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It’s not your job to read everything
To return to information overload: this means treating your “to read” pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don’t feel overwhelmed by all the unread books…
When information is cheap, attention is expensive
When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive. James Gleick (2011). The Information. We work in an information-rich environment but this abundance isn’t useful when it mainly serves to distract us.
Writing regularly changes what you pay attention to
I often find my attention being hijacked by whatever happens to show up in my feed. And in the moment, that content may very well be interesting. The problem is that so much information can be interesting while still having relatively little value. When I’ve set aside 1-2 hours of writing time every day, my attention…
Navigate career uncertainty with low-risk experiments
When you’re uncertain about a career choice you need to make, run small, low-cost, low-stakes experiments to generate more information that you can use to reduce uncertainty. Planning your academic career trajectory can be difficult, as there is very rarely a clear roadmap that determines success. However, there are lots of opportunities to gather information…