Creation vs Consumption

In a given day or even a week, how much time does one spend consuming vs creating? This is a question that has intrigued me for some time now. Before we answer that question, of course, we need to define what creation and consumption are. There are no universally accepted definitions, so I will state mine. 

Creation involves making something new or doing something that creates value, ideally for others, but at least for oneself. Writing new code or a new blog post, cooking a dish, milking a cow, sketching that wonderful cartoon, taking that wonderful picture of a bird all make it to this list. I would also like to add things like singing a song, going for a run or working out, meditation to the creation list. Consumption is reading a book or a FB/Instagram/WhatsApp post, watching movies and serials and the ilk. One can of course claim that scrolling social media messages is adding value to themselves as they become more informed. That is why this is a gray area and everyone should define production and consumption for themselves. There are things like replying to office emails, adding comments to a design document and so on that are in the no-man's land and I will leave them out from this discussion.

Note that we do not want to be judgmental and claim that consuming is necessarily bad. On the contrary, for producers to thrive, there should a good number of consumers. Also, we all yearn for some entertainment and need to do things for relaxation. Consumption is the primary avenue for that. But, from a given individual's perspective, for their own self improvement, there should be a healthy mix of production and consumption. Or so, I think.

Personally, for me, I think a healthy ratio is 2:1. For every 2 hours spent on consuming, I should spend one hour producing. Now, am I anywhere near that ratio - absolutely not. Majority of days, the ratio is like 10:1 -- the 1 coming from the run or the work out I do. I clearly spend an inordinate amount of time reading through articles and other posts. Even if I discount the articles that are apparently useful, like work related posts or reading non-fiction books, this ratio would still be an unhealthy 8:1 or so.

There are two ways to bring this ratio to the desired number. 1. Create more. 2. Consume less. While creating more looks like the better option, it is not that easy. If we stay true to the spirit of production, we should produce something that is useful or at least that needs a lot of thought and mindful action. Writing a post or scribbling a sketch, just to label it as a creation, does not cut it. So, getting the ratio better will need a substantial contribution from the second option - consume less. Lesser consumption is clearly a factor self-discipline and can be more deterministically accomplished.

Everyone has their own definition of what their ideal ratio is. If someone is just comfortable with 100:0, so be it. It is not prudent to judge if a ratio is good or bad. That is totally personal. But what I think we should do is to provoke this thought and ask ourselves what our ideal ratio should be, where we are and how we get there. If you do not know the problem, you cannot solve it. Or at least, we should know if there is a problem in the first place.

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