If we are what we eat as Anthelme Brillat-Savarin first suggested back in 1826, can we assume we are what we consume?

Consume. Eat. Maybe a slightly nuanced difference here but I propose the word “consume” refers more to what we feed our brains and “eat” refers to what we feed our bodies.

What are you feeding your brain? More importantly, are you feeding it at all?

Are there any true crime fans out there?

Well, if you remember the infamous 2017 true crime podcast about ‘Dirty John,’ Terra Newell’s experience highlights how this idea “we are what we consume” might play out in a life or death scenario.

Spoiler alert.

In the podcast, you learn she is a big fan of AMC’s The Walking Dead, has spent significant time watching the show, and has subconsciously learned self-defense tactics–specifically if you attack the head you kill the thing.

These tactics came in handy when she was physically attacked by ‘Dirty John’ in her apartment building’s parking lot.

All the content she had absorbed–or consumed–while watching one of her favorite shows helped her fend off her attacker saving her life.

“Terra’s love and meticulous study of The Walking Dead helped save her life. Of course, other factors saved her too — like her dog and her 14-year old neighbor Skylar who was a lifeguard at the right place at the right time. But in Terra’s case, she’s glad she watched enough of The Walking Dead to be a survivor herself.”

The hours she had spent watching and analyzing the show prepared her for her own kill-or-be-killed experience. Her reflexes kicked in and saved her life.

The content she consumed came out eventually and allowed her to respond effectively.

How can we apply this principle to the visual design world?

We learn as young designers at university to constantly be finding visual design inspiration.

Searching for inspiration is one of the first steps in a graphic design project–right up there in importance with sketching out as many ideas as you can.

To consume, if you will, as many well-executed designs as possible.

Not to copy verbatim other’s designs but to fill our minds with good design so we can be better designers.

If we find design inspiration, we can be inspired by those patterns and visual heuristics and make our designs better.

We train ourselves to constantly search for design inspiration. It became a habit to open Dribbble or Behance every time I cracked my laptop open–so much so that I hardly noticed how much or how often I was doing it.

Creativity inspires more creativity–similar to riffing off someone’s tunes in the music world.

Good design in. Good design out.

Read more about how and where you can find design inspiration in Puja Prakash’s article A new UI designer’s guide to finding inspiration.

How can we apply this principle to the experience and product design world?

As we progress through our careers, we might start hearing coworkers ask us questions like, “Have you read this book by this author?” Or “Do you know so-and-so and their new theory?”

We might wonder how everyone has so much time to read all these books and learn all these new theories–let alone know whose books to read or whose theories to learn.

I heard these questions asked most often in conversations I had initiated asking for help or advice on how to handle a particular challenge or situation.

Bosses and mentors seemed to pull these incredibly useful suggestions out of thin air almost always recommending a book or individual to learn more.

It wasn’t until I honed my career focus on product design and strategy that I connected the dots between my habit of always searching for visual inspiration and my coworkers' habit of searching for and consuming new content.

My bosses and mentors had trained themselves to go searching for good, insightful content exactly how I had trained myself to search for good, inspirational design.

I came to this realization after spending several weeks listening to product design and user experience podcasts, reading articles, and sharing learnings with my coworkers and hearing one of them ask, “How do you have time to listen to all these podcasts?”

Hearing that question took me back to myself as a young designer. I had wondered the same things.

What was different now? My focus had shifted.

How had my focus shifted? I no longer held positions that needed inspiration from leaders with visual design expertise but from leaders with expertise in product design strategy, influence, and leadership.

Read more about good places to find content inspiration related to UX and product design in Francesca Valentini-Marletta’s article The best 2021 podcasts to level up your design game (and your personal life).

Glance through my article Podcast recs for growing design leaders for a mix of design-specific content, human interaction content, and entrepreneurial content.

3 tips for consuming and regurgitating good content that makes you a more effective design leader.

How to keep from getting overwhelmed or creating excuses not to be constantly learning more.

1. Prioritize your content.

Prioritize both your time and the content you want to consume. A lot of content exists out there and it can feel overwhelming to know where to start.

Make a list of skills–hard or soft–you want to improve and learn more about and prioritize consuming that content first.

Tip: Focus your time on topics that help you progress toward your goals.

For example, if you are wanting to grow your leadership skills, research articles or podcasts that share advice on that topic.

What I’ve found helps me is to Google “best podcasts on [insert topic here]” and browse the results. Next, I try out an episode of the podcast to see if we work out.

Good podcasts can be hard to find as they are subject not only to the content they provide but also to the way they provide it–hello potentially “annoying” voices.

Be aware the podcast or article doesn’t necessarily need to be specifically about only the one topic you’re interested in either.

One of my favorite podcasts right now, Brave UX with Brendan Jarvis🇺🇦, offers episodes on different topics within the UX and product design fields.

My interest or goal that led me to this podcast was to learn more about the differences between UX and product design positions from leaders in those fields as I pursue a calculated career shift to product design.

I tried out an episode and established I liked the way Brendan curates content and facilitates conversations that add value to me both personally and professionally.

By offering different topics and highlighting the topic in the episode title, this podcast makes it easier for me to find specific episodes I’m interested in listening to and reduces the amount of time I spend just looking for content to consume.

Bonus, Brendan has an amazing accent which makes listening that much more enjoyable.

2. Optimize how you spend your time.

You’re busy. I get it. I’m busy too.

However, “not having time” should not be a limiting factor holding us back from pursuing professional growth.

Especially when you optimize how you are spending your time.

Tip: Identify areas of your life where you can multi-task by listening to a podcast or audiobook while completing a regular task.

Reading a book or looking at visual design requires dedicated, uninterrupted time to sit down and absorb the content, but listening to a podcast or audiobook allows you to optimize your time and professional growth.

Start small. Think about listening to a 30-minute podcast episode while taking a walk, washing dishes, cycling–whatever activities you like to do that you can listen to something while doing that activity.

If you notice multi-tasking during certain activities is creating distractions for you, listen to less complex topics or avoid those activities when trying to learn.

I have found walking to be a perfect time to listen to podcasts or audiobooks. Since I have already dedicated time to walking daily, making a habit of popping in my earbuds to listen to a podcast episode during that time was easier than carving out time just dedicated to learning.

3. Exercise your new knowledge.

Great! We’ve optimized time for learning and found resources we like to consult on the topics we are interested in. What’s next?

It’s time to practice what we’ve learned.

What have we learned? During our busy lives multi-tasking to consume what content we can in the limited time we have, did we actually retain anything we heard?

Absorbing and retaining content can be a challenge–especially with our limited attention spans.

Tip: Keep a list of quotes or tips that stand out to you when listening to audiobooks or podcasts.

I have found that writing down quotes and advice I find particularly helpful when I am listening allows me to keep track of what I’ve learned.

Those quotes and advice give me grounding elements to return to and jog my memory.

If we curate and prioritize our content to specifically help us learn more about the challenges we are currently facing, we should have actionable advice and tips to act on right away.

That actionable advice is particularly helpful in solidifying that knowledge and creating new habits or defaults used in your daily work life.

An advantage of regularly consuming content–whether we can remember everything and act on it right away or not–is that at some level, we have developed a knowledge base we are operating from.

That knowledge and advice from experts on those topics have been absorbed and will come out consciously or subconsciously–just like Terra and her survival skills.

Invest in yourself. Start regularly consuming content–feed that brain. You’ll see the results, I promise.