Learning without reflection is a waste, reflection without learning is dangerous.

— Confucius

CREATIVITY

WHAT THIS MEANS

Taking in information without ever stopping to digest it leaves you holding facts that never change how you think or act. The opposite failure is worse, since thinking hard without fresh input becomes a closed loop, in which a mind builds elaborate conclusions on whatever it already happened to believe. Each needs the other to be worth much.

Notice which way you lean. If you read constantly, set aside a quiet half hour to ask what any of it has changed, and if you mostly mull things over, go and find one serious source that disagrees with where your thinking has settled.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

When did you last sit with something you learned instead of moving on?

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