No kidding! I so resonate with your sentiment on needing to combine the art AND the design. I don’t want to play a game, but I have to realize my art must shift to also be useful and unselfish. This is the best of design!
I LOVE this! You're definitely an artist at heart, Harrison. Quite amazing how good you are at solving your own problems through writing. With that being said, I still think this allows you to solve other people's problems in the process. Because whatever problem you have, somebody out there is bound to have a similar, if not an exact, one. The comment section should prove it. And I hope I get to see how that all plays out one day.
I'll be thinking about this for a while. Great job.
Thanks Linart. You’re right. And I wanted to say something about that but I couldn’t figure out how to say it and ran out of time in the end. Maybe it was best I didn’t anyway? Maybe better to leave it to be implied?
I needed to read this. The concept of writer-designers and writer-artists is such useful framing, and it seems by design.
"It’s as if design is the time for polishing the rough diamonds we find when making art."
It's exactly this. I have a lot of coal in 13 years of tweeting, and I'm sure some rough diamonds if I'm willing to look, but I just want to keep mining. I've decided to spend the next few months hunting for rough diamonds.
Thank you! I didn’t know what that meant so looked it up. That’s quite the compliment! And such a cool saying. I feel like it should be the name of a band or a book
omg I woke up to see this and it absolutely made my day Maria—and thank you for restacking it for your followers, I super appreciate that. I wanna help writers (and myself) become more confident and fun-loving
YES. I was just having the same conversation about the same Inspiration/Self-Doubt loop that destroys routines and therefore, discipline. Ruins your bravery to show up and do the daily work.
I might print this article and crumple it into a tiny ball and try to eat it because that’s how much it resonates. Or I’ll just read it a few more times.
I'm really glad you brought this up actually. I cut a paragraph about this cus it was making the essay that bit too long. But you're absolutely right to point this out.
My feeling is, it’s not that art making is necessarily a solitary thing. Plenty of great art gets made in collaboration as we know, especially when each member contributes their own special skills and perspectives to create something greater than the sum of its parts (think The Beatles, for eg, but there are countless examples). But I do feel the collective mind of the group is still subject to the same magical conditions as that of the individual mind—it's at its most creative when it's free to follow its own intuitive and emotional pleasure, without having to worry about how to be successful or how to make money. Does that make sense?
In other words, art happens when we—alone or in a group—are freed from material and ego concerns.
It's probably interesting that I started reading this assuming you were a writer-designer but was then surprised to see you identified as a writer-artist. I think I incorrectly inferred this from the fact that you must have been recommended to me by an algorithm due to some crafty designership of yours.
Thanks Collin, I wish I had more of that crafty designership up my sleeve, I really do!
I do next-to-no distribution at the moment as I'm still trying to work out (a) what would be most effective and (b) what I won't become bored/fed up with. I also want any self-promotion I do to feel genuine and useful—all of this I'm finding pretty tricky to balance.
I did share this essay into Notes yesterday (and a couple of other times last week), so maybe that's why you saw it?
Anyways. Do you feel you identify with artist, designer or both? Or something else?
I was a strategy/consulting/MBA guy who then worked in startups for a bit. Semi-retired into teaching which is technically how I make my money now but I'm a lot less stressed about finances due to the earlier work I've done. Probably a gradated shift from design to artistry in this!
That sounds nice. I'd like to get to a place where my writing can support me on its own, but I also know (as Elizabeth Gilbert warns in her brilliant book Big Magic) that relying on your art to look after you doesn't always end well, so I'm trying to find ways to look after my art (for now) rather than have it look after me.
It'll probably involve doing some more startup work like yourself, some design for sure, maybe some coaching too—whatever is required to feed, cloth and stimulate me till I no longer have to put any pressure on art to provide for me. At that point, I hope I'll be able to slow down, turn inward again, and return to my childish pre-work vision of the world and write about that all day! I see it as a kind of return to an earlier, more essential version of myself. But only once I've secured the freedom to do that.
That said, it probably won't pan out like that tho right, haha?
Haha.. I think people with high potency don't really slow down. They might shift their motivation from a short term goal orientation to one that is more about play and curiosity (artist), but the freedom probably unlocks a different level of output (not necessarily bigger is better, but maybe more obsession/love/etc.)
What struck me -- if you struggle with writing an intro, you are likely a designer. If you struggle with a conclusion -- you are likely an artist.
ooo I like that. They are both challenging aren't they?!
No kidding! I so resonate with your sentiment on needing to combine the art AND the design. I don’t want to play a game, but I have to realize my art must shift to also be useful and unselfish. This is the best of design!
100%
I LOVE this! You're definitely an artist at heart, Harrison. Quite amazing how good you are at solving your own problems through writing. With that being said, I still think this allows you to solve other people's problems in the process. Because whatever problem you have, somebody out there is bound to have a similar, if not an exact, one. The comment section should prove it. And I hope I get to see how that all plays out one day.
I'll be thinking about this for a while. Great job.
Thanks Linart. You’re right. And I wanted to say something about that but I couldn’t figure out how to say it and ran out of time in the end. Maybe it was best I didn’t anyway? Maybe better to leave it to be implied?
Yeah, I totally get it. Definitely something worth thinking about for now. Might even be an essay in the future. :)
👌🏻
I needed to read this. The concept of writer-designers and writer-artists is such useful framing, and it seems by design.
"It’s as if design is the time for polishing the rough diamonds we find when making art."
It's exactly this. I have a lot of coal in 13 years of tweeting, and I'm sure some rough diamonds if I'm willing to look, but I just want to keep mining. I've decided to spend the next few months hunting for rough diamonds.
You’re at the coal face of culture Miche ⛏️
Thank you! I didn’t know what that meant so looked it up. That’s quite the compliment! And such a cool saying. I feel like it should be the name of a band or a book
Yeah it’s got a nice ring to it hasn’t it
whoa. i have never felt so relieved and motivated by one article. wonderfully written with your personal reflections mixed with public reality.
omg I woke up to see this and it absolutely made my day Maria—and thank you for restacking it for your followers, I super appreciate that. I wanna help writers (and myself) become more confident and fun-loving
YES. I was just having the same conversation about the same Inspiration/Self-Doubt loop that destroys routines and therefore, discipline. Ruins your bravery to show up and do the daily work.
100%. It’s killer. There is some comfort in knowing it’s a phase that always passes. But it’s never any easier when it comes back around!
I might print this article and crumple it into a tiny ball and try to eat it because that’s how much it resonates. Or I’ll just read it a few more times.
🙃
I also think great art can be for the collective.
I'm really glad you brought this up actually. I cut a paragraph about this cus it was making the essay that bit too long. But you're absolutely right to point this out.
My feeling is, it’s not that art making is necessarily a solitary thing. Plenty of great art gets made in collaboration as we know, especially when each member contributes their own special skills and perspectives to create something greater than the sum of its parts (think The Beatles, for eg, but there are countless examples). But I do feel the collective mind of the group is still subject to the same magical conditions as that of the individual mind—it's at its most creative when it's free to follow its own intuitive and emotional pleasure, without having to worry about how to be successful or how to make money. Does that make sense?
In other words, art happens when we—alone or in a group—are freed from material and ego concerns.
wdyt?
It's probably interesting that I started reading this assuming you were a writer-designer but was then surprised to see you identified as a writer-artist. I think I incorrectly inferred this from the fact that you must have been recommended to me by an algorithm due to some crafty designership of yours.
Thanks Collin, I wish I had more of that crafty designership up my sleeve, I really do!
I do next-to-no distribution at the moment as I'm still trying to work out (a) what would be most effective and (b) what I won't become bored/fed up with. I also want any self-promotion I do to feel genuine and useful—all of this I'm finding pretty tricky to balance.
I did share this essay into Notes yesterday (and a couple of other times last week), so maybe that's why you saw it?
Anyways. Do you feel you identify with artist, designer or both? Or something else?
Artist for sure. Enabled/funded by design in non-writing contexts.
Love it. That sounds perfect to me. Design the freedom to make our art ⛵️
How are you making your living, if you don't mind me asking?
I was a strategy/consulting/MBA guy who then worked in startups for a bit. Semi-retired into teaching which is technically how I make my money now but I'm a lot less stressed about finances due to the earlier work I've done. Probably a gradated shift from design to artistry in this!
That sounds nice. I'd like to get to a place where my writing can support me on its own, but I also know (as Elizabeth Gilbert warns in her brilliant book Big Magic) that relying on your art to look after you doesn't always end well, so I'm trying to find ways to look after my art (for now) rather than have it look after me.
It'll probably involve doing some more startup work like yourself, some design for sure, maybe some coaching too—whatever is required to feed, cloth and stimulate me till I no longer have to put any pressure on art to provide for me. At that point, I hope I'll be able to slow down, turn inward again, and return to my childish pre-work vision of the world and write about that all day! I see it as a kind of return to an earlier, more essential version of myself. But only once I've secured the freedom to do that.
That said, it probably won't pan out like that tho right, haha?
Haha.. I think people with high potency don't really slow down. They might shift their motivation from a short term goal orientation to one that is more about play and curiosity (artist), but the freedom probably unlocks a different level of output (not necessarily bigger is better, but maybe more obsession/love/etc.)