Yeah, honestly, there's a weird dichotomy here. The post mentions things like reading in the bathroom, or reading on the way to work, or whatever. But there's nothing inherent in those that doesn't mean you can't also be creating when you get home. I suppose there is a mention of getting home and just reading/watching TV/playing games on electronics, but other than that every other “excessive consumption” example isn't even necessarily in the way of creating. If your mind is also scanning for ideas while you read, all of those situations can in fact be boons to creation rather than obstacles.
I agree, is not consuming prevents creating, it's consuming too much takes time from creating. In that sense, developing a good filter for crap would allow you to consume faster leaving more time for creating.
A second issue is that it's assuming that if you develop an efficient filter for incoming crap, that filter will be applied to what you generate. And that if that filter threshold goes beyond the level of your own ability to create, all you do is crap and you stop creating. The input filter does not have to be the same as the output filter.
You express exactly what I was trying to. If you read HN all day and write no code that is a bad day for creation. If you code as much as you can and broaden your mind by reading HN in your downtime that is probably a good balance.
I find HN is a pretty good filter for incoming crap.
