don’t bring us further. I would argue that most of the posts I see just pushes us apart from each other.
So please, let’s try to make 2017 a more human year, something with a lot more depth. Read stuff that matters, write words that have an impact. Think deeply, tackle complexity, address human emotions, important problems.
Leave “The Next 15 Things You Need To Achieve To Become A Celebrity” for the link-baiters. Focus on what moves you.
