“The genius of Eno is in removing the idea of genius. His work is rooted in the power of collaboration within systems: instructions, rules, and self-imposed limits. His methods are a rebuke to the assumption that a project can be powered by one person’s intent, or that intent is even worth worrying about. To this end, Eno has come up with words like “scenius,” which describes the power generated by a group of artists who gather in one place at one time.”
“11. Make things – Look around you. What do you see? Yah, shitty stuff made by impoverished enslaved people far away. Pick anything. Make a better one. People want good shit. You won’t get rich, but you’ll get by.”
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
“Ignorance … sheer ignorance. There is no confidence to equal it. It’s only when you know something about a profession that you are timid or careful.”
This is Orson Welles’ answer when asked “where he got the confidence as a first-time director to direct a film so radically different from contemporary cinema,” namely, Citizen Kane.
Through ignorance he directed a movie that changed the course of storytelling. Some facts from wikipedia:
His quote above reminds me of this one from Richard Saul Wurman on selling self discovery instead of expertise.
The scene pictured above is one of my favorites from the movie. So strange to see the main character set completely in shadow like this. Forced me to think about what Welles was saying about the event taking place in this scene.
I wasn’t sure if it would be too old timey to enjoy watching. I was pleasantly surprised.
“One trend I’ve noticed that is a little alarming to me, specifically in product design, is the compulsion to make everything perfect, at any cost. I’m not a big fan of the term “pixel perfect.” I think it fosters an inaccurate view of reality. I believe that good product design is efficient, collaborative, and always evolving. It’s never done and it’s certainly never perfect. Do I think design should be thoughtful and intelligent? Absolutely. I just see an obsession with perfection that feels like it belongs more to the arts than product design.”
“Don’t make stuff because you want to make money — it will never make you enough money. And don’t make stuff because you want to get famous — because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people — and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts.”
John Green via @jedidiahJenkins
“What I left behind: that old way of living, where pushing and controlling and multi-tasking chokes out love and kindness and presence. I left behind exhaustion as a way of life, and as a status symbol. I left behind work as identity and scooped up as much love and hospitality as I could, cramming it into my worn-out heart, bringing it home, bringing it into a life I’m still remaking from the inside out.”
I was on this trip with Shauna. The experience is fk’n with me… in a good way. Hospitality as a lifestyle…
In 1915 Copywriter Theodore F. MacManus was faced with how to improve the situation for Cadillac. They were the market leader, perceived best manufacturer of cars, but the latest model, the very first V-8 engine, was skittish and buggy. This was MacManus’ answer. He dictated the ad to his secretary whilst pacing the room.
It became one of the greatest and most influential advertisements of all time.
As to his inspiration for this, MacManus said:
“The real suggestion to convey is that the man manufacturing the product is an honest man, and that the product is an honest product, to be preferred above all others.”
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity.
Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work.
In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same.
The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction.
When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few.
If his work be mediocre, he will be left severely alone – if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a -wagging
Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting
Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius
Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done.
Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountback, long after the big would had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius.
Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all.
The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by.
The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership.
Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy – but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant.
There is nothing new in this.
It is as old as the world and as old as human passions – envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass.
And it all avails nothing.
If the leader truly leads, he remains – the leader.
Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages.
That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial.
That which deserves to live—lives.”
“You know when your dog looks at you with its head cocked to one side, half “… go on” and half “I used to be a wolf”? That’s how I look at reviews.”