I have a few random (and somewhat disjointed) thoughts in response to this excellent reflection: 1. Constraints are an essential contributor to quality, non,matter the domain. 2. Putting my coaching hat on, and to stretch your running analogy, when my athletes are feeling good they want to keep going even when the workout assignment calls for, say, 10 x 400m. But, in order to keep the quality of the session high, and not burn them out/risk injury, it’s important that we not get greedy and do more just because we think more is better. 3. I haven’t had a Twitter account in over five years, but one of my favorite aspects of the platform was when you were limited to 140 characters. Amongst other things, it went to shit when they essentially took limits off the length of a post.
Thanks for this post, and this idea of reading and the race with no finish line. In so many ways, abundance is a great problem to have, but that doesn't mean it isn't still a problem. I think how we deal with abundance is a defining question of our time (and in far more than just reading material). Finite time and attention, effectively infinite options... knowing when to accept the wisdom of an editor/curator, to outsource some of the decision-making to someone whose judgment and taste you trust, is an important survival mechanism. It's one reason I still have physical subscriptions to a few publications — Like the Wind, Orion, Eat Clean Run Dirty...
I have a few random (and somewhat disjointed) thoughts in response to this excellent reflection: 1. Constraints are an essential contributor to quality, non,matter the domain. 2. Putting my coaching hat on, and to stretch your running analogy, when my athletes are feeling good they want to keep going even when the workout assignment calls for, say, 10 x 400m. But, in order to keep the quality of the session high, and not burn them out/risk injury, it’s important that we not get greedy and do more just because we think more is better. 3. I haven’t had a Twitter account in over five years, but one of my favorite aspects of the platform was when you were limited to 140 characters. Amongst other things, it went to shit when they essentially took limits off the length of a post.
Thanks for this post, and this idea of reading and the race with no finish line. In so many ways, abundance is a great problem to have, but that doesn't mean it isn't still a problem. I think how we deal with abundance is a defining question of our time (and in far more than just reading material). Finite time and attention, effectively infinite options... knowing when to accept the wisdom of an editor/curator, to outsource some of the decision-making to someone whose judgment and taste you trust, is an important survival mechanism. It's one reason I still have physical subscriptions to a few publications — Like the Wind, Orion, Eat Clean Run Dirty...