“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. 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. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass
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MrConradsHear hear!
jmzerosays...Does he go onto to talk about the phase many artists hit where they're now capable of doing good work, but have lost their taste - they can no longer discern whether what they're doing is good?
How many bands flounder on their next album after their "first big hit"? How many comedians end up seeming like a "bad impression of themselves 5 years ago"? How many authors seem to just coast later in their career?
How many directors go back to a great work a decade later and take a big dump on it? Only one that I can think of. But you get the idea.
Payback>> ^jmzero:
How many directors go back to a great work a decade later and take a big dump on it? Only one that I can think of.
Really? I can think of a whole trilogy.
GallowflakHuh.
00Scud00says...>> ^jmzero:
How many bands flounder on their next album after their "first big hit"? How many comedians end up seeming like a "bad impression of themselves 5 years ago"? How many authors seem to just coast later in their career?
Quite a few probably, but then artistic endeavors aren't like making widgets in a factory, after your "first big hit" you don't just pump out a thousand more of those and you're set. I'm sure even successful bands may put out a second album that was maybe a lot like the first one, which some people liked and others thought was boring, then they try a different direction in their third album and the old school fans hate it but people who didn't listen to them before pick it up.
siftbotTags for this video have been changed from 'creativity, taste, creative process, ira glass, hard work, deadline' to 'creativity, taste, creative process, ira glass, hard work, deadline, typography' - edited by AdrianBlack
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