[Err_Eek]

imagine a writer writing more books than they read.

imagine a film director directing more movies than they watch.

imagine a software engineer writing more code than they read.

imagine a musician writing more songs than they listen to.

... etc etc

[doytch]

The units the article is concerned with is time spent, not output.

Spend more time creating than you do consuming.

The only one of your options examples that doesn’t then make more sense is the software developer, and as a software developer myself, I’m very content with not putting my creativity against those other examples.

[johnnyanmac]

In all honesty, I've probably deleted more code than I've written in my career. So I guess I'm a destroyer more than a creator.

I wonder if writing is the same in an attempt to be more concise?

[norir]

I've never heard of a songwriting process that doesn't involve listening. Or coding without reading the code and so on...

[unraveller]

Being against easy consumption is less a direct 1:1 comparison of creation time to passive time and more trying not to fall into a rut of watching "progress porn" of other creatives.

Good creators are always assessing and perpetually 20% dissatisfied with their output so experiencing how others have honed their craft and made great stuff should serve to make you more dissatisfied with your own progress on your own projects. But if you are 100% dissatisfied and 0% productive then you've lost balance and are in a writer's block.

[gandalfgreybeer]

I think you're looking at "consumption" that is directly related to something productive. When one reads code, it goes towards writing (and all other examples you showed); that is essentially productive

However, what if I spend more time on Instagram and Twitter (consuming that won't lead to creating) over writing code. What if I spend more hours watching cat videos on Youtube over actually learning or making something?

Consumption in this context are what I'd call "empty calorie" consumption

[DinaCoder98]

> What if I spend more hours watching cat videos on Youtube over actually learning or making something?

That doesn't sound that bad in itself. In my experience falling into this trap many, many times over my life, it's something that's rather easy to recognize as harmful—just difficult to climb out of if it's an established habit.

So—consumption of unproductive content per se strikes me as less of a problem than a) addictive consumption and b) the illusion that consumption can replace a sense of self.

[BehindBlueEyes]

This. As long as platforms optimise for engagement e.g. to get more add revenue, it seems unfair to blame folks who enjoy cat videos for watching too many of them and not doing something more creative/productive. I wish there was a better/easier option to be able to watch just enough cat videos that one needs, in between "time disappears in a black hole of habit forming retention features" and "never touch that platform again".