It turns out that our consumerist impulse stimulates the same part of the brain that fires when we’re on the trail of a great idea. As we go through the trial and error of executing an idea – What if I tried this? Ah! Now what about this? – we’re using those same wanting, hunting, getting instincts but in a nobler pursuit.-Jocelyn Glei, Is Consumerism Killing Our Creativity?
One of the reasons I was interested in doing this interview is because I feel like being wrong is really important to doing decent work. To do any kind of creative work well, you have to run at stuff knowing that it’s usually going to fail. You have to take that into account and you have to make peace with it. We spend a lot of money and time on stuff that goes nowhere. It’s not unusual for us to go through 25 or 30 ideas and then go into production on eight or 10 and then kill everything but three or four. In my experience, most stuff that you start is mediocre for a really long time before it actually gets good. And you can’t tell if it’s going to be good until you’re really late in the process. So the only thing you can do is have faith that if you do enough stuff, something will turn out great and really surprise you.
The mental sausage* of modern storytelling
OR
How we do
@micahsaul made my brain work overtime on this.
*mental sausage is a term that was probably coined by Merlin Mann and I only assume that its okay that I use it here?
Not that you need my permission, but you are absolutely okay to use it anywhere. Honored. Thanks.
I realize that “using paper” should (intellectually) have zero effect on how I think about something, but I find exactly the opposite to be true.
Typing on a keyboard vs. using a pen on paper vs. talking to others or out-loud to myself deliver such wildly different results — and wildly different angles, approaches, insights, connections, synthesis vs. analysis, etc. — that I can’t even imagine trying to work on any project you really care about without iterating between the three.
Tool debates are fun and funny, but the truth is everything and nothing work equally well depending on how much you understand and care about what you’re making. I often don’t realize just how much I care about or understand something until I notice a piece of paper trying to tell me so.
See also: hammers and tree houses.
agreed. it sucks that i have such crappy handwriting. product of my grandfathers being doctors? or just cursive being too slow?
Not sure what this is yet. Just something I’m playing with.
merlin,
whatever it ends up to be, i’m sure it’ll be great. if you’re on twitter: participate.
The circumstances of women’s lives…provide examples for new ways of thinking about the lives of both men and women. What are the possible transfers of learning when life is a collage of different tasks? How does creativity flourish on distraction? And at what point does desperate improvisation become significant achievement?
Mary Catherine Bateson, daughter of Margaret Mead, whose book of social anthropology, Composing a Life, is giving me far too much to think about right now. (via rach)
that last sentence/question is hitting home for me this week.
about a 6 months ago, someone stole almost all of my photography equipment.
since then, i’ve been taking barely palatable cell phone images. these are captures. they’re not images you put yourself into. i never realized the difference until others started pointing it out to me.
ever since the robbery, i was focused on the fact that i let something like that happen. i’m better than that. the stolen goods are replaceable, so on and so forth. time passed, i focused on work and trying to justify the moments we spend not working. what i didn’t realize was that, as cliche as it sounds, i was letting something die. in passing, my boss and my girlfriend both told me i was a different person and i thought, “shit, maybe i am.”
having a camera, having a tool, having a creative outlet always gave me something to put myself into. i taught myself photography in my own unique way. i was neither technical nor artistic. i just tried to tell a story and show people the things they were missing. it worked. i was the “guy with the camera” always taking the “awesome pictures” of that party, show or event. not that i want to be that person again, but i quickly realized that people were right…i wasn’t telling the story they were used to and knew i wanted to tell.
over the weekend i bought a used film camera and lens. a few weekends before that i bought a large quantity of tri-x black & white film. i just read a manual. when was the last time you read a manual? i drank a beer and put on a camera strap. i took a picture. just of my computer b/c it was right in front of where i’m sitting. but more than that, this computer is a huge part of my life - professionally & personally. i use it for work and i used it to communicate. right now. i’m looking forward to taking photos of the new people in my life, the old people and the people that are neither new or old.
i used to follow a band around (this is them now, many member/name/musical styles later) and document their lives. i’d always hate the fact that everything about me would leave some club smelling of smoke. even my camera. when i unpacked this used camera and held it up to my face, i could smell the cigarette smoke lingering in the plastic. ready, not willing, to be worked out. it doesn’t really matter, i sort of feel at home.
