Reading good things puts fuel in my creative tank.
Reading garbage is like putting sugar in the gas tank. It’s not just bad, it’s worse than reading nothing at all. You’d rather have an empty tank than a polluted one.
When I read good things, I have good insights. When I read garbage, the most I usually come up with is “anti-garbage,” which isn’t the same as good stuff.
Telling someone not to do bad things might be correct, but it’s not as helpful as giving them examples of good things to do.
Which sounds better: telling someone that they’re kind, or telling someone that they’re not a jerk?
One is a “reverse negative.” It’s not really an insult or anything, but it’s still thinking about them in very negative terms. It uses a negative (being a jerk) as the anchor point, and then basing your evaluation of them in terms of distance from that negative.
I don’t want my brain constantly trying to put distance between my thoughts and negative space. I want my brain engaged with the task of getting me closer to positive space. All the time.
The Opportunity Machine 