Change is preceded by discomfort.
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Notes
Hospitality: welcoming people, understanding their needs.
Comfort: reassurance, elimination of tension.
Art requires a hospitality that embraces discomfort in order to bring about change:
- Creating tension for others:
- To engage people
- To build curiosity
- Creating tension for yourself
- Unknown territory
- Doing what people need, rather than what they want
An artist who avoids discomfort is, in fact, being inhospitable. Change is preceded by discomfort (for both artist and audience).
Thoughts
This is a good reminder about one of the purposes of creative work. I’ve heard a few different conversations in which people noted the opposite change for “creators” or “influencers” on platforms like TikTok or YouTube. In those cases, too much attention to the audience, whether through analytics or comments sections, encouraged creators to become more and more extreme over time. What the audience wanted influenced the influencers, to the point that, in a surprisingly short time, they become unrecognizable.
I suspect this has always been true, to some extent, but the size and speed of the Internet brings an unprecedented level of pressure.
I could see how a practice, focused on bringing about change rather than feeding an algorithm, might protect against this kind of danger. It’s not easy, I’m sure, especially given the platforms’ incentives toward increased attention. But embracing tension—in one’s own work and in one’s audience—seems like a powerful antidote.
Seek discomfort, as it says on the Younger’s hoodie.
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.