While writing a novel I almost completely stop reading books in the same sub-genre for the duration.

It's usually quite easy to shrug and write something else instead.

I was heavily into AD&D in my teens (late 1970s-early 1980s) but fell off the RPG habit in the mid-80s and have never gone back to it; my lifestyle today isn't very compatible with having a regular gaming group (too much travel).

I don't like Amazon (wearing my author hat, not my customer hat).

I have not watched the TV show. I do not generally watch TV sci-fi drama shows. They make me itch.

For someone who is starting out on developing their critical skills, just being aware of its existence is great: it can make the difference between trying to write a story around a cliche or an original idea, and better still, studying it can eventually clue you in on how to breathe new life into tired tropes.

Humans are just barely intelligent tool users; Darwinian evolutionary selection stopped when language and tool use converged, leaving the average hairy meme carrier sadly deficient in smarts.