Chew Thoroughly

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We consume a shit ton of information these days. I read somewhere that it's somewhere around 100 gigabytes every single day, each one of us, on average. Although, to be perfectly honest, I don't think that number is true. i just can't wrap my head around the fact that I might be consuming that much. Hopefully I'm not.

The problem with consuming that much is simple: we're not built to digest that all of that info. Our brains haven't had the time necessary to evolve and expand our capacities. The "digestive tract of the mind" is not made to handle so much. And it's destroying our ability to think.

Bad stuff can happen if somebody is eating too much, or too quickly. Swallowing food without chewing it thoroughly first makes it much harder for the entire system to digest it smoothly. There is much more stress on the stomach, the intestines, and everything else. All of this does have an influence on the entire body: we may feel less energized (a lot of energy is used on digestion), it will be harder to focus, and overall agility will be low.

The same applies to the way we interact with information. All of it has to be chewed thoroughly before digestion. We can't eat everything all at once; we need to take little bites, chewing them slowly one at a time. Speed-scrolling through Twitter is just like swallowing an entire Big Mac. Reading two sentences from a book and giving them some thought is like slowly indulging in a freshly baked quiche.

Good quality food deserves to be enjoyed slowly. The same applies to information.

You'll choke if you eat to fast man.