everyone has that one person who shaped their life
i don’t. And it took me a while to understand why
so i started reflecting on what really was the biggest influence in my life. and the answer surprised me.
it wasn’t my family. not my friends. not my mentors.
it was the content I was consuming every day and night
That led me to a series of scary realizations:
who you become is a byproduct of the content you consume
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If the most influential thing in the world right now is content, then the most influential individuals in the world right now are content creators and institutions who control that content and how much attention it gets
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content creators have a HUGE responsibility to create meaningful content to the world and institutions have a HUGE responsibility to appropriately share that content with the world
are people really doing their part to responsibly create and curate? I don’t think so
First thing that comes to mind is all the instances where influential people preach something unhealthy or harmful for society like “i grinded for 20hrs a day and got 3 hours of sleep for 6 straight months, now my ARR is 1mil”
they assume people would think “omg this guys is so hardworking😲” when in reality it’s more like “maybe that’s the only way to make it😔”
so they don’t get influenced to work harder, but to stay awake for longer.
we’re living in a sleep deprived society and it’s far from getting better and i feel like these statements add fuel to the fire.
that’s just one of many examples
these platforms WANT you to share more regardless of what you’re putting out because that’s how they win
so I’ve recently been trying to be more intentional with what I share with the world and resist the urge to follow what these platforms want me to share (for likes and impressions)
because the world doesn’t need more content, it needs better content.
P.S. while Mark Manson didn’t single handedly transform my life, he had a huge influence on me over the past 5 years through his books and content. The Chalant Society wouldn’t exist without him