The problem with unlimited access to entertainment and media is simple: in a sea of everything ever made powered by computational algorithms designed to sort it all out we mostly only see the very best of the very best.
Some of you may disagree that what you are seeing in your feeds is “the best” but my point is not that it qualitatively perfect, rather that it has been sorted by a bunch of factors that elevate it up to the top of the incredibly huge heap of everything ever made. It served the algorithm well, so it “surfaced” more frequently.
This isn’t a problem if you are only a consumer of these things, of course. In fact, great, you are seeing the stuff that everyone else likes. You are the beneficiary of the system working in your favour.
This is a huge problem if you make stuff.
Why?
It is a huge problem because frequently seeing only the very best of the very best, the cream of the crop, the top ‘o the heap, or the GOAT of all things is a terribly easy way to demotivate oneself.
There is a tension in the heart of every artist: comparison.
Am I good enough? How does what I make rank against the collection of what other people have done before me? Is this story interesting? Is my photo popping? Does that song I wrote make people want to add it to a playlist?
Inundated by everything that ever was, filtered for interest, pop, and playability, honed by the algorithm, how could anyone just starting out on a creative journey hope to compare?
We can’t. At least not at first. At least not without countless hours devoted to refining the effort. And maybe the answer is to close out the comparison, acknowledge that the world is filled with shiny beautiful things, and keep making stuff.
Terms FROm this POSt
- algorithm
- The modern internet in all its forms is far too large for people to fully manage anymore without the help of automated systems. Any time an unseen calculation weighing our public profiles against what an app, website, or service chooses to show us, one of these automated systems is at work behind the scenes recommending product, ideas, politics, and friends. The invisible hand of fate has turned into a digital calculation so big we can’t understand it, and so complex it is often hauntingly accurate. If you are not afraid of the algorithm and what it has done to our society, you are probably not paying enough attention.
- countless hours
- Call me a pushover, but when you love something you just do it. You don’t track the time. You don’t do an accounting of your effort. But you do feel the weight of it in your heart and know that you have spent more of your precious life in pursuit of something than might be justifiable by any metrics other than passion.
- creative journey
- I often go on an on about creativity like an adventure. Creativity is more than a product, tho. It’s bigger than the destination. It’s a way of looking at the world and interpreting it through human eyes, and with each iteration getting better at doing that. That’s a journey.
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