Splash No. 53
Sorry for the lateness on this one. I’ve really lost all sense of time these days (still).
Me Writing About Creating Again
I stumbled onto someone’s design-centric Instagram account with 51 thousand followers. He happens to go to Georgia Tech as well and has been making design work daily for a long time. That’s where all of those followers came from. My first thought was “that used to be me.” There was a pretty decent chunk of time that I would post a different illustration nearly every day, in addition to fulfilling all of the various obligations in my life. I would gain followers regularly, despite the fact that my work wasn’t anything outstanding.
Thinking back on it now, or looking at the amount of output or impact that some of my creative projects have had is incredible. A piece I wrote analyzing a Sufjan Stevens song has been read over 6,000 times. Some of my other writings have been read over a thousand times. At the time, they weren’t anything special, just some time I spent working on something interesting. They were part of a greater habit and didn’t seem like anything particularly meaningful. I never thought any of those pieces were some incredible works of art, yet I would frequently receive praise from others about it. All this time later, now that I’ve lost my habit of creating, I realize how special the very act of creating is.
Literally every human being on this planet has the capability to do and create incredible things. The scale of “incredible” varies of course, but the idea is that, in general, people are so out of the habit of creating consistently that the very act of creating in itself seems radical. It’s so much easier to lay comfortable in consuming Netflix or just hanging out with friends or any other way we spend our time. The act of creating is usually uncomfortable. It requires a solitude and a honesty with oneself about one’s desires and thoughts and feelings. It’s uncertain and ambiguous and just hard compared to all of the amazing alternatives. Creating isn’t limited to actually making a piece of art or writing something, it could be creating the experiences that matter to you, such as organizing that dinner party you’ve always wanted to hold or going stargazing.
When I think about all of the things that my friends that do that create feelings of envy or make me think of them as interesting people, most of them end up being pretty straightforward things. I’m impressed by one friend’s ability to find trendy new coffee shops throughout the city and always know the best spots. In reality, that’s just a combination of browsing the internet, making decisions on where to go and leaving your bubble. Yet, as products of evolution, we are built to try and maintain the status quo and keep doing what works. The fact is that we need to all accept that literally everything interesting about us will be scary and uncertain. Once we accept that, nearly task is just a series of steps, which may scare us in different magnitudes but is still a simple task.
I was inspired by this longer post on raptitude.
Drops of the Week
where I *drop* recommendations of cool things this week
Article
“The Power of Positive People” by Tara Parker-Pope - in some ways, this article covers things that we’ve known, that people in your life can make a difference to your happiness and lifespan. The way it talks about moai is extremely interesting.
Book
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami - great memoir about Murakami’s dedication to running and his dedication to his own craft.
Playlist
best songs of all time (apparently) - I made an Instagram questions post asking for the best songs of all time and combined the answers into a playlist.
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:~)
Love,
Nikhil