My Curated Digital Bubble

Pay attention to the content you consume

(Originally posted Feb 8, 2021)

Random Observation/Comment #698: This is a Digital Civil War. We’re divided into our bubbles.

Understanding Attention

You’ve got a limited amount of time and an even more limited amount of attention in your day. The more decisions you make, the more tired you get. I’ve considered disconnecting from my phone – there’s a list of 30 for that (30 Value of Disconnecting). And ways to do it – 30 Ways to Disconnect (plus in Podcast form). But what do I actually do when I indulge? How is my bubble intentionally personalized? What apps do I use? What do I do on my phone?

Understanding the Medium

For each of these inputs, I have a different level of attention. For example,

• Audio is almost always playing during commutes, cooking, and jigsaw puzzling.

• Videos are usually played when I’m working out on the rower or Peloton.

• Reading and responding is done mostly during work hours.

• Scrolling is used as leisure and zoning out (hopefully under 2 hours a day).

Each of the subjects, I think, have been optimized for those mediums in order to bring me the most joy and absorption. Do you pay this much attention to your interfaces? Should you?

Audio

• Stitcher – Podcasts – So this seems like a lot, but I do listen to a lot of podcasts and this is already a very pared down list

  • News – Consider This, The Daily

  • Economics – The Indicator, Planet Money

  • Science – Short Wave, Science Rules, Star Talk, Science VS

  • Tech / business – Pivot, ProfG show, All in Podcast

  • Stories – Levar Burton Reads

  • Fun – Make My Day

  • Improv – Hey Riddle Riddle, Hello From the Magic Tavern

  • Gameshows – Go Fact Yourself, Ask Me Another, Wait Wait

  • Dungeons and dragons – Dungeons and Daddies, Adventure Zone, Sitcom D&D

• Audible – Audiobooks – Enjoyable science fiction books mostly when doing jigsaw puzzles

Video

• YouTube – Comedy news (Colbert and Trevor Noah), cooking videos, random entertainment, table tennis, British TV shows (“Lie to Me” is short and funny, “Taskmaster” is awesome)

• TED (app) – Inspirational videos – At least one a day

Reading

• Email newsletters – Substack subscriptions – crypto (the Defiant, Bankless, EthHub, Fintech Blueprint), enterprise blockchain, and work related - added a load of AI-based substack newsletters

• Medium – Following startups newsletters and random thoughts

• NYTimes – Frontpage and latest with Coronavirus/Vaccines, Weekend stories are great

• Google News – Colorado and NY local news with big headlines

• LinkedIn – This is a great resources for reading curated work-related news

• Reddit Frontpage – World news / WSB (although this is now flooded with non-sense)

• Slack – Certain work channels and certain networks have great recommended links

• 12 minutes – App for reading book summaries

Scrolling / Images

• Instagram – Posts and stories – I like feed posts more than stories. I think reels are sometimes entertaining – This is how I stay updated with friends besides poking them randomly by text.

• Twitter/X – Mostly crypto personality recommendations

• Facebook – Rarely, maybe to post now and again

Responding

• Slack / Discord – Sharing and responding for work

• Messaging platforms – Conversations with a few key groups of friends from old companies or cliques

• Email – This is getting more and more rare, which is great because they’re more urgent/important

Querying

• Google –> Wikipedia – I’ve gone down some crazy wiki holes

• Google Maps – All things related to real world searches

I highly recommend writing out how you spend your attention and energy. Consuming content is great for inspiration and knowledge, but don’t forget to build and contribute back.

~See Lemons in my Bubble