The title of this post is kind of misleading. When people talk about sustainability, they are usually referring to the well being of our natural surroundings. These resources are limited, so a responsibility regarding consumption is critical.

But, what if we’re talking about a different resource altogether, specifically the unlimited supply of online information / design inspiration. Is there still a need to be responsible? Can you still consume too much? Well, there is only so many hours in a day. If you spend most your time consuming, you’ll never have enough time to create. Plus, I think it’s near impossible to do both at the same time.

We all know creating something unique takes time and a lot of effort. So, if you spend all your time consuming, all you’ll have at the end of the day is other people’s ideas. It’s very easy to “bite off” more then you can chew, there’s amazing work out there, but you’ll wear yourself out. Believe me.

So, the question is not whether you’ll deplete our open sourced collection of online knowledge. It’s, will you actually leave enough time in the day to sustain yourself as a designer?

(This post was written more for me, my Google Reader is out of control. It’s nuts! I’m committed to filtering it down… way down.)