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I think people have been totally brainwashed by the idea of finding success within the creator economy. For instance, hobbies are no longer things one does bec

I think people have been totally brainwashed by the idea of finding success within the creator economy. For instance, hobbies are no longer things one does because they bring joy—they're now activities that people haven't figured out how to monetize. Before you’ve purchased a pound of clay and a pottery wheel—before you’ve even made your first mug—you’re buying a domain, designing a logo, and thinking about whether to sell your ceramics on Etsy or Shopify. And maybe you'll start a Patreon to document the learning process. I think for people who have been formed by the creator economy, people who have grown up in this space, the impulse to create and SELL seems almost pathological. Then, there are the people who are afflicted with what I'm calling curatorial neuroticism. These are people who view curation as creation—they curate and share at a frantic pace. They gather, organize, present, and archive information obsessively. There's no stopping them. They spend more time writing in their seventh iteration of their Zettelkasten than they do interacting with people. If only I could get organized, if I could only "cultivate my second brain", I will unlock my creative potential, I'll figure out how to make money on Substack with a highly curated newsletter, or something. What I sense in the curatorial creation is not really a "product", but a need to be seen. People share what they share—all of the lists, and links, and archives—so that they are viewed as having a certain literary taste, or wanting to be seen as having read these books, watched these movies, and so on. Anyway, a quote from: Leisure, The Basis of Culture: "I have never bothered or asked", Goethe said to Friedrich Sort in 1830, "in what way was I useful to society as a whole; I contended myself with expressing what I recognized as good and true. That has certainly been useful in a wide circle; but that was not the aim; it was the necessary result."

meheleventyone 5y ago
I find this pretty terrifying because it’s undermining the very basis of leisure time and changing many ideas about hobbies into a bland performative regurgitation of the parts that sell. It also feels like things are getting weirdly homogenised.
jrapdx3 5y ago
Among other things I've done I've been an artist/printmaker for a few decades. Can't say how many prints I've made. Always great when work sells, but it's not a predictable event at least in my experience. Very few artists sell enough to earn a living let alone become rich or famous. Most need to have "day jobs", teaching is a common occupation. Of course that's been true for a long time. Despite these realities more people regard themselves as "artists" than ever before. Amazes me how many people enroll in art schools at $40K/yr. Student loans have to be paid off later on, from a hard financial viewpoint it doesn't pencil out. Yet year after year no shortage of people sign up, level of talent notwithstanding. You're probably right. What you observe is an expression of form over substance. Maybe it's a "cargo cult" sort of thing where people think wrapping themselves in the trappings of "creatives" is the same as being genuinely creative. The demise of hobbies probably speaks to denigrated value of "work", that is, expending effort to reach goals. I can tell you that printmaking is 5% design, color, etc., and 95% painstaking physical and cognitive labor, in short, it's work. OTOH looking for shortcuts eventually fails, and failure is followed by yet another round of seeking shortcuts. Here's my prediction, sooner or later the "shortcut culture" burns itself out, though I won't place any bets on when that will happen.

meheleventyone 5y ago

I find this pretty terrifying because it’s undermining the very basis of leisure time and changing many ideas about hobbies into a bland performative regurgitation of the parts that sell. It also feels like things are getting weirdly homogenised.

jrapdx3 5y ago

Among other things I've done I've been an artist/printmaker for a few decades. Can't say how many prints I've made. Always great when work sells, but it's not a predictable event at least in my experience. Very few artists sell enough to earn a living let alone become rich or famous. Most need to have "day jobs", teaching is a common occupation. Of course that's been true for a long time. Despite these realities more people regard themselves as "artists" than ever before. Amazes me how many people enroll in art schools at $40K/yr. Student loans have to be paid off later on, from a hard financial viewpoint it doesn't pencil out. Yet year after year no shortage of people sign up, level of talent notwithstanding. You're probably right. What you observe is an expression of form over substance. Maybe it's a "cargo cult" sort of thing where people think wrapping themselves in the trappings of "creatives" is the same as being genuinely creative. The demise of hobbies probably speaks to denigrated value of "work", that is, expending effort to reach goals. I can tell you that printmaking is 5% design, color, etc., and 95% painstaking physical and cognitive labor, in short, it's work. OTOH looking for shortcuts eventually fails, and failure is followed by yet another round of seeking shortcuts. Here's my prediction, sooner or later the "shortcut culture" burns itself out, though I won't place any bets on when that will happen.