I come across a lot of content each day - podcasts, articles, books.

As a result, I've been trying to find the sweet spot between perfect curation and exploration / serendipity.

If I'm reading / listening to any article / book / podcast that comes my way, then I'm missing out on a lot as it is impossible to consume even 1% of everything that comes my way. Which makes curation a necessity.

So, I curate by subscribing to podcasts and blogs that I want to regularly read from.

However, if I'm only consuming curated content, then I tend to run the risk of entering a filter bubble and not come across new perspectives.

So, I ensure to read content from outside my regular sources.

The difficulty has been in identifying the sweet spot between the two such that I'm not feeling guilty about exploring new content when I know there is so much content from sources that I've already liked and subscribed to that I could be consuming instead.

At the start of this year, I instituted a 25% rule. It's an arbitrary number, but it serves the purpose.

I'm committed to consuming 25% of content from outside my regular subscriptions. So, if I consume three pieces of content from sources I have already subscribed to, I will consume one from a source that I don't traditionally read from.

And if I come across something new that I end up liking, then I subscribe to it. And every month, I unsubscribe from some that I haven't read anything at all.

Depending on how I feel about what I might be missing out, I'll adjust this number up or down again next month.