Even without new amazing content, we still wouldn't have enough time in our lives to experience all the great films, shows, novels, etc. that have already been produced. So it's really a matter of how strongly you feel connected to and value the content's experience, and how it compares to the other joys in your life.

I recall that Buffett reads 5 hours a day, and I distinctly remember reading about someone in the humanities (maybe they were an author) who also read 5-8 hours a day, going through 200+ books a year.

Anecdata wise, I have a friend from college who's seen 1041 films since 2008 while holding down a fulltime job. http://msls.net/films/seen.html (He's slowed down quite a bit, since 3 years ago he was at ~800)

So you _could_ make this a priority like these people, but from the sound of it, as of now you might enjoy creating things on your own more than consuming other people's creations. :)

Watching movies at accelerated speed saves a lot of time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/22/i-hav...

Also if some scenes are drawn out too long (or the entire 2 hour movie only has 20 minutes of content), I've found VLC's 3 seconds, 10 seconds, and 1 minute skip hotkeys to be highly effective. On Windows it's (shift or alt or Ctrl) then the left or right arrow key. It would be kind of nice if you could watch or download entire seasons with outros and intros cut out, too.

I use 1 second forward skip (and have 4 seconds backwards skip). Makes it easy to skip all the time when I know nothing is gonna happen in the next few seconds.

It also significantly changes how you experience them.

I hope this is meant to be a joke.

I've 'finished' tv series or film series by reading the synopsis before, the show/film series it self was becoming dull or bad or whatever, but I still wanted to find out how it ends.

Done the same with books too. Usually YA series that I didn't realise was a YA series when I started reading it.

Only so many times you can read about a 14 year discovering they're special and then somehow they kick vastly more powerful, trained and skilled adult ass. Or the other variant in book 1 they're not special, and still win, but then in book 2 they become special and win because they're basically unkillable. Woo-hoo!

Hah, I did that with the Dune series once I was halfway through Messiah. It's a great story but the writing was so hammy to me.

When I binge watch shows, specifically cartoons, I find that I can watch comfortably at 1.5x-2x speed.

I can't quite do this for movies, and I definitely do miss some jokes (e.g. in Bob's Burgers I miss the intro and food of the day gags) but for shows like Adventure Time, I feel like I absorb 99% of what is happening.

I would recommend giving it a shot. Start slow at 10% and work your way up. Stick to cartoons first. It is definitely a different experience, but personally, it's not a worse experience.

GP specifically mentioned movies, but I don't know that a good story would work with the pacing short-circuited like that (eg: comedic timing in a show like Archer, or the myriad pregnant pauses in Mad Men and the Wire). I'll give it a try, though.

You could adopt Umberto Ecos attitude to his library. Once, when asked if he'd read all the books in his library, he said no, but why then have such a large library? It's to remind him of all the things he doesn't know.

I recall an interview with Jacques Derrida in which he showed the interviewer around his large library. The interviewer asked him if he's read all those books. He said, "no, only three or four. But I've read those four very well."

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdumO88JMxw

It sounds like you're complaining about how much quality content there is now that unlimited streaming venues are available and nothing has to fit into a designated time slot. I for one am not wistful for the 90's and 00's monopoly of network and cable TV, which I remember all too well.

It’s physically impossible to do a significant part of all the must-do things in the world, especially once you include places to see.

I used to try to catch up, and feel anxious about not being able to, now I’m just trying to take my time and enjoy, whether it’s reading, coding, watching or gaming. The wonderful thing about so much choice is that you never have to read a bad book, or see a bad movie, or play a bad game.

Just note though, you also never have to broaden your horizons, but sometimes it's worth trying out some bad in pursuit of finding something amazing you didn't think you would like.

My leson though is that you don't have to stick to it once it gets boring. Missing out on this means not missing out on something else, so why waste precious time?

I think we’re in a TV content bubble, and when it pops, at least we’ll have a bunch of shows we can catch up on during the drought. :)

Sometime, I think that this is the best reason for UBI - take a few months sabbatical every year to catch up on books and games :-)

UBI would mean more people could afford to be artists. You'd never catch up.

And it would be glorious.

imagine a alien civilization, that has been cultural productive for thousands of years.. Even the best offs would take longer then a lifetime

> feel like it's a shame that I have to ignore most of it, until such time as I no longer need to work or spend time on my own creations

That's the thing though: none of those great pieces of entertainment will be things you put effort into.

If all the reviews of all the things are five stars, maybe the scale is wrong, no?

I don't think the idea is that all things are five stars, but that so many things are made that even the five stars minority is enough to occupy one's full attention.

The review scale is not wrong. It's the value we put into entertainment that is problematic.