003 : PATH
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 10 hours ago
Welcome, old and new.
We're moving along far faster than I thought we would. And with a decent amount of clarity. Been a while since that's happened!
Here's what happened since the last update:
finished The Four Worksheets™
finished The Quiz™
What have we learned?
How will we move forward?
Let's see.
Lists Can Be Stories
It's possible to get through idea generation far faster if you consider the list you're making to just be a progression of one thing to another. A story.
When you're making a grocery list, sometimes it's not just some list of items. It can be a map. You might consider that the eggs and milk are in one place, while the oil and canned foods are in some other one. Assuming you think in such a way, you'd be composing a path to move through the store as well as the things you need from it.
Of course, some people are more inclined to write things down in whatever order they think of them in. But they also generally have no shortage of ideas. Often, an overabundance.
Anyway, applying this to ideation, instead of trying to force up a bundle of unrelated concepts, consider natural progressions. How something can change from one thing to another. Reasonably. Unreasonably. Destructively. Subtly. Shape-wise. Color-wise.
Remember your senses. Play with them. There is a winding path of transformations that can be applied to any given thing. You need only find the starting thread.
All Roads Lead to "Generic"
Generic and boring is how you win. All things made that are familiar and recognizable, given enough time, will end up being successful enough. Plenty struggle with this fact. I know that I did. What if I don't want to draw flowers? Or pets? Or attractive women? What if I don't want to write about "how to make money online?" Or "my content creation strategy and how it will definitely work for you too?"
Well, I don't have to. I don't have to want it.
In many cases, it's just something of an inevitability.
If you're anything like me when I was only just a few years younger, you're unchallenged. Ambitious. You seek to do all that you can you break your inner and outer mold. You want something new. Truly new. You know it's somewhere inside of you, but your idea of it is a subtle hint. So, you force it out. You succeed. It's there, in the world. But in all of your striving, it doesn't land with others. Why?
All "truly new" things are indiscernible. Formless. Abstract. Unsavory. Subtly or moderately disturbing. They came from the distant and deep ether few will ever come to grasp, even in death.
It's your soul. And it looks, sounds, and/or reads like a complete and utter mess. And it came out that way because, in your striving, you didn't have the wherewithal to understand how it would come across to other people. You didn't consider the viewer experience.
I'll cut this soon-to-be-scathing letter to my past self short and maybe save it for another time.
Generic isn't bad. It is the template. The creative constraint. You're creative. You can make it interesting. There wasn't anything stopping you from doing it before. Push out whatever you heart is screaming at you to do right now, if that voice is in you. Get it done. Get it over with.
You will end up exactly where everyone is: right here, in the center, where the world is. Where all of the things that fueled the creation of your "new and novel thing" reside. They're doing just fine.
And they are here to stay.
Parting Questions:
How do you handle a shortage or overabundance of ideas/ways to tackle a problem? Do you think this process needs improvement? If so, what about it can be improved and how could you do so?
What comes to mind when you think of "generic?" What do you find "the most generic?" What would need to change in order for you to appreciate it? What would make it unique to you? Do you foresee this happening anytime soon? What are you doing to do about it?
So...
I have a feeling you guys like personality quizzes.
I don't. That's why I made one myself.
🤡 [laugh_track_04.mp3] 🤡
Takes 5 minutes. And based on your answers (that I will manually assess), you'll be given one of four very cool, very accurate, and marginally useful results.
Useful how? They'll get you thinking about your own habits and what you can do to lean into them better, for your own benefit. And whatever result you get will direct you to the worksheets so that you can cultivate those leanings in a more guided, structured way.
Sound good?
(Name subject to change.)
That's all I have for you today.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Next update on the 21st, barring emergencies.
Until then,
👋