I'm Mert. I'm building the thing I always dreamed of. I don't remember what the dream looked like, so I'm just focused on the execution. Pushing and pulling, adding and removing...
Clarity is given, creativity is taken.
Clarity may not be the goal but a tool only… Such as the creativity, too. Not sure if both can be used at the same time though. When you have clarity, you lack creativity, and vice versa.
Not sure if it’s clarity versus creativity… Maybe it’s about the ratio..
You are now imprisoned by the formula.
The formula, the systems we build… I don’t think that this is only for societies, but also valid for individuals. Is it possible that I am imprisoned by the systems I setup and run for myself? Whether it be a productivity system, a routine, a habit, a mindset even?
I do think that systems provide value, for sure, but only if they’re designed and implemented for surprise, not efficiency. When it’s for optimization, you lose something… and you don’t know what you lose until you know.
When the formula and systems you are running stop generating questions and new impulses for discovery, than it turns into ouroboros…
What the author said about bookstores, the same goes for music stores too… It’s been ages since I have been into one… There are some indie stores everywhere, probably, but in Bodrum, I don’t know of any… Actually you know what, I never searched for it. The conformity I fell for replaced the inspiration and joy of discovery…
Now, where did I stumble upon this article? I don’t know and don’t remember… Maybe it was Feedly… But I loved it… and this is how webrings worked ~30 years ago and I used to loved them all… I used to have this webpage where I reviewed metal albums, I was at high-school… I was a member of a webring, don’t remember the name, but I used to have their banner on my website, on each load it was showing other members of the webring, in round-robin fashion, linking to their website… It was amazing. I don’t remember how many new things I learned, discovered, and inspired by that… It was huge… I used to have bookmarks of those many webrings. It was still a controlled experience but not like the current day’s Instagram and X kind of algorithms… It was nice… better actually.
The conformity I fell for replaced the inspiration and joy of discovery… The conformity I fell for removed impulses… Clarity is given, creativity is taken…
Questions of the day…
Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it's just not that good... your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit.
The gap is real. I feel it every time I make something. Gap is disturbing… and it’s been years, not just “the first couple of years”… My taste knows where I want to be, my hands aren’t there yet… Maybe I’m not giving my all? don’t know… The big gap, doesn’t seem to be shrinking to me, but still…