I Don't Work on bramadams.dev For You

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• a raw look into creativity – quite pragmatic actually, and says some things that don't satisfy the fragile sensibilities of the artist, but is tough love for making the best art
• i read this around the same time as another great book on finding the art in creation, The Timeless Way of Building
• what does it mean to sacrifice for your art?
• this book is 5 stars in my opinion because of who wrote it. rick rubin is a legend and walks the walk of creativity
• the artist moves from project to project as the living being moves from breath to breath
• this book says what many artists feel every day but fail to formalize into words
• art is for ourselves, a love letter to the universe and our place in it

The purpose of the work is to awaken something in you first, and then allow something to be awakened in others. And it’s fine if they’re not the same thing. We can only hope that the magnitude of the charge we experience reverberates as powerfully for others as it does for us.

If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker.

Imagine going to live on a mountaintop by yourself, forever. You build a home that no one will ever visit. Still, you invest the time and effort to shape the space in which you’ll spend your days. The wood, the plates, the pillows—all magnificent. Curated to your taste. This is the essence of great art. We make it for no other purpose than creating our version of the beautiful, bringing all of ourself to every project, whatever its parameters and constraints. Consider it an offering, a devotional act. We do the best, as we see the best—with our own taste. No one else’s. We create our art so we may inhabit it ourselves.

an interesting take on alpha zero being trained, or more acutely, coming up with creative go moves with huge sets of numbers. what is human, anyway?

The machine learned the game from scratch, with no coach. The AI followed the fixed rules, not the millennia of accepted cultural norms.

It didn’t take into account the 3000 year old traditions and conventions of the game.

It didn’t accept the narrative of how to properly play.

It wasn’t held back my limiting beliefs.

Ultimately, your desire to create must be greater than your fear of it.

If you make the choice of reading classic literature every day for a year, rather than reading the news, by the end of that time period you’ll have a more honed sensitivity for recognizing greatness from the books than from the media.

i drew a picture of this in my journal – it was crappy but still!

The word comes from the Latin—inspirare, meaning to breathe in or blow into. For the lungs to draw in air, they must first be emptied. For the mind to draw inspiration, it wants space to welcome the new. The universe seeks balance. Through this absence, you are inviting energy in.

so good they cant ignore you

With the objective of simply doing great work, a ripple effect occurs. A bar is set for everything you do, which may not only lift your work to new heights, but raise the vibration of your entire life. It may even inspire others to do their best work. Greatness begets greatness. It’s infectious.