Intentional inputs
Years ago I was at Disneyland in California with my family, taking a lunch break between rides. As I sipped my drink and watched the crowd passing by, I spotted someone I recognized: Ron Moore, creator of the TV series Battlestar Galactica. I was a huge BSG fan who was sad the series had ended. Starstruck, I abandoned all vestige of a chill New Yorker who sees and ignores celebrities, and I ran up to him to thank him for the show. He was kind and gracious–and said something I never forgot.
What are you doing here? I blurted out, expecting him to say it was his day off and he was taking his kids or something. Oh, I’m working on something new and I’m kind of stuck, he said. I come here when I need inspiration. As someone who makes entertainment, Moore went to one of the most entertaining places on earth to fill his tank.
James Clear talks about this when it comes to reading and writing. He’s said, “Reading is like filling a car up with gas and writing is like driving off on an adventure.” All your creative ideas are downstream from the the information and stories and art you take in. Outputs follow inputs. Garbage in, garbage out. You improve your output with higher-quality input.
Choosing online inputs with intention isn’t easy these days. Social platforms feed you streams of content their algorithm determines you will like. To form direct relationships with their readers, many of my favorite writers started their own newsletters. Which is great! But if I’m honest, I get so many newsletters, they get shunted away to the side and stay unread in my inbox, because when I look at my email I’m scanning for the stuff I need to act on. When I do want to read I usually click on whatever is in front of me or someone sent to me first, or I jump into Bluesky or Reddit without thinking. In short, I have not had an intentional system for choosing what I consume online for awhile.
Two pieces found their way to me this week that really rang this bell. First, Molly White nails the problem of newsletter overwhelm, and describes how to curate your own newspaper with RSS. As an internet grandma, I’m delighted to see someone explaining RSS in 2025, but the key word here is really “curate”: choose your inputs with intention.
Second, Herman Martinus wrote about why he takes newsletters out of his email and puts them in his feed reader:
My inbox isn’t a place for leisurely reading. When I open my email it’s with purpose. If I want to catch up on my newsletters and blogs I follow, I can flop down on the couch, open my RSS reader, and enjoy them when I’m not also trying to work.
I’m inspired. I’ve signed up for Inoreader and resubscribed to my newsletters there. I plan to read the highest-quality inputs first, before I let myself get sucked down the algorithm stream. I will also continually expand, prune, and curate my subscriptions, as my tastes change and I find new sources and voices. Who else should I subscribe to? Let me know.
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