Day #50 | Are you a publisher or a subscriber?

I believe that people have two modes. This being a publisher or subscriber.

When you are a publisher, you are the one creating things. It could be writing a book, programming a software piece, teaching others about your knowledge, cooking a dish for others, or something else where you are the one publishing (creating).

Then there is a mode called being a subscriber. In this mode, you are the one consuming things. Could be watching a TV-show on Netflix, buying a new piece of tech, ordering food from a local restaurant, browsing social media, or something else where you are consuming (subscribing).

In the subscribing mode you receive things from the publishers. When you are a publisher you provide things to the subscribers.

A give or receive mode.

The good thing is that these two modes or even kinds of people need each other. Without subscribers, there is no value in providing things. Without publishers, there is no value to consume.

Most people are also both. They work (publish) and then use their leisure time to consume (subscribe).

The best publishers also consume. People like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Joe Rogan, or anyone you look up to also consumes. Even though they are for the majority of their life-span publishers, they consume to generate new ideas. They read books, watch movies, eat food, and listen to podcasts for example.

In the end, we need both modes.

If you only publish, you don’t know what the world values.
If you only consume, you don’t know how to build.

But determine what kind of person you want to be for the majority of your life-span. Do you want to be a person who publishes more things than he/she subscribes to or vice versa?

Our time is finite, once you have multiple consistent values that you can uphold, you use your time better generally.

(Yes, there is a third-mode where you are Zen or offline where you are basically in deep meditation, asleep or disconnected.)