This is a feeling I've been struggling with for a while now.
I think I'm just being overwhelmed by...the Internet of Things, I guess? Whatever the fuck that means, I guess I should capitalize that. The point is I'm struggling with the fact that having a creative endeavor and putting yourself out there seem's damn near impossible on the internet.
Every time I want to create something or have an idea for a project or whatever it feels like somebody's already done it better and 1,000,000 people have already seen it and there's no point in even starting.
I want to make art but it looks like shit. I want to make stories but they've already been done...and also mine look are written like shit. Don't even get me started on film.
I mean even saying that I want to start a Let's Play channel with a friend of mine has solicited groans from other friends. The "seriously, there are already a million of those things" type of groan, the one that discourages me from even starting because fuck, they're right.
Everybody has already picked their "content", so to speak. They've picked the blogs they want to read, the music they want to listen to, their favorite film producer, etc. etc. There's no point in trying to puncture that bubble, and even thinking that is paralyzing.
And yeah yeah yeah, "just do it because you want to!, don't worry about who sees it!" except fuck that, that's a lie. I create things for myself, yeah, but sharing those things that I create is part of why I enjoy the process of creation so much to begin with.
I'm not saying I want to be the next Markiplier or Daft Punk or Brad Bird or Steven King or any of that shit. I don't need EVERYONE seeing the things I make all the time. I don't want to be famous or popular. But like every day a billion things get put up online to be collectively scrutinized by "the internet" and nobody's ever going to see mine and that's super disheartening.
It's why Medium is so alluring. Yeah, the platform seems kinda sleazy, and it's trope-filled, Silicon Valley, VC-Funded shit. But man, people read my stuff on there. It's AMAZING. It is a drug that I am willing to let myself get addicted to. And I'm not sure that's a good thing or not.
Is it a good thing? Is it not!? Have I not gone to sleep for 30 hours now?
YES.
I know it gets shared often, but I think now is a good time share it again. Here is Ira Glass' piece on what every successful person knows, but never says: Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, and I really wish somebody had told this to me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not that good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase. They quit. Everybody I know who does interesting, creative work they went through years where they had really good taste and they could tell that what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. Everybody goes through that. And if you are just starting out or if you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you’re going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions. I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It takes awhile. It’s gonna take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that.Every time I want to create something or have an idea for a project or whatever it feels like somebody's already done it better and 1,000,000 people have already seen it and there's no point in even starting.
I guess nobody should ever write their first song, or put paint to canvass for the first time, because someone else already has. From Ira Glass:
There is also another important side to that quote. For the most part, none of your audience has your idealised image in their head. None of them know what you'd want your perfect work to be like if you could magic it out of mind verbatim. What is most important to you may be less important, or even negligible, to the average audience experiencing it. For example, take this now five year old track of mine: Example 1 There is a number of negative points that could be made against the composition and production quality of this track. Within the first 30 seconds I could give a good list of ways in which it didn't match my internal visions. I'm sure any layman could probably point out that it doesn't completely live up to the pinnacle of either of those facets if pressed. (That's not to say I wasn't happy with this track at the time) However, that hasn't stopped it garnering over 200,000 views and a plethora of wonderful comments. This was only about a year and a half after I started producing electronic music. Granted, I got a lucky break on a promotional channel that has now gone on to become a massive promotions company, but I still think it demonstrates the point I'm trying to make. Even if we go back in time a few months from the above track and listen to one that is markedly worse and was only self-promoted, it still got some nice attention: Example 2 I am not saying this to stroke my ego (okay, maybe a little) but rather to try and demonstrate that people don't care if the product isn't perfect. There are those who will enjoy and even love your work whilst to you it seems lacklustre and disappointing. No-one else knows or cares to think about what it could be like. We are our own biggest critics, and this is generally a positive force when channelled correctly. But don't let it stop you from finding joy and love in the pursuits you chose to follow.
Haha, you're not the first person to express that sentiment! However, as much as it would make my life a whole lot easier, I don't think that generic liquid drum & bass would satisfy my composition MA's marking criteria. Anyway, 'old stuff' remains 'old stuff' because there comes a time where you evolve or lose your soul. At least that's the way it's always been for me.
What often overlooked is that they have, but you (I, we, whoever is trying to get in) have not. What Ira Glass has said is actually kind of sad. Sad from the point of view that no one told him the most basic part of any learning process, that it takes time and practice to make any effort worth looking at. That used to be taught at school. Parents used to tell that to their kids, all the time. We have lost the power of apprenticeship, or in other words, the power of knowing the learning process of learning. if It comes down to a TL;DR I'm sure people told him; he didn't listen, then it took him "longer".I guess nobody should ever write their first song, or put paint to canvass for the first time, because someone else already has.
I think that's one of the voids Hubski fills. Small communities like this care about your art. They care about my art. On The Internet it has to be world-class. On Hubski, it has to be good. And good stuff is worth seeing, even if it isn't one-in-seven-billion. And your art is good. And so is mine. And so is thenewgreen's And so is _refugee_'s. And so is, like, a ton of other people's. That's why we're all here.
It's not a good thing. I can post stuff, my art or some trivia I know about art from spending $40,000 getting a baccalaureate certification, and people will like it. Then what? You don't want your goal to be the most famous artist on hubski or a middling Medium contributor. You're going to have to put yourself out in a way that you get honest feedback. Negative feedback. Part of getting better is learning your weaknesses and being self critical and honest critique will get you used to that but you need to be receptive to criticism and find a place where you can get it. I don't know of such a place on the internet because everyone is either a shithead who doesn't know how to give critique or overly sensitive and giving out gold stars for effort. I don't want a fucking gold star for trying and neither should you. Find a way to humbly and anonymously submit work for criticism from people online who seem to know what they're doing. I don't think Medium is that place. It's more like posting stuff to Facebook and getting giddy when you get likes except likes are replaced by views in this situation. Everything you make is your favorite for about five seconds, then you hate it, then it's another step towards where you're going when you see what you did wrong. At least that's how I see it. Don't give up. I'm primarily an artist and I've spent most all of my life getting to the point where I'm happy with almost everything I make. But I feel you about everything being done already. Every story idea I get I can reason my way out of it by thinking of something similar. No, I'm not going to do that, it's Uncle Buck. It's My Name is Earl. And it's shooting myself in the foot because it's not going to be the same, but who wants to invest that much time just to fail? Well, failure is part of learning. This guy is one of my favorite writers, watch at the end how much rejection he went through coming from no experience to getting published and eventually getting acclaim in some circles: Don't give up.. It is a drug that I am willing to let myself get addicted to. And I'm not sure that's a good thing or not.
Two quick thoughts. The more you do something, the better you'll be at it. Keep doing it long enough and eventually you'll be on par with those that you feel are doing it better than you are. The people who are currently established will eventually sell out, lose their passion, or somehow otherwise lose what makes their work magical. When they do, that's when people go on looking for the next fresh thing. Eventually, that could be you.
My point is - why don't we say such things when others aren't down on their moods? I'm sure 8bit would appreciate such support when he's relatively fine, too, as would I and, I'm willing to bet, you. Why not make another feel awesome when they're fine?
Sure we all have a desire for recognition and acclaim, we all desire to be popular. We all desire to feel that our work has an audience because it makes our work feel less pointless. But I don't know if indulging those desires is the answer, certainly not all of the time. MAybe the answer is learning how to deal with disappointment and then manage the desire.
We're biosocial creatures, and as such, we can't do on our own all the time. Some of us need time alone more than others, and some of us require a lot of personal space and time, but even the most reclusive of us require a partner, a conversation, a friend, love. There's nothing wrong with desiring popularity; denying our wishes to ourselves because they come from ego has no good reason. It's fine to be proud of your work and to have others recognize its quality: if anything, it serves as a public measure of your level of experience and skillfulness as an artisan. It's those who crave popularity more than they crave decency or high moral standing that spoil the notion for all of us. We shouldn't measure anything by its worst followers: some, like Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, use their popularity to a very good end and are ought to be praised for it. I don't think our work is pointless, even if it may feel as such sometimes. Those moments indicate the times when we forgot for what we live: to enjoy, to have fun, to fulfill desires (all to a reasonable degree, of course). I enjoy the hell out of writing, even though at times I seemingly don't want to do it; it doesn't mean that I find it pointless - it means that I'm afraid to fail at a craft I put myself to a high spot at; if I tell myself that it is and I should just quit, I'll lie to myself, and I should be ashamed of myself for even thinking that. Therefore, that we use others' approval and praise to fuel our motivation isn't to the end of making our work less pointless: it's to make it more meaningful. If it's not just you who enjoys what you do, it's great! Someone else actually enjoys your work, too! Maybe they'll learn from you; maybe they'll teach you; maybe you'll learn from each other. Maybe you can use your fame to influence the world for the better as a result. It's all about how you use it. Still, be hated. If you're doing something against the consensus and you believe it to be a good cause, the amount of people whose pink shades have been disturbed is a direct measure of your influence. Certainly not at all times: othewise leads to obesity, overload of information, overdose of vitamins, water poisoning... There's a good measure for everything. Indeed, managing your feelings and learning from the world is important, but it's not the answer - only a part of it. Denying yourself to yourself will never lead to anything good: what you feel is what you feel, it's the rightest thing for you at any given time. Not always you have to act on your feelings: making decisions under the influence of anger will lead you to a grave rather quickly. One must recognize what they feel and act according to their ideals despite that. There are plenty of things that will cloud our mind, even within us. It doesn't mean we should let them; know that your enemy is there, and you can defend yourself against them. That being said, humbleness is a valuable trait. Humbleness means to remember that we're all humans, with feelings, fears and dreams, even though one may have achieved more personally. Once we forget that, violence aspires, for it's easy to hurt someone you don't consider an equal, - and it never brought any good to the world; ignorance aspires, for it's easy to forget that we aren't omniscient and all-capable when you've achieved much already, - it, neither, brought anything worthy to the world.But I don't know if indulging those desires is the answer, certainly not all of the time. MAybe the answer is learning how to deal with disappointment and then manage the desire.
This is a great response; you clearly have a lot of thoughts on this topic and have taken the time to lay them all out, and recognize the nuance inherent in the topic (a quality I believe almost all topics have, and which I appreciate the recognition of). So thank you for taking the time to type this all out and throw in all your cents. I would add to this. It's those that crave popularity over quality; it's also those that crave positive feedback over honest, valuable critique; it's those that crave attention from any audience as opposed to trying to discern the difference between fawning, uneducated responses and the people with the education, or enthusiasm, or intelligence, to actually appreciate the quality of what they are seeing/reading/experiencing. I think there are people that fall into each of these categories separately and people who combine elements as well. In short I think that my issue is that many people seem to seek an audience and popularity because they want praise as opposed to because they want to spread value. Of course, it is very easy and probably ubiquitous for people to put themselves or their art out in public because they seek a combination of both factors. I think that my problem with the situation is that it is also very easy to expect and only want positive feedback. The more positive feedback you get the better you may think that you are, and also, the more you want of it. I think it becomes very easy to be "spoiled" in a way with feedback; once you get enough positive responses I think it is so easy to begin to think all those responses are well-grounded (see my third category) that constructive, educated, but not adulatory responses may get dismissed or ignored. I do agree that when others enjoy our work it feels more meaningful. I can't deny that and I have to say I appreciate you gently correcting me on that point. I work very hard to get poems published, and it's not just because publication means something to others (though it often feels like that is the main point). It is because I do want to be read. Even just the fact that editors read my work, though they reject it, is something. I try to include a line in my submissions thanking the editors for the time they invest in me and my work just by reading it. Because it is something. I am read, even if it's by people who reject me. Someone has seen my work. I think my issue mainly stems from those people who are willing to bend, sacrifice their original ideas or intentions, and significantly alter or change themselves just for others' praise. I think it's very easy to fall that way. I also think that when people are used to being loved it becomes very hard to accept being disliked or hated. So I think if you are used to putting things out there that get a very positive reaction, and then you try something different that gets a negative reaction, it's very natural and easy to try and tweak it back to a thing that elicits a positive reaction, even without consciously realizing it. I think everyone should experience apathy and negative reactions. To not experience these I think is to experience a false reality. At least, a supremely unusual one. I often ask myself, what did I do to deserve a large audience? What do I do now? I don't believe my writing, blogs poetry etc, has a large audience, and I think it's better to believe that than, falsely, that I have a large sphere of influence or impact. I'd rather believe I am read by fewer people than more that don't really exist. I try to be humble - and, I think, thereby realistic.It's those who crave popularity more than they crave decency or high moral standing
You've put it much better than I did, and it is what I had in mind but failed to put on... khm, paper, just like the following: Perhaps not apathy, but I believe that everyone must suffer a little in their lives: otherwise, they - we - become spoiled as we come to think that the world owes us something. I don't mean work stress, either: I mean things that are very important to us taken from us: heartbreak, loss of a friend, loss of a job due to lack of skills (rather than due to any external, uncontrollable conditions), failure to achieve perfection of work... Afterwards, we must remain alone for some time - not to separate us from others, but to let us think without their pressure, without their desires that they might project onto you, without their unfulfilled passions that they hope for you to achieve instead. It is then that we grow, personally and professionally. We aren't perfect, and the sooner we realize that, the better. * * * It seems to me that you're afraid of the position you speak of - the spoiled popularity state. If that's the case, then you should know that it's not an automatic process: you willingly put yourself into such position, or you don't. Nothing happens to us automatically: we change if we want to change, even if we don't know it; it is people who're open to growth that grow quicker. Assuming otherwise is letting the world around you rule you, push you around and bend you to their will - and we've just discussed how repulsive this state is for personal happiness and any realistic approach to the situation. People may not like you in the beginning, but it's what you do about it that matters. Even though I support the shier choice, in this case, you're lying to yourself still. It doesn't make you more humble - only less assuming, which may or may not be healthy for each situation. Operate with numbers if available; if not, don't assume any - write as you would in any case. If you'd rather finish writing if nobody's reading, then you aren't writing for yourself - in which case, you might as well not write at all: you aren't changing the world, you're gathering praise.It's those that crave popularity over quality; it's also those that crave positive feedback over honest, valuable critique; it's those that crave attention from any audience as opposed to trying to discern the difference between fawning, uneducated responses and the people with the education, or enthusiasm, or intelligence, to actually appreciate the quality of what they are seeing/reading/experiencing.
I think everyone should experience apathy and negative reactions.
I'd rather believe I am read by fewer people than more that don't really exist.
In the past (admittedly, the most outstanding examples of this are now from years ago) I have come across to certain people, who I respect and whose input and feedback I've greatly desired, as more interested in praise than their reception. While I have never felt this to be true, it's certainly true that I could have/probably did act(ed) in ways that made it easy for them to draw that conclusion. I get very enthused about my own work in certain blushes; after first writing, after successful revision, and so on. I tend to share the work that I'm most enthused about, which can sound to other people like "Look at this it's so great tell me how great it is!" instead of "Look at this I think it's great but I want you to tell me how it's not so I can stop being in love with it!" The thing is that it is only the work I am most enthused about that I am going to ask for feedback on; that is because I do not want to waste precious feedback and peer review on mediocre works, but on something that I already feel represents "my best," and so which peer review can help me make into "even better than my best," as opposed to first "okay" and then "good," or maybe "great." The thing is also that when I love, I value more being told why not to love, than being coddled; I want to know the problems, I want to know the issues, and I know that my positive feelings blind me to those parts. I want to know the pitfalls of what I love, whether it's my own work or whether it's American Gods. At the end of the day I want my affection to be justified and if it's not I want someone to point out that I'm glossing over negatives as a result of being emotionally carried away. I know that one could say, "well, stop caring so much how you come across to others," and I would say yes to this except - when it comes to colleagues and co-writers I very much value their opinion and input, and if I seem offputtingly smug to them, they are not going to want to give me that, or the rest of the time of day either. Then, too, I have big dreams and big ideas of myself. I fall in love with some of my writing; I deserve to see it rejected a few times before it gets accepted anywhere, to keep me in line with reality. At the end of the day 12 publishers can reject a poem I love and if I still love it and don't think anything should be changed I won't. And it won't impact how much I love the poem - but it will make sure I vet the poem and believe it is strong enough to deserve that love. It hurts to be rejected. It can feel pointless to run a blog that one suspects no one reads. But at the end of the day I think that the process, of submission and rejection, of writing researching posting and running a blog, is ultimately making me a better writer and a better person. That is why I think I should keep at it. I will also say that I don't think we can help a certain amount of pride when we get positive feedback. That is kind of more what I am afraid of: positive feedback that isn't always justified or doesn't come from a place of knowledge, that would puff up my pride and ego to the extent that I might dismiss valid, educated negative feedback because I have a sheltering wall of shallow positives. I can't help feeling puffed up by positive remarks and I admit that. So that is the change or habit loop I am afraid of falling into that yes, I do think can easily be fallen into if not conscious monitored and tracked. We want what feels good. The best critiques don't feel good, I don't think. I mean, they can certainly discuss both positives and negatives, and do so in a kind, friendly, constructive manner - but unless you do not see yourself in your writing, I don't think you can help but be a little hurt by them sometimes. I'll also admit at this point that I had an upbringing that probably really stressed humility and looked down on pride and that may be flavoring my approach as well. I do need to take more ownership of my accomplishments at times. It's hard for me to brag, but as I'm applying to MFA programs this fall it's really kind of necessary. If I don't brag about what I've done no one will, and no one will know. I will not get into programs based on "polite" reticence. But I fear coming across as pompous proud or boastful. I am very used to a very quiet approach. It is hard to figure out how to be more loud. I agree that one must learn to rely on one's own thoughts, feedback, voice, etc, at the end of the day, and that time alone and apart from critique is valuable for helping one become a better writer who trusts him or herself. But when I do get critique, I don't want to put someone off or make them feel they cannot be honest by my attitude.
Maybe it's not about pride, or appreciation, or even praise, and not about critique or any other sort of negative review. Maybe it's about honesty: how honest you are with yourself, how honest you are with others and how honest they are with you. Those three are intertwined, so that if you aren't honest with yourself, you can't tell with precision who's lying to you; being lied to is being willing to have been lied to, even if it hurts our ego to accept that. It's not about being pompous or grandiose in your appearance, either, and neither it is about appearing humble: it's about how you act, honestly, without social censorship. If you like the thing you've achieved, it's only natural that you'd like to share the pride of achievement. Go for it! Find people you trust and tell them with honesty what you feel; let them cheer with you: it's the base of good social contacts to be able to share good and bad. Don't brag: tell them precisely what you feel, without exaggeration, like you would tell a story about you going to the shop one day. When you don't like something, be honest as well: it's not about how you appear to others - this matters even less than you think - but about you being true to your feelings, which is far more important than not disturbing someone's pink bubble. How others perceive you is their concern, and you should leave it to them. Do your best and relax about the rest. If you feel like writing - keep writing, even if no one will read it. If they're willing to praise their way to your heart, it's their choice; yours would be whether to let them.
This is a fairly personal issue with me. I don't know if this will help you, but it helped me. When I first started my degree in computer science, I had to tank 3 years of a history degree. Those 3 years were basically a waste of time. I knew people who got married before I even really knew what I wanted to do with my life. I was fat, working a dead end barista job, living with my parents, and playing WoW and that was it. That was what I got from 3 years of history. Part of it was depression, but the bigger part of it was that I didn't learn the real shit yet. I was waiting for someone to stumble across my clearly hidden genius and make me an overnight success. That doesn't happen. The opposite happens. They stumble on what you're doing and they try to tear it down, with good intentions and bad. Sometimes they're absolutely right, but I wouldn't have known the difference, because every time something I was doing was called in to question I backed down. I let them break it, no matter what it was. Idea for a book, for a program, for a game? Been done before. That's how other people see it until it's out of your head to some degree, because they can't imagine what you're doing different because they aren't you. So you have to fight for it, even if you eventually realize that they were right. Hey, if you're going to say that you have a million dollar idea and it's a locations app for beer pong cups? That's a bad idea. But fight for it. Nobody else is going to be able to fight for your new ideas, period. They can't. The ideas aren't even born yet, they can't see what they'll look like. You know why say, PewDiePie is big? He pushes the shit out of himself. I don't think the guy is particularly funny, I think his act is a little grating, but he works his ass off and pushes what he's doing. By all reports he genuinely enjoys what he does. If you want to rise above the millions of other let's play channels, the other writers out there, then you have to push for it. Otherwise yeah, you'll get lost in the noise, same as everyone else. If you fight for yourself though, if you take what you're doing and improve it and run all the way with it? You'll get somewhere. I mean shit, DarkSidePhil has a semi popular channel. That's your competition. Somehow I think you'll find a way.
Please do letsplays. you can be the letsplayer procrastinating IB student everywhere deserves. I know you don't really like IB student culture, and I suppose fleeing the IB world is what everyone aims for. But isolating themselves out of equal parts elitism and desire to be unique is what IB students do. IB students have their own memes for gods sake, and song parodies and tons of shit. At my school saying "Risktakers" (As in the buzzword filled IB profile) before doing something undeniably stupid is an inside joke. Or before starting you IOP way, way to late. Or not knowing what you are doing your WA on the morning of you meeting with the very competent, educated and wonderful teacher everyone fears dissapointing. Or just in general when you are bullshiting your ToK presentation. (My friend didn't do her IOP for 3 months and tried to avoid this teacher best she could. When she talked to the other Swedish teacher (who is also wonderful) about it and she asked why she was avoiding her own teacher my friend said; "I'm scared of her" The other wonderful teachers response? "You and me both, you and me both)
Also sorry but I really miss my IB friends right now. Sorry.
Also, this is why I write fanfiction! People read it. And give you advice/tons of praise. I need my praise. Tonnes of it. Also Hubskina had never been done. Oh right. i dabbled in that genra of self-insert sarcastic... Unexplainableness. I am almost afraid of reading what I came up with. Of to do some regretting.
I'm not sure that is the case with this rapid population growth. I could not count the number of trends my younger sister follows at any given time. It changes so unbelievably quick that even as a twenty year old I find myself struggling to keep up with every little "new" thing. Not to say that everything we do needs to be trendy, but there is an ebb and flow of interest among generations that seems to be swayed by some pieces of content. If you want to do something I'd say do it because there is always that chance that what you bring to the table enchants the masses.
Having a culture produce too many art works is not a bad position to be in, yes certain markets and trends become over-saturated but that doesn't have to negate the value of each work and I'd even argue that you don't have to try to create a work that is special and unique and does something nobody else does. The value comes from how well a work of art is executed, and having an abundance of works simply means that everybody's individual tastes are catered to at varying levels. I've struggled with the same problem as you, every time I do something creative I look at what other people have created and just give up, delete it, shake my head and move on. I'm dying to find a way I can express myself and make it compelling to others; there's one trick that I've found helps to get over that barrier and I would like to share with you: just do it anyway. Just say f* whether anybody likes it or not, or listens to it, or reads it, or watches it (I did pop in to the livestream but it's not my sort of thing and I am poor, sorry!), and make it and release it; the worst that will happen is you'll get ignored, most likely you'll get advice on making it better, and at best somebody out there will find it really resonates with them and be inspired to do something themselves.
I'm always looking for good content. I think that the best content sources are only temporarily interesting by their nature. Because the people who make really fucking good content do so by imparting a bit of themselves into it. Which means that their content evolves and changes as they do. Just because I like what somebody is able to produce at this present moment isn't any indication that I'll like their new shit. People change. Everybody has already picked their "content", so to speak. They've picked the blogs they want to read, the music they want to listen to, their favorite film producer, etc. etc. There's no point in trying to puncture that bubble, and even thinking that is paralyzing.
This post takes me back a few years into my late teens. As a citizen of the digital age I had, since I can consciously remember myself, been always enamored with the vast, intricate revelations that had been consistently crawling their way into my personal browser. This gave me the perception that anybody can show the world his own passion. Though the right definition of passion I would not be exposed to until much later on in my life, I believe this perception had not been incorrect. It's just that the more people exposed to the internet as we know it, the more the actors of the economy invest in ways to centralize their approved communication channels (websites they control) and it's becoming harder for internet users unfamiliar with its scattered origin to reveal the hidden gems that made the internet so much more than just news aggregators, image boards, online commerce and porn. However, I find some aspects of this mature and saturated internet to be remarkably awesome, namely:
The Open-Source Software movement, as well as the Free Software movement are both thriving with an all-time-high-and-rising global popularity and products.
More and more developers are able to spawn their ideas into life with the help of a dedicated community from all around the world. But after birth, each idea has to stand on its own and have time and effort invested in it since this is a constantly changing world full of new ideas and therefore, is a survival-of-the-fittest style reality.
Through my current perspective this is a lot like the incorporated world where businesses open and close each day and struggle is inevitable and requires vigilant dedication. Excuse me if I'm drifting too far away but my take from my own revelations that have to do with this post is that it's extremely hard to succeed on your own when you compete against the entire mature internet and the only things that can still sometimes work at drawing attention to an individual on the internet is innovation and consistency. Blog content producer? you gotta make sure your content is top-notch and that your targeted audience knows about your existence. Software developer? you gotta show that your product/tool/service/etc. is truly useful for what it's meant to do and other people would find it valuable. Music artist? you have to make something truly unique and hope to reach ears of people who appreciate it. It's tough, but that's how it has to be and not everybody can eat the creamy pie that is mainstream internet value appreciation.
Not so, I find myself continually finding new things to love, and buy. I recently fell in love with Ratatat. Before 6 months ago, I'd not heard of them.Everybody has already picked their "content", so to speak. They've picked the blogs they want to read, the music they want to listen to, their favorite film producer, etc. etc. There's no point in trying to puncture that bubble, and even thinking that is paralyzing.
Well, yeah. This was pretty much what ruined photography for me. Take Flickr, for example. According to their stats, in 2014 people uploaded 1.83 million pictures... per day. That's one site. What exactly am I likely to contribute to anyone or anything? It also shows with music. I remember when I was a kid, someone playing the guitar better than crap for people was kind of a big deal. People appreciated that. Nowadays, I get the distinct feeling that people are comparing my stuff to the performances they've seen on youtube. And compared to some of those guys, well, I suck. Probably always will.
I found Nanowrimo to be a helpful salve for the crushing desire for perfection. With each November's Nanowrimo, no one cares about the quality, just write, write every day, write and thousands are writing with you, and you only have 30 days. Everyone expects the result to be sh*t, but the fact that they did it, actually did it, is a motivating thing Chris Baty's book, "No Plot No Problem" can be useful, as well. Depending.
I found this book I really liked is on you-tube. Your writing in you post was beautiful man, everyone has these feelings. Write a book and read it on youtube, it's more unique than gaming. You might make more money than print. This is the creepiest self help book, because it worked. I had to decide after being popular for the first time, it wasn't what I wanted. Like literally my problems got worse, because too many people wanted my attention (more people, more drama). Gorgeous 6ft tall girl, who wants me, kind of scary attention. I really throw myself into projects, none have been anything I really want to show anyone, but I am learning through failure. I am still working on mastery. Instead of making a an impact in the artificial echo-chamber of the internet or mark on history, go outside in physical space and make a positive impact there. Learn a new hobby or volunteer doing something you have never done before. My favorite thing to do is WWOOF, my dream career is to have a farm with WWOOFers. It's a really cheap way, to get away.