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How Unfollowing Braggers Will Bring You Joy and Satisfaction
Your attention is limited. Give it to people who are awesome, not to people who beg you for it.
Last week I had to drive across town for an in-person meeting. When I turned the radio on, I caught an interview with writer Margaret Atwood. My drive only lasted a few minutes, but I sat in the car listening through to the end of the interview.
Later in the week, I logged in to a Zoom call sponsored by a local bookstore to watch writer Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series, interview writer Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin has written books about animals, autism, and being human. I intended to check it out for a few minutes before getting on with my day, but instead, I stayed logged on for the whole 90 minutes.
Atwood, Kinney, and Grandin are successful writers by any definition. But what made their conversations fascinating wasn’t their advice to new writers. It wasn’t a breakdown of how much money they’ve made or how ordinary people like you and me can be just like them if we follow a prescribed procedure.
Nope.
Atwood talked about how her biologist father turned her into a lifelong birder. Kinney talked about the different colored rocks he’d seen on a recent vacation and Grandin shared her love of space travel with gusto.
