Data Inputs

The quality of your thinking depends on the quality of your inputs. Here's how to design a better information diet.

Published: 2026-09-04 · 5 min read

Your outputs depend on your inputs.

Feed your brain junk, and your thinking becomes junk. Feed it high-quality, diverse information, and your ideas improve.

Most people don't design their information diet. They just consume whatever the algorithms serve. This is like eating whatever's in the vending machine and wondering why you feel terrible.

Quality input channels

Deliberate input selection matters:

Observations: What you see directly. Walking around. Talking to people. Using products. This is primary source data, unfiltered by anyone else's interpretation.

Podcasts: Long-form conversations where ideas get explored, not just stated. Interviews over monologues, depth over breadth.

Newsletters: Curated by humans you trust. A few domain experts sharing what they're reading. Signal, not noise.

Books: Still the highest-density format for ideas. One good book contains more insight than a year of tweets.

YouTube: Selective viewing only. Tutorials and deep dives, not algorithm-surfing.

What to cut

• Social media timelines (keep DMs, cut the feed)
• News sites (if it matters, you'll hear about it)
• Most email subscriptions
• Random YouTube browsing

The cuts hurt at first. FOMO is real. But within weeks, thinking gets clearer. More original ideas emerge because the mind isn't saturated with everyone else's.

The rate of new ideas

Track how often genuinely new ideas arrive - thoughts that feel fresh rather than recycled.

When inputs are good, new ideas come daily.

When inputs are junk, weeks pass without a new thought.

Designing your diet

Ask yourself:

• What inputs made you smarter in the last year?
• What inputs made you dumber or more anxious?
• What's missing from your information diet?

Then rebuild intentionally. Cut the junk. Add the nutrients. Protect the inputs like they matter.

Because they do.