I Wasn't Collecting Knowledge—Just the Illusion That I Was Keeping Up

I tried shortcuts, knowledge bases, RSS feeds, and automated summaries to keep pace with AI. None eased the anxiety. What changed was turning my attention from collecting more to creating something of my own.

The Anxiety Began in a Meeting

AI models, technologies, and tools now evolve on a scale of months—or even weeks. As a new AI engineer, my FOMO probably began with the fear of falling behind technically. One meeting stands out in my memory: a colleague mentioned a new concept I had never even heard of. Everyone else carried on with the discussion while one thought kept circling in my head: What is this? How far behind am I?

That was the first time I clearly felt that AI brought me not only excitement, but also the fear of being left behind by the times. The seed of anxiety was planted then.

Wanting to Save Everything

Threads is a place where information travels quickly and abundantly. When I first started using it, I came across countless posts and wanted to save all of them—whether I had finished reading them or not. So I built an iPhone Shortcut that saved posts into Obsidian.

I did revisit them a few times, but the process was cumbersome—and I never thought to improve it—so eventually I stopped. I even built my own knowledge base to organize everything I encountered. Yet the tools kept changing while the problem stayed the same: I was good at collecting, but rarely digested what I saved.

That Shortcut accumulated nearly a hundred posts. I could count on ten fingers the ones I had read deeply and reflected on in writing.

A few months later, I switched to ThreadPocket. Its visual interface and custom tags fit my habits better, and I did not have to maintain it myself, so I still use it today. But a more convenient tool did not solve the underlying problem: I still collected far more than I absorbed.

After Subscribing to 20 RSS Feeds

At one point, my FOMO was overwhelming. Every day, I felt there was more information than I could absorb. I subscribed to 20 RSS feeds and even rented a VPS so an agent could send me daily article summaries—this was before Codex and Claude offered scheduling features.

It did not help at all. I had no desire to read the endless summaries either. I would scroll through the long list and move on, while the anxiety remained underneath.

The Day It Finally Clicked

The turning point came when I talked to GPT about my information anxiety. It noticed that my input vastly outweighed my output and offered an analogy that stayed with me: “Your brain is like a library. What matters is not continually bringing in new books, but organizing and connecting the collection you already have—and eventually publishing a book of your own.”

The analogy made me pause. Output forces me to find out what I truly understand and what I have merely seen. That was when I realized I could not explain what any of the posts I had saved the previous month were about. My life had not changed because I had saved them. Looking back, those nearly one hundred taps of the save button had bought me little more than a brief moment of satisfaction.

I was not collecting knowledge. I was collecting the illusion that I was keeping up.

So I stopped consuming information without a purpose and began organizing, experimenting, and writing down my own understanding. I now listen to only a few selected podcasts, read books I genuinely care about, and use software that can export notes to Obsidian so valuable thoughts do not disappear from my mind.

As for the articles arriving like a tidal wave, I no longer expect myself to keep up with all of them. I search when I encounter something meaningful, feel genuinely curious, or have a clear need for specific information.

Saving My Attention for What I Want to Finish

To be honest, I still have not resolved the technical side of FOMO.

But I have started adding an “action” tag only to articles connected to my current goals. An article enters my to-do list only when I can name something concrete I intend to try; however interesting the others may be, I no longer require myself to process them. Another way I ease the anxiety is to set aside some time on weekends for projects that interest me, teach me something, and move a long-term goal forward.

Right now, for example, I am building my own website and gradually turning the things in my head into something visible. It makes me genuinely happy. A website also needs writing, which encourages me to keep looking back: In this age of information overload and rapid change, what have I actually learned? Where has my time gone? What insights have I gained? What could I improve?

Projects like this do not necessarily chase the latest technology, but they make me willing to stay with the work because I know I am moving toward somewhere I truly want to go.

I have not completely escaped FOMO. I am simply learning not to mistake “knowing more” for progress. Instead of fearing what I might miss, I want to reserve my limited attention for what I genuinely want to finish.

This website is probably one result of that shift. It is not a place to prove how much information I can keep up with, but a place to preserve the thoughts I have truly worked through—the ones that eventually became part of me.

If it slowly grows into a city, I hope none of its buildings will have been constructed merely out of a fear of empty space.

我收藏的不是知識，是「我有在跟上」的錯覺

我曾用捷徑、知識庫、RSS 和自動摘要追趕 AI 資訊，焦慮卻沒有消失。真正帶來改變的，是不再把知道更多當成進步，開始把注意力留給想完成的事。

焦慮從一次會議開始

AI 模型、技術與工具的迭代速度，已經是以月、甚至以週為單位。身為一名新進的 AI 工程師，我的 FOMO，大概源自害怕技術落後的壓力。印象最深的是某次會議上，同事提到一個我從沒聽過的新概念。大家自然地接著討論，只有我在心裡反覆想：這是什麼？我究竟落後多久了？

那一刻，我第一次清楚感覺到，AI 帶給我的不只有興奮，還有一種害怕被時代拋下的壓力，焦慮的種子，就是那時候種下的。

什麼都想存下來

Threads 是一個資訊流通快速且豐富的地方。剛開始使用時，我在上面看到許多文章，不論看完的、還沒看的，通通都想存下來。於是，我做了一個 iPhone 捷徑，把文章存進 Obsidian。

中間確實回頭翻過幾次，但因為流程太麻煩（我也沒想過要優化），久了便中斷了。我甚至做過一套自己的知識庫，想把看到的內容全都整理進去。可是工具換了一個又一個，問題始終沒有改變：我很會收藏，卻很少真正消化。

那個捷徑前前後後存了近百篇文章，真正深入閱讀、寫下心得的，十根手指頭數得出來。

幾個月後，我改用 ThreadPocket。它的視覺化介面和自訂標籤更符合我的習慣，也不必自己維護，因此一直用到現在。但工具變得更方便，並沒有真正解決問題：我依然收藏得多，消化得少。

訂了 20 個 RSS 之後

我曾經 FOMO 到不行，每天覺得資訊吸收不完，一口氣訂了 20 個 RSS，甚至買了 VPS，讓 agent 每天把文章摘要發給我，那時 Codex 和 Claude 都還沒有排程功能。

結果根本沒有用，落落長的摘要照樣沒心思看，滑完一長串就了事，資訊焦慮還是留在心底。

想通的那一天

轉折點是某天我和 GPT 談起我的資訊焦慮，它發現我輸入大於輸出太多，並給了我一個很貼切的比喻：「你的大腦現在像是一座圖書館，但真正有價值的不是一直搬新的書進來，而是開始把館藏整理、連結，最後出版自己的書。」這個比喻讓我停了下來。輸出會迫使我確認：哪些東西真的理解了，哪些其實只是看過。也就是在那時，我突然發現，自己說不出上個月收藏的任何一篇文章究竟在談什麼，我的生活，也沒有因為存了這些文章而有任何改變。現在回想，那近百次的儲存，大概只換到按下按鈕當下的一點滿足感。

原來我收藏的不是知識，是「我有在跟上」的錯覺。

於是，我不再漫無目的地輸入，而是開始整理、實作，並寫下自己的理解。我只聽特定幾個 Podcast，只讀真正感興趣的書，並用能將筆記匯出至 Obsidian 的軟體記錄心得，不讓珍貴的想法在腦海中走失。

至於那些像海嘯一樣湧來的文章，我不再要求自己全部跟上。有緣遇見的、真正感興趣的，或是當下有明確需求的資訊，再主動搜尋就好。

把注意力留給想完成的事

至於技術上的 FOMO，老實說到現在都還沒解決。

但我開始替真正和當前目標有關的文章加上「行動」標籤。只有當我能說出具體要實作什麼時，它才會進入待辦清單；其他文章即使有趣，也不再要求自己處理。另一個緩解方式是，假日撥一點時間，做自己有興趣、又能學到東西的項目，而且必須是為了某個長期目標而推進的。

像是現在，我正在建立自己的網站，把腦袋裡的東西一點一點視覺化出來。這件事讓我感到非常快樂，而網站需要文章，也促使我持續回顧，在這個資訊爆炸、變化快速的時代，我究竟學會了什麼？時間花在了哪裡？產生了哪些感悟？還有什麼可以改進？

這類項目不一定追逐最新的技術，卻能讓我願意長時間投入，因為我知道，自己正在朝真正想去的地方前進。

我沒有徹底擺脫 FOMO，只是慢慢學會，不再把「知道更多」當成進步，比起害怕漏掉什麼，我更想把有限的注意力，留給真正想完成的事。

這個網站，大概也是這段轉變留下的結果。它不是我用來證明自己跟得上多少資訊的地方，而是用來保存那些真正經過思考、最後成為我一部分的東西。

如果它會慢慢長成一座城市，我希望每一棟建築，都不是因為害怕空白而蓋起來的。