Experimenting with the “Paper” app on iPad has unlocked a desire to start drawing. Pretty amazing that brilliant hardware and software working seamlessly together can actually will someone into doing something they would have never otherwise done.

Experimenting with the “Paper” app on iPad has unlocked a desire to start drawing. Pretty amazing that brilliant hardware and software working seamlessly together can actually will someone into doing something they would have never otherwise done.

Rehearsals for an upcoming short.

Rehearsals for an upcoming short.

Taken at an eye clinic in Papua New Guinea.

Taken at an eye clinic in Papua New Guinea.

How quickly can you learn?

Being a part of society, innately we must compete.  In order to “get ahead”, we have to get ahead of others (our competitors).  For instance, if you’re a graphic designer, all other graphic designers are your direct competition, and you’ll need to stay ahead of them as much as possible - in terms of technical, artistic and business prowess.  And so historically we’ve focused on our decision-making skills as being the key controllable variable in determining success i.e. decision making of: career decisions, what things to learn, and where to draw inspiration from.  

However, emerging out of the 21st century is the rising importance of SPEED i.e. how QUICKLY you can learn.  Cultural changes regarding how much we are expected to work have added to the pressure of speed, but moreso technological changes (e.g. the internet) and the abundance of, and democratisation of, information, has increased the pressure of the speed of decisions and learning i.e. technology has helped lessen the gaps between competitors, and therefore increased the relevance of speed as a competitive advantage.

So, no longer is good enough to simply be an impeccable decision-maker and learner, you’ve got to be a FAST one.  

BUT, this is not something to be afraid of, only something to be aware of.  And it’s knowledge we should simply use to help motivate us to push ourselves to new heights.

http://soundcloud.com/byron-quandary/tissues

Emotions are our real currency. 

We seek the good ones, we shun the bad ones, and we’re often trying to trade up. When someone feels guilty, they’ll trade this guilt for a sense goodwill by buying a gift or making a gesture.

Every action we make is motivated by an emotion. Money can help us buy positive emotions, but at the end of the day it is not our real currency, it is just a tool.

And so looking at the world this way, we can evaluate “wealth” simply by our frequency and intensity of positive emotions.

I believe that if the world shifted to this perception of wealth, then many would feel comfortable with less material goods. And while you may argue that the above merely incites hedonism, at the end of the day people ultimately have the ability to deduce that no sustainable source of positive emotion can come from selfishness. 

In the real world, those who earn money in creative fields, are generally creating work for both money and pleasure. Sometimes money is the bigger influence, and sometimes pleasure is the bigger influence, but mostly it is a hybrid of both.

This is a harsh reality for those starting off on creative pursuits, and one which most underestimate at first. We start off thinking that whilst we know we’ll have to make comprises, that those compromises will be minimal in comparison to the greater pleasure received from simply being creative. But over time we realise this is not the case. Anxieties about creating work that doesn’t align what we set to achieve means that ultimately “just being creative” doesn’t cut it anymore, because all you’re thinking about is the work you should be creating instead. In other words, the pleasure part gets stamped out by the money part. And we’re too scared to not listen to the money part, because we fear losing momentum (increasing cash-flow), we fear the prospect of not having a creative job anymore, and we fear going hungry.

And then arises the question - does any truly good art come from a situation where the artist was even PARTIALLY doing it for money, rather than pleasure? (note that there is a difference between doing it for money, and getting paid)

I would suggest that the more the motivation is for pleasure, the more likelihood it will be “good art”. So then it comes down to how hungry are you prepared to go? How brave are you about losing your momentum, or you creative job altogether? I believe that the majority of history’s respected artists were prepared to near-starve, and it is that courage that enabled them to utilise their abilities and reach truth with their work, which ultimately deeply resonated with audiences.