The Post-Content Clarity Test
Judge content by how it makes you feel afterward, not while you're hooked.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 78%
Because content is engineered to be compelling — any creator who wasn't would be beaten by one who is — you cannot assess whether it's good for you while you're hooked. The distraction of the content itself blocks judgment during consumption. The fix is to move the evaluation to afterward: five to ten minutes after finishing, ask how it made you feel. Some sources are limbically hijacking and keep you watching but leave you uptight, cynical, and zero-sum, with no urge to call your mum or step outside. Others leave you connected, hopeful, and aligned. Williamson's frame is dietary: your mind is built from what you put into your eyes and ears, so your content diet should be 'spirulina for the soul, not fast food for your amygdala.' You then act on the reading by pruning the sources that consistently leave you worse.
Origin
Extracted from Chris Williamson's Modern Wisdom episode 702, a recap of lessons from the show, newsletter, and life over the preceding nine months. He built the rule to judge whether the content he consumes for ideas was making his life better or worse.
Core principles
- 01You can't judge content while consuming it — it's engineered to be compelling.
- 02Compelling and good-for-you are different things.
- 03Your attention is a valuable resource being taken without payment.
- 04Your mind is made of what you put into your eyes and ears.
- 05The only reliable signal is how you feel afterward.
How to run it
- 1
Consume without judging
Accept you can't evaluate the content mid-stream because it's designed to capture you; just note that judgment comes later.
- 2
Wait, then check your state
Roughly five to ten minutes after finishing, deliberately notice how you feel — tense and cynical, or connected and light.
Pro tip Reviewing your YouTube history and recalling how each item left you works well.
- 3
Ask the repeat question
Ask whether you'd genuinely want to consume that again tomorrow. A hesitant yes is a no.
- 4
Prune the bad sources
For anything that leaves you worse, use platform tools like 'not interested' or 'don't recommend this channel' so it stops resurfacing.
Pro tip For platform-wide problems, delete the app if you can hold the line.
- 5
Reinvest your attention
Shift the freed time toward content that leaves you hopeful, informed, and aligned — spirulina for the soul.
In the wild
You notice a channel you watch to see your 'team' dunk on the other side. Applying the test ten minutes later, you feel cynical and combative, with no wish to message friends or go outside. You mark 'don't recommend this channel' and it disappears from your feed.
→ A cleaner feed and a measurable drop in the tense, zero-sum aftertaste of your media diet.
Common mistakes
Trying to judge while consuming
During consumption the content's engineered pull overwhelms your judgment; only the after-state gives an honest reading.
Reading the feeling but never pruning
Noticing you feel worse changes nothing unless you act on it by cutting the source from your feed.
Is it for you?
Best for
Heavy media and social-feed users who want to curate a content diet by its actual effect on them.
Not ideal for
People seeking an in-the-moment filter — the test only works retrospectively.
From the transcript
“You can't judge how the content impacts you during the consumption of it... What you can do is assess how you feel afterward.”
“Your content diet should be spirulina for the soul, not fast food for your amygdala.”
“Think about how you feel after you've finished watching something... and just reflect, okay, would I want to do that again tomorrow?”
From the episode
16 Lessons From 700 Episodes - #702