In an age of infinite information, priorities become more important that ever.
You can’t read every article, you can’t master every subject, you can’t see every movie, and you can’t devote yourself to every cause.
But if you pick just a few, and guard your hours and your intellect enough so that you know you have the time for them, you’ll find that you’ve read more, mastered more, seen more, and devoted yourself more deeply than those who mistakenly think that they can take everything on at once.
We spent a good portion of the past decade decrying gatekeepers and middlemen. Turns out that we need their help more than ever before.
Sometimes, the culture gets it wrong.
Maybe it is a bad idea for us to leave all the floodgates wide open at the very moment our relentless river of art information swells beyond overflowing. Maybe we don’t need to get rid of the gatekeepers. Maybe what we need is even more of them, to manage an increasingly intricate irrigation system. To help us learn more, live more deeply, and get even more done.
Maybe it was a bad idea to kick the bean-counters out of the boardroom. Maybe it was a bad idea to tell all artists that they should all be their own managers. Maybe, as we make decisions on art, that “lie that tells the truth,” we need even more pragmatic guides to help us prioritize, and to help keep us honest, if only with ourselves.