We sometimes get so obsessed with creating, we forget to consume.

Writers should do a lot of reading. Musicians should do a lot of listening. Developers should read lots of other people’s code. And entrepreneurs should spend hours scouring business plans and investor presentations from other companies.

As an ambitious artist (of any type, pick your flavor), there’s a real danger in getting so focused on your output, you forget to open yourself up to the critical influences of your peers. Practice may be paramount in pushing your art forward, but creating in isolation will yield at best a disconnected, uninformed product.