Are You a Collector, Or a Curator?

Todd Henry [00:00:02]:
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the show. Last week I sent an email to our mailing list called Brave Focus Brilliant. Which by the way, if you want to subscribe, you can do so@bravefocusedbrilliant.com called don't be a collector, be a curator. And I want to talk about this idea of collecting bits of stimulus, collecting inspiring things versus curating them and understanding what they mean. So in the digital age, we've become expert collectors of information. We have devices overflow with saved articles, bookmark websites, screenshots of inspiring quotes, and countless other digital ephemera. We hoard information at an unprecedented rate, saving everything that catches our attention.

Todd Henry [00:00:43]:
It's part of the creative process, right? Well, there's a crucial difference between collecting and curating. And it's one that can mean the difference between drowning in information, simply being overwhelmed, and transforming it into meaningful insight. That's what we're aiming for. This distinction becomes more important as the volume of noise continues to grow exponentially. As jazz legend Charles Mingus once observed, making the simple complicated is commonplace. Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. There is no shortage of sources, resources, people, leaders, communicators in the world who want to make simple things complicated because they think if they make it complicated, if you don't fully understand it, that must mean you'll assume that there's value there. But true creative professionals and brilliant leaders are those who can make something complicated, simple, awesomely simple.

Todd Henry [00:01:44]:
Making things complicated, simple, that's creativity. That's what we're aiming for. This Mingus principle, as I've newly donned it, applies perfectly to how we should handle the constant stream of inspiration that we encounter in our world. In a world of infinite noise, the ability to curate effectively has become the essential skill for anyone looking to do meaningful work are looking to lead others toward meaningful work. So we have to move from info overload to insight gold. Here's a three step framework that works for me. I teach to others, to leaders, to help them deal with the info overload that we often encounter in our world. So first of all, we want to cast a wide net.

Todd Henry [00:02:24]:
We have a lot of things coming into our world anyway. We have emails, we have communications, we have research articles we need to read, we have industry reports that we need to be aware of. So we have to begin with a broad filter. We have to allow ourselves to capture ideas, insights and inspiration from diverse sources. This initial phase should be relatively permissive. You never know where your next great breakthrough is going to come from. So save Those articles, read those research reports, jot down random thoughts, collect quotes, gather resources that spark your interest if it crosses your mind and it seems meaningful in some way, if you have an aha in a meeting, or if you have a hmm, I wonder why they said that. In a meeting, write it down, capture it.

Todd Henry [00:03:04]:
Make sure that you have a broad net. As I wrote in the Accidental Creative, we need to take better notes about anything that sparks our interest. Unfortunately, this is where many of us stop. As a result, we have notebooks filled with random ideas that no longer mean anything. Software full of articles that now, why did I save that again? Right? And scraps of paper or digital notes with random phrases that were going to be the next big thing. Now they're all useless because we didn't take time to curate them while they were still fresh. So what does it mean to curate our observations, our notes, our bits of stimulus that come into our stimulus queue? Well, the magic happens during dedicated curation time. This is when you transform from collector to curator by asking three essential questions of each piece of stimulus that you've collected.

Todd Henry [00:03:53]:
The first is, what is this really? Okay, strip away the surface and identify the core idea or principle. Why did it capture your attention? What is attractive about it? What is its attractive essence to me? Why did this seem like something interesting to me? What is it really? The second question is this. Why does it matter to me? Understand its broader significance and its potential impact beyond the initial. Huh, that's interesting. What is the actual applicable value of this note or of this spark? And this is where it's really important, because we often collect things because we like what they imply about us, not because they're actually useful. So they just become noise and it becomes difficult to find the things that are actually useful. So we collect things because, oh, that article makes me feel smart. Or that's something.

Todd Henry [00:04:47]:
I would love to learn more about particle physics at some point. So we collect things and we keep them, but we don't really ever process them. We don't really ask what they mean because we're collecting them, not because they're useful, but because of what we think they make us feel about ourselves. That's fine, but that's not a meaningful and useful way to curate your stimulus in a way that's going to be helpful to you. So I encourage you to ask, okay, what. Why does this matter to me? What does this mean to me? And by the way, that could be one little tiny piece of an article, one quote in a much longer article, but it meant something to you and that something it meant to you may not have anything to do with the core substance of the article. Why does this matter to me? And then the third question is, what can I create with this? Now, envision how this piece of stimulus fits into your work or your thought process. Turn it into something that could fit inside of a project or could become part of your work, or a message that you're going to deliver to your team, or a vision that you want to cast for the client that you're working with.

Todd Henry [00:05:45]:
Write down your specific hunch or your idea and how it might find its way into your future work. Right. Spend time with the piece of stimulus is why this is so important. Don't just read things. We're not. We're not hoarders of information. We're trying to leverage that stimulus to make it useful, to make it valuable in our leadership and our creative process. By the way, if you'd like a deeper dive into a system for organizing the stimulus, you can listen to the episode of Daily Creative with Tiago Forte.

Todd Henry [00:06:14]:
It was called Mind Powers, so you can go look in the archives for that if you'd like. Or if you're a Daily Creative app subscriber, you can go listen to Tiago's full interview. You. All right, now that's. The second part is we have to curate. We have to ask, what is this really? Why does it matter to me, and what can I create with this? The third thing is you have to ruthlessly eliminate. Okay, now this is maybe the most crucial. We have to eliminate anything that doesn't serve a clear purpose.

Todd Henry [00:06:41]:
If we just collected ephemera, because, oh, this is kind of interesting or kind of caught my attention. If it doesn't. If the item doesn't pass through one of the filters above, or if it feels like it's just adding complexity without value, just let it go. Just let it go. This step requires discipline and clarity about your objectives, and it also ensures that you don't lose valuable sparks in a sea of mediocrity. You want to keep a highly curated collection of useful sparks that you can apply in your work. They may not be useful now, but at least they mean something. At least they prompted you to think in a certain way.

Todd Henry [00:07:17]:
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, for the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn't give you a figure, but for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that, I would give you anything I have. The goal isn't to amass the largest collection of information. We have to aim to cultivate a carefully considered collection of sparks and ideas that genuinely inspire our work. Okay, that's what Oliver Wendell Holmes was saying. The simplicity on this side of complexity versus the simplicity on the other side of complexity. We're aiming for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, what De Hawk referred to as turning noise into wisdom. So when you commit to being a curator rather than just a collector, you'll find that your ideas become clearer, your work is more focused, and your creative output is more meaningful. The key is to maintain a regular curation session on your calendar.

Todd Henry [00:08:09]:
So don't just collect things. Have a dedicated time to go through what you've collected, to ask what it means to write down your thoughts, to process it, to connect it to other bits of stimulus. By the way, this is how ideas form. Ideas are not solo, isolated items. They are networks that come together. So through these regular curation sessions, we begin to network different bits of stimulus together into something meaningful. So perhaps weekly, at least monthly. For me, it's every morning.

Todd Henry [00:08:39]:
I get up and I do this. I study and I process. But reviewing or otherwise integrating or eliminating information is essential to your process, to your leadership process. Don't get lost in a sea of information and mediocrity. Don't be a collector, Be a curator. Remember, the value isn't how much you collect, but in how well you curate and what that means for what you create. What you create from what remains is the most important thing. Don't be a collector.

Todd Henry [00:09:08]:
Be a curator. I hope this is helpful for you. Again, if you'd like to receive articles just like this on a weekly basis, you can do so@bravefocusedbrilliant.com that's the name of my newsletter. If you'd like full interviews, the entire back archives, as well as access to daily episodes, Q and A sessions, and much more, you can do so in the daily Creative app at DailyCreative app. My name is Todd Henry. You can find me my work, all of my books, my speaking, and much more@todhenry.com until next time. May you be brave, focused and brilliant.