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Stop Acting Like You're Famous

ajkprojects.com

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Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#101

Post by atoav »

d--b wrote: post #84

Ok the most important sentence in this essay is its subtitle: “Advice for myself around leisure activities” Personally I am no perfectionist at all, but I don’t see the fun in making stuff myself that I could otherwise buy. I took up sewing, not because I want to sew the perfect shirt, but because men’s fashion sucks. That said, I sew stuff I can wear. So it needs to look at least as good as what I could buy. I don’t…

This is good advice, I'd like to ad one caveat tho: It is not a good idea to base your decision whether to start doing a hobby on your own perceived ability to get good at it.

For one the much more important metric is whether you enjoy doing it, because ultimately you are doing it for yourself. Secondly, as an educator I have to say that many people absolutely suck at predicting their own inability to learn a thing.

There are many people who say they will be bad at $X and because of that prediction they avoid doing $X, which in turn is the reason they can never become good at $X.

It is much better to just take the gift that Punk culture has given us and focus on finding A) joy in doing things even if you are not good at them and B) finding your own way of doing them, because for many hobbies there just isn't one objectively good way of doing them.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#102

Post by yawboakye »

nickelpro wrote: post #99

Hard disagree with this as a polemic When I take photographs of my friends, it is incredibly important to me that they be in focus, sharp, with a good depth of field bokeh that brings out their face and presents an attractive image. I take a huge amount of pride when a photo I shot ends up as a profile picture or widely shared. That's a large part of why I take them, to share with others. Got my current job because o…

you talk about something else. sometimes, in fact most times, this imaginary and large audience (who also happen to be great critics) can beat anyone into inaction and kill whatever little flame we were nursing. it’s all in our heads, which means we end up defeating ourselves. it isn’t an ode to mediocrity, imo. if anything, practice and more practice is the best cure for mediocrity.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#103

Post by selestify »

d--b wrote: post #84

Ok the most important sentence in this essay is its subtitle: “Advice for myself around leisure activities” Personally I am no perfectionist at all, but I don’t see the fun in making stuff myself that I could otherwise buy. I took up sewing, not because I want to sew the perfect shirt, but because men’s fashion sucks. That said, I sew stuff I can wear. So it needs to look at least as good as what I could buy. I don’t…

> Maybe that would be my advice in taking up hobbies: aim to be better than the worst people who do it professionally.

I guess this is my gripe with advice in general: Why should anyone else make that their aim? It’s great that it works for you, but I don’t think that’s applicable to me :)

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#104

Post by detourdog »

keiferski wrote: post #65

I haven’t studied the topic enough, but it would be very interesting to see when this dichotomy of money-making vs. self-interest really embedded itself into the act of creation. Somewhere during the Industrial Revolution, I suppose. But I also think the default mode of “art as self expression” plays a big part, and that’s more early-mid 20th century. Because when you read about creators during say, the Renaissance,…

I would place somewhere between the 1970s and 1980s. Prior to Reaganomics I remember it being pretty easy to get by on very little money. The go go eighties really changed materialism from my perspective.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#105

Post by resource_waste »

humbleferret wrote: post #95

Ash's main takeaway is solid — Immerse yourself in hobbies or creative pursuits without being overly concerned about external validation or the potential for monetary gain. Other takeaways that stuck with me were: — Finding enjoyment in the process of learning and improving your own skills is crucial. — Setting personal goals can help fuel growth. — Sharing your work with others is a way to receive feedback and learn…

200 years later, people rewrite Nietzsche.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#106

Post by redder23 »

I actually have the opposite problem. I think it would help me if I would act MORE like I was, well I would not say famous but like promoting stuff, talking about it. Marketing myself and by business, just "presenting" myself.

It does not help someone create the greatest thing ever in silence when nobody will ever know about it.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#107

Post by titchard »

yawboakye wrote: post #102
nickelpro wrote: post #99

Hard disagree with this as a polemic When I take photographs of my friends, it is incredibly important to me that they be in focus, sharp, with a good depth of field bokeh that brings out their face and presents an attractive image. I take a huge amount of pride when a photo I shot ends up as a profile picture or widely shared. That's a large part of why I take them, to share with others. Got my current job because o…

you talk about something else. sometimes, in fact most times, this imaginary and large audience (who also happen to be great critics) can beat anyone into inaction and kill whatever little flame we were nursing. it’s all in our heads, which means we end up defeating ourselves. it isn’t an ode to mediocrity, imo. if anything, practice and more practice is the best cure for mediocrity.

I think this is spot on - how many times have people (and I include myself) stopped on a project that is even remotely public facing because it isn't perfect-grade work before you've even learnt the first steps?

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#108

Post by keiferski »

detourdog wrote: post #104
keiferski wrote: post #65

I haven’t studied the topic enough, but it would be very interesting to see when this dichotomy of money-making vs. self-interest really embedded itself into the act of creation. Somewhere during the Industrial Revolution, I suppose. But I also think the default mode of “art as self expression” plays a big part, and that’s more early-mid 20th century. Because when you read about creators during say, the Renaissance,…

I would place somewhere between the 1970s and 1980s. Prior to Reaganomics I remember it being pretty easy to get by on very little money. The go go eighties really changed materialism from my perspective.

In the fine art world, definitely I agree. That’s when Gagosian etc. really started taking off and making the fine art market a thing for billionaires.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#109

Post by helboi4 »

fcatalan wrote: post #76

This resonates with me. I can't have relaxing hobbies: I take them up, find some measurable/competitive/social aspect in them, smash my way from "rookie" to "advanced beginner" to "top 20 percentile" in very little time and then agonize about the ensuing plateau and how getting into the top 1% would require complete dedication or might be realistically out of reach for me. By that time I stop enjoying doing whatever…

Bruh I am this exact same person. I am mediocre enough at everything I do to impress laymen but leave me feeling like shit because I know anyone who knows the craft will think I suck. I have the ability to learn up to intermediate stage of pretty much anything way faster than most people but I just stress myself out and there's always other fish in the sea for me.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#110

Post by mapreduce »

Why is it so that every so often one of these feel-good LinkedIn-style posts make it to the front page? Is there so much demand for banality on this site? I come here to read good tech articles or articles that stimulate my curiosity and it is sad to see these articles upvoted to the top when so many other good articles at https://news.ycombinator.com/newest continue to languish.
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