Lately I’ve been thinking about how much I create vs consume things in my spare time. What is the ratio? How often do I write a poem vs watch Hulu? How would my life be different if I tried to consume less, and make more stuff?
So last week I tried an experiment. I wanted to write one blog post per day. I was inspired by this quote by Fred Wilson:
“I write every day because it makes me think every day”
And I almost made it! I wrote Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but didn’t write Friday because I was DJing my birthday party (I guess that still counts as creating something).
I noticed two things:
- Writing blog posts takes more time than you might imagine.
- Thinking, forming opinions and taking stands is more valuable than the final output (the blog post).
Looking back, most of my posts are a bit incoherent and don’t fully communicate the ideas in my head. But the point, for me, is that I now have new ideas in my head!
Like this semi-tangent….
I’m really into the idea that people should be defined by what they make, not what they like. What does it really say about me if I decide that I enjoy Burberry, MGMT and drinking PBR. It doesn’t take effort to like a brand, and it doesn’t reflect who a person really is, just how they want to be perceived. If I ever have to apply for a job again, I don’t plan to write a resume; I’ll just show a list of things I have made.
- You will
- probably not
- learn anything meaningful
- from
- reading lists
It seems that list articles are very popular online. ”Top 8 games for iPad”. ”10 signs you’re on a bad date”. ”Top 50 list of Top 10 lists”.
The format lends itself to the information hungry, shallow, skimaholic readers. I hate skimming, it is a false promise. You don’t think deeply while skimming, you are just looking for the next heading which you mold to fit your pre-existing thesis. In the end you have not really learned anything, you haven’t considered any new viewpoints, just reinforced old ones.
Consider this article by John Gruber on the iPad. It’s thorough. Hell, by internet standards it’s War and Peace. But if you allot the time to focus and contemplate the contents of the article it will send your mind into a tizzy chewing on new ideas. You think first about the iPad, then the mobile market, and then software development on whole. It feels like connecting synapses in your brain.
Top Ways to Learn Something Online
- Forget lists.
Last night my friend Tim K and I went digging for vinyl records at Dusty Groove. I’ve collected vinyl for a while, and Tim is just getting started.
I don’t want to debate the sonic properties of vinyl vs digital, but rather examine the listening experience. I feel like I listen to vinyl records, where mp3s play in the background. Note the active vs passive nature for the listener. You listen to 3 or 4 songs on vinyl, then you flip or change the record to hear more. iTunes tells me that my mp3 collection could play for 12 days straight.
So what is the allure of vinyl records for me? They feel like a much more thoughtful product. The large cover art is often well designed, and could be used as an art piece. Many records have a lengthy story written on the back about the creation and influences of the music. I feel connected to the artist. It feels like I’m shaking Miles Davis’ hand every time I flip a record.
I’ve been noticing a trend of people striving for a deeper connection to their material possessions. Seth Godin seems to think this is a new expression of wealth. I think there is more to it than that. If I choose to buy a locally grown, organic head of lettuce, I am buying it for myself as a reflection of my principles, not to demonstrate to others that I have the ability/wealth to do so. Similarly, I would help an elderly woman cross the street because I think it is the right thing to do. I would not do it to impress the girl standing on the corner.
There are many examples of people buying products they feel connected to, products with a soul. At Local Motors, you pay a premium for a car that you still have to build yourself! But that is the point. As Local Motors CEO, Jay Rogers, like to quip, “if my son and I build this car together, I don’t care if it becomes a rusty bucket of bolts in the back yard, you’ll have to pry it out of my dead hands”.
It’s hard to imagine that deep of a connection with your minivan.
I’ve noticed two instances of digital dependencies recently that made me cringe.
The first one was in Austin, TX at SXSW. I was pumped to see a band called Sleigh Bells. I’d heard a few of their songs, and liked their blend of deep beats, heavy guitar and female vocals.
As the band was setting up, I spotted a guitarist tuning up and a female mic checking. My eyes darted around for the remaining members of the band, but there was no one else in sight. Turns out, the “band” was a Macbook. The drums, synth and bass parts were handled by hitting a Play button.
I was a bit disillusioned by the faux band, but tried to postpone judgement until their set was complete. Early in their set however, the Macbook malfunctioned and the beating heart of the group was silenced. No worry, they just plugged in an iPod. It felt more like karaoke than a live music experience.
The second reminder of digital dependence happened to me this afternoon in the office. For whatever reason, the clock on my laptop froze at 5:05pm. Everything else on my computer continued to work perfectly, but the time display malfunctioned. It wasn’t until I looked at my phone (another digital device), that I noticed something strange was afoot. At this point I didn’t trust my computer or phone, so I had to ask someone with a mechanical watch to be sure. I ended up missing my train and subsequent dinner.
Events like these make me reconsider my digital dependencies. I forget that technology is created by people, and thus will always be flawed.
Being a nerdy type, I usually learn a new programming language or two every year. Many programming languages are meant to be improvements of previous languages. Others are created to tackle specific types of problems. There are new programming languages being created fairly regularly.
Compare this list of programming languages to human spoken languages. Both lists contain some “dead languages”, but to me, the difference is the list of programming languages is growing, where human languages are shrinking.
Is human language a solved problem? Is there no place for an evolved language to be created? What if we took the number system from Chinese, the verb conjugation from English, and the pronunciation rules from Spanish to create an evolved language? Wouldn’t that be useful?
Kind of like Newspeak, but less totalitarian and more altruistic.
Today I have the honor of introducing a project that’s been in development for almost two years.
In early 2008 I talked to my friend Michael about making an album for my then-new music company, Normative. He had an exciting concept: build a musical contraption, a one-man-band “rig” that looked like a big metal box, but unfolded to reveal a platform, stool, drum kit, keyboard stand, looping pedals, and a guitar. He would build the box, then make an album that could be performed live, by himself, in one sitting. I said, Sounds incredible, here’s some money, I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
He spend 4 solitary months building the sexiest, manliest instrument I’d ever seen, a few days writing the music, and another few months recording it. The album wasn’t just ‘a bunch of songs’ but a continuous story about a boy who was born laughing and whose legs kicked relentlessly, whose movement was impossible to control, who could not sleep, whose parents “took shifts, a steady rotation of looking after him, while the other one would sleep out in the car,” drumming on every conceivable surface, pounding the parents’ belongings to smithereens, immune to adult anti-psychotic medication … an individual incapable, by his nature, of being restrained; his bombastic inner fire and innocence; his relentless and violent quest for peace, and his eventual triumph.
After wrapping the record, I asked my favorite illustrator Ira if he wanted to do something kind of… weird. Let’s not make a music video and let’s not make ‘album art’. Ira, can you make a loooonnnng illustration that scrolls across the viewer’s screen for the entire 45 minute album? He said, Sounds good, pay up and I’ll get back to you in a few months.
The months dragged on (but who cares when ART MUST EXIST WITHOUT COMPROMISE?) … And he returned with 50 feet of painstakingly, achingly detailed and imaginative, hand-drawn art. Totally original stuff — the sort of magic you only get when one brilliant person tunnels into an impossibly ambitious project for a really long time.
We stitched it together in After Effects, synched it with the music, and uploaded it to Vimeo. And now, well, here it is, you can watch this “illustrative score”, this new and beautiful thing, two single-minded visions gracefully interwoven like … like snakes having sex!
But don’t watch it now, here in the Tumblr dashboard, with the lights on, your hand on your mouse, looking for the next nano-meme to microstimulate you. When you click the link below, be prepared to invest 45 minutes with your headphones on, the lights off, seated comfortably, and with fullscreen on. This is the real deal, people, and I promise it is worth watching.
Nothing inspires me more than iron-clad dedication and steadfast resolve. Holy crap.
