Strategic Ignorance

April 28th, 2024 (19 days ago) • 2 minutes

Everyday I keep 1-2 hours of my time to read, write and curate things. And that's because my email is always bombarded by the numerous substack/newsletters/blogs that I subscribe to. There are just so many interesting people around and so many interesting things happening around us.

But this is not sustainable. What I had been practicing recently is to be strategically ignorant.

I don't subscribe to the loudest noise on the 'For You' page, but instead search for resource from high value sources like curated newsletters, books, and podcasts. It usually takes a bit of time to find the right resources, but it's worth it.

They are the ones that don't normally talk about the world hottest event or social media drama but instead talk about the timeless principles, the fundamentals, the things that are not going to change in the next 5 years.

It's okay to not know about the latest news. Just say "I don’t know" and take the opportunity to learn about that from your conversation.

You may also think it's selfish to discard latest drama, but will this be something you remember 1 year down the line? For me, I think it's much more beneficial to focus your limited attention on things that matter in the world full of notifications and distractions.

p.s occasional clean up of these subscriptions works very well too. Today, I unsubscribed a total of 8!