Creativities costs and benefits
Walking the dog on a sunny evening inspiration hit, two routes based on two interviews invaded my thoughts:
Route 1:
“There are always going to be reasons why it’s hard for all of us. I have a 90 year old father that I need to spend time with. I have done this with younger children…don’t put yourself under too much pressure…let it happen slowly and organically…you need a bit of life experience behind you”
Route 2:
“I’m the kind of person who is willing to take a small risk or do something different…maybe it is I am the kind of person who is willing to prioritise my own aliveness, rather than my spouse or my kids, or my ageing parent”
What are the consequences of these two routes and what are the resulting societies that are built by such individual actions? The first is from an American interview, the latter British. The British photographer Sean Tucker talks about this dichotomy
“You go to school in America and you are told you can achieve anything, you’re special, you can do it all, and I just think what kind of pressure and expectation does that build when [people] don’t achieve what they want to achieve, which is most of us…we have to hold our dreams much lighter than that and be willing to adjust because we can’t get everything we want, we’re not entitled to everything we want…I’m not killing people’s dreams, I’m saving them from anxiety… “ Sean Tucker
Sean’s interviewer and creator of the podcast, Iain, speaks of his own uncertainty about starting. Why start a podcast when there are so many?
There seems to be a proliferation of sharing work online. This has always sat uncomfortably with me, perhaps it’s my own British mentality, or just being short-sighted. Who cares what you create? Why do you think your voice is worth listening to? The prolific YouTuber Ali Abdaal talks about how Austin’s Kleon’s book Show Your Work strongly influenced him. Ali’s early work as a Doctor is somewhat different the sort of work Ali now produces, which seems to epitomise working for the algorithm. Popular content with no depth and the lasting impression of needing a bath. I don’t have anything against Ali, people like his stuff he seems to be successful at it. Personally I’m more interested in creating connection not content. Which perhaps with irony, seems to be Austin’s purpose.
Then my spirit animal appears:
“You make work no matter what. Don’t overthink it. Just look and keep looking. Test, try, fail, succeed, learn, repeat. The more time you spend working in non-optimal environments, the better you will be when you find the optimal, or even the near perfect. Again, your JOB is to perform…You don’t NEED to do ANYTHING with [the work]. The audience does not exist. The audience plays no part in this little game” Dan Milnor
Age is a great teacher. The older I get, the more I realise there’s no perfect time to start. I’m not sure in my twenties I would have been ready. Just do as much or as little as you can. Don’t feel guilty if you can only do 30-60 minutes a day - that’s still hundreds of hours in a year - just do the work.
Things created have the ability to inspire, influence, alter and for me the most important - help - others. We are told of the importance of writing for someone. So who is this meandering story for?
This is a thank you note to all who follow their crazy ideas. To Iain, creator of the Prime Lenses Podcast - we may never meet, I may never buy a Leica. I hope your dream to meet Jason Momoa and talk about his lens collection comes true. I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for changing my view. Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for following your own creative inspiration and in doing so, inspiring me.
I write this for me, but hope something here helps, informs or inspires you. I write into the void in the hope that the void benefits. The number of readers does not matter. Thank you dear reader for being here and when you are ready, I hope to help you as others have helped me. Just get started and enjoy the journey.
