There Are Two Kinds of People In The World: Those Who Create and Those Who Consume

Anyone can consume but not everyone can create. Which side are you on?

I recently came across this article about the various dichotomies in life.

It amazes me how anything under the sun could be binary or even mutually exclusive. Examples of such are — those who give and those who take; those who follow the rules and those who make the rules. I had a good chuckle at some submissions, while other categories called for more contemplation. My favourite dichotomy of them all — there are two kinds of people in the world: Me and You. It is a simple yet powerful take that everyone in this world is hyper-unique.

The article got me thinking about how simple life would be if we could easily categorise people into two distinct groups.

As the title of my article suggests, I am intrigued by the distinction between creating and consuming. And how they may not be that different after all.

Before we could look at the contrast between the two groups of people, it is meaningful to look at the definition of these two verbs.

To create is to do something creative, imaginative, and original. It manifests in a multitude of ways through books, films, paintings, music, architecture, photography, theatre, dance, videos, and many more. ‘To create’ carries the idea of bringing something into existence, which is no ordinary or easy feat.

Whereas consuming is a much more painless task and most of the time, we do it effortlessly. Consuming can also be an enjoyable process when done in the right dosage.

With the definition of the two groups of people, which side are you on?

My guess is that there are more takers like myself, who aspire to be on the creator’s group than the consumer group.

But, life is much more complex than shoehorning individuals into either of the groups. There are merits from both ends. If we dug deep enough, these two groups of people are actually far more intertwined than we perceive.

Not all the creation has to come from an organic fairyland where there is not a single soul who has thought of it. There is work created that came from a place of consumption. When done right, they could be even better than the original creation.

One such individual who has finessed the art of creation from consumption would be TikTok supernova, Khabane Lame. His short videos to simplify unreasonably over-complicated tasks has amassed him with over 100 million followers on TikTok, making him the second most followed account. He achieved this monument success by building on the ridiculous video that anyone can find on the Internet. No organic creation is needed.

While not everyone can create, anyone could.

Writing this article is an act of creating, but it also encompasses different stories that I have consumed in life. For a while, it was an endless loop. I keep reading but I forgot to stop to think. It took some time for me to dismantle the guilt of only consuming but not creating.

It is through the acceptance that in order to create; I have to allow space to consume the ebb and flow of life and beauty around me.

I’ll conclude with this:

Keep consuming but don’t stop pushing to create.