Intentional Entertainment

But the goal shouldn’t be consuming more. It should be consuming better.

I feel called out by Matheus Lima — if I'm watching a video or listening to a podcast by myself, it is always at 2x speed, for the very reasons he suggests: I have a lot of "content" to get through and if I do it 2 times faster, then I can get through more.

Granted, I'm already pretty selective about my media consumption. I've turned off watch history on YouTube, which effectively eliminates all recommendations. I only watch channels I've subscribed to. Same with podcasts.

I also feel like I do a pretty good job of retaining information, evidenced by how often I tell my wife about the interesting things I learned.

But I won't deny that I listen to podcasts and watch videos primarily for entertainment. They're something to do while I'm doing dishes, folding laundry, mowing the lawn, feeding the baby, commuting, etc. If I can occupy myself at 2x speed, so be it.

Matheus thinks that podcast listening is just for productivity, for learning and getting tips and expanding oneself. And he's not wrong. But if people stop and think about it, I be they'd realize it's been about entertainment all along.

A recent video by Rob Connery (which is interesting in itself, and which I also watched at 2x speed) makes several mentions to how tweaking and tinkering with things for productivity gains can turn into a hobby for people, a "a regular activity that is done for enjoyment". Productivity maxing can be entertaining.

The funny thing is, there is one YouTube channel that I exclusively watch at 1x — 8-bit Music Theory. That's one that I have to be focused and attentive to in order to fully appreciate the nuance and movement of the music. And I see Matheus' observations here — I'm more selective about which of those videos I watch, and I'll bail if the video isn't interesting to me.

Now that I'm not commuting as much, my podcast queue has grown substantially, so even at 2x speed I'm being intentional about only listening to what will be most interesting to me.

And maybe that's the point. 1x speed means the opportunity cost of consuming media is higher, so we're incentivized to be more selective. 2x speed decreases that opportunity cost, but it still exists.

I think an analogy of fast food vs fine dining is apt. You still need to consume food. It's just a question of how long you'll spend on each bite. If your plate is piled high, you'll dig in. If you have a very small, delicate, intentional portion, then you'll be more inclined to take your time and savor each bite.

The problem is so much media is not really worth the calories, but it's difficult to separate the foie gras from the taco meat.

And yes, this applies to social media too. I probably spend way too much time scrolling feeds because it's entertaining when I could be doing even more entertaining — even productive — things with my time.

Try it for a week. Put everything back to 1x. You’ll probably consume less. You’ll enjoy it more. And you might find some silence in between, and realize that the silence was what you actually needed all along.

Ah well. I suppose we all wish we were a bit more intentional with our one wild and precious life, huh?

...I should probably turn on SelfControl more often.