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If you ask Martin Scorsese, there’s a huge, gaping hole between yesterday’s cinema and today’s movies. Cinema is a form of art that combines culture, feeling, history, and unexplored themes or ideas. The movie business has become just that–a business.
Gaps between content and art
In some ways, content is the struggle that comes before art is born.
Writers toil away in bright coffee shops and dimly lit bedrooms, searching for a solid paragraph among pages of “junk”.
Some of that junk ends up getting shipped as content. That content gathers feedback. The creator leverages the insights to eventually produce something closer to art.
10,000 hours? Try a decade instead
Not saying that the 10,000-hour rule doesn’t work, or isn’t a good starting point for quantifying what it takes to achieve mastery. But a recent study debunks the myth, finding that most groundbreaking work happens during the late thirties.
That may feel like forever if you’re young.
But James Clear offers a comforting thought: “Whether you are a composer or a scientist, creativity is not a quality you are born with or without. It is something that is discovered, honed, and improved through real work.”
As writers, this is comforting yet inspiring news. It means that our best work is still ahead of us. It also means the worst is likely behind. Time alone isn’t the predictor of creativity, exploration and iteration is.
Finding your flow
So how does one keep improving? By being aware of mental models and processes. David Kadavy breaks down the stages of creative work with an equally creative acronym. “PER Golf PAR”
Prioritize = decide what needs to be done and what doesn’t
Explore = give yourself permission to wander
Research = start searching for answers
Generate = put the proverbial pen to paper
Polish = edit and refine
Admin = take care of the logistics and less pretty stuff
Recharge = rest and refuel!
If you made it this far, you’ve signed up for a bonus round. Here’s a summary of tips for unlocking the artist within all of us, remixed and inspired by Mr. Clear himself.
Give yourself permission to ship out junk. There are cuts of diamond hidden within the rough, which you can curate and develop over time. Inspiration will find you if you try finding it.
Build on a schedule. Hone in on your craft consistently. “Creative genius arrives when you show up enough times to get the average ideas out of the way”. It’s the difference between pros and amateurs.
Finish something. This may be the most difficult. If you start a project, find a way to finish it. Instead of planning, researching, dreaming, just do. Good or bad doesn’t matter, and it’s subjective. It’s about proving to yourself that you can do it, and getting feedback.
Practice self-compassion. If you’re doing it right, it won’t feel easy. You’ll be your harshest critic, voicing disappointment and discontent. But you have to laugh through it and give yourself breaks along the way.
Wood For The Fire, W(F)TF
(our way of saying “food for thought”):
There’s a new flavor of influencer in town, an AI-created Rozy landed 100 sponsorships
LinkedIn launches $25M fund for creators
The link between happiness and a sense of humor, and how laughter makes you more productive at work
What is the greatest honor? This weird video *might* tell you
New podcast we discovered talks about “Tools in the Solo Creator Toolkit”
Quote of the Week:
“Inspiration only reveals itself after perspiration.” - James Clear
Featured Builder:
James Clear, author of the #1 NYT bestseller Atomic Habits. A freak baseball accident put James in a desperate place, fighting to recover from brain damage. His journey led him to realize that small, simple habits can be stacked one on top of the other to bring about incremental but powerful change. Little known is that he donates 5% of profits to causes that improve the health of children, pregnant mothers, and families in low-income communities.
His newsletter and Twitter will set your soul on fire...in a good way.