Ship creative work.
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Notes
“The professional understands the fine line between showing up with a generous vision and showing up trying to control the outcome.”
Hack:
- Goes too far to please the audience
- Has no point of view
- Has no reason to do the work
- Focuses only on the results
On the other hand, simply working for yourself:
- Walking away from empathy
- No change = no art
“Ship creative work. On a schedule. Without attachment and without reassurance.”
Thoughts
In the previous post, I noted that Seth had avoided negative connotation when using the term “amateur.” Here, he sneaks in a little jab: he doesn’t use the term amateur, but he argues that if you simply work for yourself (and that’s the amateur!), you’re walking away from empathy and not creating art.
Fair enough. The book is meant to convince people (like me, perhaps) that there are important reasons for making the leap from amateur to professional (and, especially, not stumbling into being a hack).
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.