STOCK & FLOW

I’ve had this note at the top of my notecard holder for at least a year. Because I’ve accumulated decades of notes and ideas and bookmarks all over the place. In physical note boooks, in Evernote, in Bear, in Google Keep, in Apple Notes, in Apple Books bookmarks, on notecards, in Instagram bookmarks.

Via writer Austin Kleon, I recently learned about the economic concept of “Stock & Flow”. Stock is what you’ve built up over time. Flow is the inputs that built it up. Stock is whats in your bank account. Flow in your income. But it can also be applied to art making.

Writer Robin Sloan has adapted Stock & Flow into a metaphor for media: “Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people you exist. Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the content you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today.”

This seems like an interesting experiment to do. Can I turn all this flow into stock? To “share my work” as Austin Kleon suggests? Do you do a version of Stock & flow?

rad whale pad by Independent Puppy bought at the Compass Rose in Castin, ME