I’m not 100% sure I understand the chapter title….
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Chapter 3: Are You Searching for Something?”
Notes
Followers follow in others’ footsteps; they comply.
Leaders seek to make things better; they contribute.
That contribution is art: “The human act of doing something that might not work, something generous, something that will make a difference. The emotional act of doing personal, self-directed work to make a change that we can be proud of.”
We have access to the necessary tools.
Everyone has already made art:
- speaking up
- contributing something that matters
- told a joke to a friend
- “perhaps even sold out Carnegie Hall”
“Do I care enough to do it again?”
Thoughts
Godin’s expansive definition of “art” is fine, I guess. I don’t want to lean toward an elitist view (though I sense a knee-jerk reaction toward that). But I also wonder if there comes a point at which the term becomes meaningless, rather than motivational.
At the same time, if the measure of art is “contribution,” or “making a difference,” then I wonder to what extent the things I’m interested in rise to that definition. Who cares if I write? Who cares if I make music? What does that contribute?
Tim Ferriss has begun working on fiction, something that (as I understand it) he’s avoided because it seemed frivolous. His work (writing, podcasting, supporting research for therapeutic psychedelics) has always been high impact, contributing, seeking to make the world better. But he’s found that creating fiction, no matter how whimsical, has increased his energy so that he can continue, or even increase, that high-impact work.
But that’s not me. I’m not hoping to refill a depleting well of contributive energy. I just want to write and/or to record music, kind of for its own sake (though, of course, I like it when people like the work…). This is that dance from before: selflessness and ego. But it seems like ego is leading the dance.
Here’s the thing: I believe that fiction matters—and not just Shakespeare and Morrison and Pynchon, either; I value mysteries, graphic novels and comics, sci-fi and fantasy, smut, humor, even stuff I don’t like. It all makes the world better.
Similarly, my life has always been made better by the music I’ve listened to, from rock to classical to jazz to (most recently) Middle Eastern electronica—again, even stuff I don’t like (except Christmas music, of course).
Yet I still wonder why anyone (myself included!) would find value in my fiction or music.
Vintage Resistance.
This series is meant to capture my thoughts as I work through Seth Godin’s The Practice. It’s a book with over 200 (very short) chapters, which I hope to work through and, I further hope, to implement over time.
If you’re interested in more of Godin’s ideas, or my thoughts about them, you can check out this collection of posts. Note that if you’re more interested in the former, you should probably get Godin’s book and read it yourself; my notes will be both incomplete and idiosyncratic, and my thoughts will relate to my own experience.
But if my thoughts resonate with you, or if you think I’m just silly, I welcome your comments.