17: genius doesn't exist in a vacuum
genius doesn't exist in a vacuum.
my number one blocker as a creative has always been the fear of being unoriginal.
but the closer i look, the more i realize the most uniquely "creative" people are the best at stealing from diverse sources.
stage one of creative development is learning the craft. that happens through copying. you have to consume and recreate hundreds of classics before you create anything remotely "you". the beatles were a cover band for years before they wrote their first song.
through this process, you develop taste. by paying attention to what you actually enjoy copying, you find out firsthand what you like and what you don't, down to the tiniest nitpicky preferences.
then comes stage two: disillusionment. you discover that the works you once thought were perfect are actually flawed. but past the initial disillusionment is something much more beautiful: the realization that your heroes were human, all too human. which means there's nothing special or unreachable about them.
you depedestalize them. you kill your proverbial father.
and only then does the artist's journey begin.