Unrot your brain

The problem isn't memorisation itself, but a misunderstanding of how memory actually works. When we memorise multiplication tables or vocabulary words, we're not just storing isolated facts, we're building structured knowledge that enables mathematical intuition and sophisticated reasoning. These aren't competing educational goals; they're complementary processes that work together to create critical thinking and genuine understanding. 

Not all reading is created equal. Just as not all food nourishes, not all content feeds the mind. In the age of platforms and prompts, of AI authors and infinite feeds, we are reading more but understanding less. What we consume is increasingly pre-digested cognition: engineered for ease, stripped of its vital ambiguity, void of risk. Ultra-processed reading is syntactically smooth, cognitively shallow, emotionally inert. This isn’t just about TikTok or Twitter. It’s about how the medium reshapes the mind, how digital habits dull our appetite for complexity, and how a civilisation that forged itself through the long-form written word might forget what it means to think.

This is about reframing how we consume content, not as a mindless habit, but as a high value, nourishing experience. It’s about choosing content that fuels us instead of drains us, and following through with boundaries that make our digital lives feel good again.

“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
— T. S. Eliot, Choruses from “The Rock” (1934)