Info Diet Determines Thoughts

Shaan Puri believes that your information diet—the content you consume and the people you surround yourself with—directly shapes your thoughts, ideas, and ultimately your outcomes. Just as economic studies show your income averages out to the five people you spend the most time with, the same principle applies to your thinking. If you want different results, you need to deliberately choose different inputs.

Key Points:

• Your Thoughts Are an Average of Your Inputs:

  • If you consume the same content as everyone else, you'll have the same thoughts as everyone else
  • You "dollar cost average" into the thoughts of whatever network you're in
  • The same way your income reflects your social circle, your ideas reflect your information sources

• Networks Are Choices You're Making:

  • Social platforms like Twitter and TikTok are networks you're opting into or out of
  • Within these platforms, there are subclusters and subnetworks you can select
  • Not being on certain platforms means you're opting out of those networks entirely

• Differentiation Requires Intentional Selection:

  • If you want to make changes or have differentiation, you need to differentiate your info diet
  • You should differentiate the people you hang out with
  • You should differentiate what you do with your free time
  • These choices are upstream of the results people want downstream

• It Requires Active Decision-Making:

  • You have to be very intentional about network selection
  • Without intentionality, you'll get overwhelmed and won't make the decision
  • It's easy to stay on a path just because of inertia—doing it only because you're already doing it

• Different Activities Create Different Networks:

  • Picking up different hobbies opts you into different networks
  • Example: Jiu jitsu vs. the elliptical—same hour of exercise, but jiu jitsu gets you community, skill development, mental resilience, understanding of leverage
  • The activity you choose determines what network and lessons you're exposed to

• The Principle: Make Things Easier, Not Harder:

  • You can win anywhere, in any industry, at any time
  • But why not increase your probability of success rather than decrease it?
  • There are no bonus points for doing everything the hard way
  • It's about trade-offs—making things more fun, easier, or increasing your odds