I read a piece of advice from Tyler Cowen that influenced my behavior. And I know it has influenced others after I’ve mentioned it to them. The advice is this:
Instead of watching a TV show or an episode in a series, watch a movie instead, even if it’s only a part of the movie for that night.
Here’s his own formulation:
You should almost always watch a movie rather than a TV show. If you have to, watch the movie in hour or half-hour segments. Movies are better and smarter, at least if you can figure out which are the quality films. But that is not so hard, as standard critical opinion does OK there.
This advice has helped me avoid time-wasting TV and explore realms of cinema that I would have otherwise missed.
