> How much can you really remember from all of those New York Times op-eds you’ve read? Could you summarize the major themes of Grapes of Wrath? There’s consum

> How much can you really remember from all of those New York Times op-eds you’ve read? Could you summarize the major themes of Grapes of Wrath? There’s consuming for the sake of entertainment and consuming for the sake of learning. Before you can create anything worth creating, you first need to learn. You need to master your domain, understand its rules (which ones to obey, which ones to ignore), and develop pattern recognition that will make your creation authentic and meaningful. You don’t consume Grapes of Wrath in order to recite its themes. You consume it (and many other good works) to master storytelling and to gain the language and techniques that will enable you to communicate the human condition cogently. Without deep exposure to great works your creation potential is limited, no matter how much you create. Historically, people spent years in apprenticeships and other forms of learning before they could venture out on their own. If you consume the right stuff, then you’ll shorten the amount of time you need to wait before you are able to produce something worth producing.