5 ms·

"Making your own work is a good thing to do, even if no one else is interested in what you are making. To create is to be human." Tattoo that on my forehead ba

"Making your own work is a good thing to do, even if no one else is interested in what you are making. To create is to be human." Tattoo that on my forehead backwards.

smitty1e 4y ago
I just had a big project land with a dull thud. It felt great though; the learning along the way was invaluable. Principle: be patient with yourself on this heuristic journey and keep improving.
- YPCrumble 4y ago
  What was the project?
  - smitty1e 4y ago
    It is a precursor to my PhD proposal. With massively overlapping vector shapes I want to analyze, making a "faux raster" index of boxes contained in the shapes seems a good approach. Except that I wound up discovering an improvement for my immediate question that obviated all of the intermediate schema I'd build up. Big shout out to Spatialite (https://www.gaia-gis.it/ https://www.gaia-gis.it/) and GeoAlchemy-2 (https://geoalchemy-2.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://geoalchemy-2.readthedocs.io/en/latest/).
brk 4y ago
I've been wanting to explore doing tattoos to express my creativity, if you're ever in the Tampa area, stop by and I'll take you up on that!
drcongo 4y ago
That one resonated hard with me too. I make music purely as a creative outlet that isn't my job, and because my job is on a laptop all day, I've deliberately chosen to produce music purely on iOS so that I can have that total context switch. I release stuff on Bandcamp, and recently on streaming services too (apart from Spotify), but I'm releasing it mostly as an ending, like waving your kid off to university or something - I'm not releasing it for anyone else. However, having said all that, I get enormous joy from hearing one of my tracks being played by a DJ I've never met on the other side of the world.
- kcindric 4y ago
  Are you trying to say that working in a different OS is an enough context switch for you? I also produced a lot of music but when I switched careers and became a developer a struggle to create using a laptop and a DAW.
  - drcongo 4y ago
    Yeah, absolutely. Except it's not just a different OS, it's a different physical device. My Mac only gets used for work (and playing around with music visualisation), my iPad only gets used for music, I think of it as a portable studio - the iOS music ecosystem is incredible these days.
slothtrop 4y ago
I have a history of being hung up about my perceived importance about making art/entertainment in a world saturated with it. Which is kind of inconsistent given that I don't lend a greater degree of importance to most other things, but it's just the unshakable sensation that yields when I rationalize what to do. What is flipping things a little is focusing on desire for "flow", or enjoying mastery, that I do not want solely tied to my vocation. I also have a separate but similar itch, which is to work with my hands with no cognitive overhead. I don't feel an obligation to create (to "be human", for pride, validation, etc) nor am I particularly creative. However, my sense is it can satisfy wants where passive consumption falls short. Probably I could be just as satisfied if I obsessed over a sport.
- comboy 4y ago
  Objectively there is no rational argument you can make why colonizing other stars is better than recording sounds of farts. It all drops down to our values. But I got hung up about that too. My solution - as always it turns out to be a bit of this and a bit of that. It's a personal very complex function that takes into account what you know, what you believe, what you value and what you feel. Very difficult to compute. Luckily you don't need to think about it at all. Your subconscious brain is already computing it all the best it can and presents you the result in the purest form: "I want to do X now". It's pretty amazing. Inevitable follow up - but I don't know what I want to do - do nothing. It works.
  - slothtrop 4y ago
    That seems good for tapping into desires, but may be an unreliable heuristic for long-term. In part because we are creatures of habit, and our habits can be hijacked, or plainly unhealthy. We may have several prospective or competing desires - if instant gratification is among them, that is the path of least resistance, the grooves deepen. "I want.. to sit down, eat, and watch something, and be left alone". Delayed gratification is abstracted enough that moment-to-moment desire leads you off course. If we have in us a desire for validation or high-level engagement which drives us to do something, keeping an eye on the prize may mean disposing with whatever the imminent "X" is right now. The point of frustration is that these motivators, which drive us to try to master something, can be tepid or inconsistent and therefore insufficient. You end up needing a sense of obligation, i.e. discipline. At least for me, getting anything done means creating habits, because 'desire' is a shot in the dark. There's a quote from somewhere that power is "acting in the face of uncertainty". Desire and motivation is a murky area to me, beyond obvious things.
the_only_law 4y ago
I’m always saddened to see a very cool project posted here only for the waves of “yeah but how does it make money”.
- leviathant 4y ago
  "You don't have to monetize your joy" - via https://repeller.com/trap-of-turning-hobbies-into-hustles/ https://repeller.com/trap-of-turning-hobbies-into-hustles/
- stuntkite 4y ago
  I've spent the last sixish years trying to take all the things I know that are pretty valuable and channel them into a project that is absolutely impossible to monetize. It's a meditation on death and seeing something in the world that is only mine. Just trying to create something that is a reflection of me and make it exist to make me laugh or smile when it's dope. Sometimes other people are interested. That's cool. Part of this came out of the frustration of being a knowledge worker. I don't know how many contracts I've had to negotiate where someone is hiring me for some shit like GIS or Unity3D and they want a perpetual non-compete where I can't ever work on those things again. Like what? You came to me. If a carpenter makes you a chair you don't get to own his woodshop and it's not my fault that I found knack for computer in the 90s and now the whole world needs that shit. For a while I'd get frustrated when I'd show people my project and they'd be like "I don't see how this can be a business." Now I kind of love it and lean in and troll the shit out of it. Also I'm getting pretty good at combining sounds, pixels, and GIS information in real time. Which no one on earth would ever pay me to do if I waited around for a paycheck to do it. Also it's really nice prior art coverage when moving into new operations. Hunt bliss not vested shares. The more people that do that the better the world can be.
AlwaysRock 4y ago
Yup. This is so hard to internalize. And to keep fresh in ones mind after extended periods of time with no external gratification. I stopped making a lot of art in the past because I felt like It was just for me and that wasnt enough.

"Making your own work is a good thing to do, even if no one else is interested in what you are making. To create is to be human." Tattoo that on my forehead backwards.

smitty1e 4y ago

I just had a big project land with a dull thud. It felt great though; the learning along the way was invaluable. Principle: be patient with yourself on this heuristic journey and keep improving.

YPCrumble 4y ago
What was the project?
- smitty1e 4y ago
  It is a precursor to my PhD proposal. With massively overlapping vector shapes I want to analyze, making a "faux raster" index of boxes contained in the shapes seems a good approach. Except that I wound up discovering an improvement for my immediate question that obviated all of the intermediate schema I'd build up. Big shout out to Spatialite (https://www.gaia-gis.it/ https://www.gaia-gis.it/) and GeoAlchemy-2 (https://geoalchemy-2.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://geoalchemy-2.readthedocs.io/en/latest/).

brk 4y ago

I've been wanting to explore doing tattoos to express my creativity, if you're ever in the Tampa area, stop by and I'll take you up on that!

drcongo 4y ago

That one resonated hard with me too. I make music purely as a creative outlet that isn't my job, and because my job is on a laptop all day, I've deliberately chosen to produce music purely on iOS so that I can have that total context switch. I release stuff on Bandcamp, and recently on streaming services too (apart from Spotify), but I'm releasing it mostly as an ending, like waving your kid off to university or something - I'm not releasing it for anyone else. However, having said all that, I get enormous joy from hearing one of my tracks being played by a DJ I've never met on the other side of the world.

kcindric 4y ago
Are you trying to say that working in a different OS is an enough context switch for you? I also produced a lot of music but when I switched careers and became a developer a struggle to create using a laptop and a DAW.
- drcongo 4y ago
  Yeah, absolutely. Except it's not just a different OS, it's a different physical device. My Mac only gets used for work (and playing around with music visualisation), my iPad only gets used for music, I think of it as a portable studio - the iOS music ecosystem is incredible these days.

slothtrop 4y ago

I have a history of being hung up about my perceived importance about making art/entertainment in a world saturated with it. Which is kind of inconsistent given that I don't lend a greater degree of importance to most other things, but it's just the unshakable sensation that yields when I rationalize what to do. What is flipping things a little is focusing on desire for "flow", or enjoying mastery, that I do not want solely tied to my vocation. I also have a separate but similar itch, which is to work with my hands with no cognitive overhead. I don't feel an obligation to create (to "be human", for pride, validation, etc) nor am I particularly creative. However, my sense is it can satisfy wants where passive consumption falls short. Probably I could be just as satisfied if I obsessed over a sport.

comboy 4y ago
Objectively there is no rational argument you can make why colonizing other stars is better than recording sounds of farts. It all drops down to our values. But I got hung up about that too. My solution - as always it turns out to be a bit of this and a bit of that. It's a personal very complex function that takes into account what you know, what you believe, what you value and what you feel. Very difficult to compute. Luckily you don't need to think about it at all. Your subconscious brain is already computing it all the best it can and presents you the result in the purest form: "I want to do X now". It's pretty amazing. Inevitable follow up - but I don't know what I want to do - do nothing. It works.
- slothtrop 4y ago
  That seems good for tapping into desires, but may be an unreliable heuristic for long-term. In part because we are creatures of habit, and our habits can be hijacked, or plainly unhealthy. We may have several prospective or competing desires - if instant gratification is among them, that is the path of least resistance, the grooves deepen. "I want.. to sit down, eat, and watch something, and be left alone". Delayed gratification is abstracted enough that moment-to-moment desire leads you off course. If we have in us a desire for validation or high-level engagement which drives us to do something, keeping an eye on the prize may mean disposing with whatever the imminent "X" is right now. The point of frustration is that these motivators, which drive us to try to master something, can be tepid or inconsistent and therefore insufficient. You end up needing a sense of obligation, i.e. discipline. At least for me, getting anything done means creating habits, because 'desire' is a shot in the dark. There's a quote from somewhere that power is "acting in the face of uncertainty". Desire and motivation is a murky area to me, beyond obvious things.

the_only_law 4y ago

I’m always saddened to see a very cool project posted here only for the waves of “yeah but how does it make money”.

leviathant 4y ago
"You don't have to monetize your joy" - via https://repeller.com/trap-of-turning-hobbies-into-hustles/ https://repeller.com/trap-of-turning-hobbies-into-hustles/
stuntkite 4y ago
I've spent the last sixish years trying to take all the things I know that are pretty valuable and channel them into a project that is absolutely impossible to monetize. It's a meditation on death and seeing something in the world that is only mine. Just trying to create something that is a reflection of me and make it exist to make me laugh or smile when it's dope. Sometimes other people are interested. That's cool. Part of this came out of the frustration of being a knowledge worker. I don't know how many contracts I've had to negotiate where someone is hiring me for some shit like GIS or Unity3D and they want a perpetual non-compete where I can't ever work on those things again. Like what? You came to me. If a carpenter makes you a chair you don't get to own his woodshop and it's not my fault that I found knack for computer in the 90s and now the whole world needs that shit. For a while I'd get frustrated when I'd show people my project and they'd be like "I don't see how this can be a business." Now I kind of love it and lean in and troll the shit out of it. Also I'm getting pretty good at combining sounds, pixels, and GIS information in real time. Which no one on earth would ever pay me to do if I waited around for a paycheck to do it. Also it's really nice prior art coverage when moving into new operations. Hunt bliss not vested shares. The more people that do that the better the world can be.

AlwaysRock 4y ago

Yup. This is so hard to internalize. And to keep fresh in ones mind after extended periods of time with no external gratification. I stopped making a lot of art in the past because I felt like It was just for me and that wasnt enough.