Release Ratio

Before, I used to consume information en masse. If I was commuting, doing chores, or at the gym, I’d have my headphones in listening to a podcast or audiobook. I’d read any chance I get. But I wasn’t applying this knowledge anywhere. I was simply hoarding information. Without an outlet to apply this knowledge, this lead to information overload.

Like eating, our brains can become obese with information. And this day and age, its an information buffet. Consuming is easy, its our default setting. But too much information leads to restlessness and brain fog.

This is why it’s important to create. Creating acts a release valve.

Lawrence Yeo from More to That, describes the release ratio.

Image Credits to More to That

Yeo describes the concept further:

To make content consumption meaningful, you must create or build something with it. It can be something concrete like a product or a service. It can even be something more process-driven like a habit or culture.

Regardless of what you build, it is this very act of creation that releases the brain fuel inside your head. All the knowledge you have is a store of wisdom, but you will never unlock that wisdom if you never act upon what you know.

The ratio my friend spoke of — which I will call the Release Ratio — is a good way of managing the level of brain fuel you have.

The key here, is to never let that ratio be 0. In other words, create. Create anything, no matter how small.

This is one of my motivations for writing a daily blog. I once described writing daily as cardio for the mind. Here, I set aside time to think, think about anything, and share it out there. I’ll read about ideas such as the release ratio, and I can synthesize those ideas through my blog.

Before I would hoard these ideas in my mind, but now I have a medium of expressing my ideas. This is my way of keeping my release valve on.

Credits to More to That for the idea. They’ve got a top notch newsletter and blog that I recommend you check out.