Brook Getachew — Writing

Quantity As The Path To Great Work

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Your great taste makes you highly selective. That is useful when you are judging work, but it can become a problem when you are trying to make work.

When you start, your standards are usually better than your output. You can see what is weak. You can tell when something is not quite there. But knowing that does not automatically make the work better.

The mistake is trying to solve this by thinking harder. You wait for the right idea, the right reference, the right mood, the right level of clarity. You keep refining before anything has had enough time to exist.

Making more work gives your taste more material to work against. You begin to notice patterns. You see what keeps failing. You find what comes naturally and what only looked good in your head.

A single piece carries too much pressure. Ten pieces reveal a direction. Fifty pieces reveal a system. The work teaches you by accumulating evidence.

This does not mean making carelessly. It means making often enough that the work can become less precious. You can still edit, refine, and discard. But you need enough output to make judgment useful.

Great work is rarely the result of one perfect attempt. It is more often the result of repeated attempts becoming sharper over time.

Hey, Slow Down

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Dearest,

In your pursuit of building a life, you’ve forgotten to truly live. Deadlines preoccupy your thoughts, while the inevitability of death remains overlooked.

You’re confined by time, neglecting the Timeless One. You ignore eternity, focusing solely on the now—a fleeting, graspable, transient now.

With my head buried in work, designing and creating for money, I missed the essence of life. I, too, was consumed by the infinite now’s, neglecting the infinite.

When death took people with whom I didn’t spend enough time, regret took hold. I was a walking flesh, oblivious to world around me. The infinite now’s became empty promises.

Awareness of death’s inevitability slows you down, allowing you to savor the present. This unsettling realization ignites a search for the permanent where infinity exists.

Death grants us a fresh perspective, a rebirth of sorts. Understanding our finite existence gifts us with a renewed appreciation for life.

So, beloved, when you focus on earning the next buck or meeting the next deadline, breathe slowly. Pace down, look around you. Look at the world in a new light. And see how it responds to you. Spend more time appreciating those around you, embrace yourself, appreciate your existence not because you are unique, but because you are now alive.

Follow your Ebb and Flow

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I have another draft sitting somewhere in a digital dungeon. It’s supposed to go out before end of this week. But it’s not ready. The agonizing search for a clear way to express the idea and finalize the draft forced me to take the time and write to myself instead:

I ask that you follow your ebb and flow. You can’t force ideas out of yourself. You can’t quit either. But you can nudge the idea out of yourself by following your own rhythm.

Base the extent of your (in)action(s) on how inspired you are. Never force it. Follow it like the water following the terrain and makes itself into a pond or lake.

Never quit. Gently nudge yourself into the direction you’d like to go. Unable to write a draft? Write a word now, another when you feel inspired, and another after sometime. Few more words and you have a sentence, a paragraph, a whole story.

Inspirations lead to a state of disciplined pursuit of excellence. Until then, work with the bursts of inspiration.

Finding inspiration is overrated. You don’t need Pinterest or Instagram, or any digital devices for that matter. To find inspiration, you simply need to slow down. Stop checking your phone as soon as you wake up. Stop compulsively picking up your phone when it beeps only to end up doomscrolling. Slow down, take a deep breath, and take the first step. Literally go out for a walk. Feel the texture of the ground, notice what’s around you, the transience of it all.

Start there and follow yourself.

Keep Moving Forward

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

You choose your growth. You control the difficulty and efficiency of the progress you make. Whether it’s deciding to write a book in 3 months or write a short story in minutes, you decide the weight, the intensity and consistency of your work.

It took me WEEKS to change this writing from a draft to this 121-word post. In that time, I chose to work on other long forms, at different times, in different energies. I didn’t stop writing. I wrote differently, about different things, at different times.

The task is to find ways to begin progress, and maintain it. Through doing difficult things slow, or easy things fast, strive to maintain progress.

Then you discover momentum, a gift of progress.

Knowing Rhythm Knowing Work

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

You’ve been struggling to make a breakthrough on your recent draft. You try a different stroke, style or decide to start over entirely. Despite all your efforts, it doesn’t feel right.

You’re convinced it’s not worth trying again. You give up. You stop working, and go about your daily life then boom! You realize something. You finally find that one piece that’ll change your work from a draft you tossed away into a final piece that’s worthy of a display. Excited, you rush back to a new work session to work on your draft again. Hours, days pass while you are deeply immersed in your work. You end up with a masterpiece in your hand. Perhaps your BEST work.

You finally feel at peace.

Creation follows a rhythm. Like the wind, you know it exists when you feel it on your skin. You recognize it when you’ve been unable to make a draft for a long time then all of a sudden you create multiple masterpieces.

The rhythm is cyclical, but unique for everyone. For some, length of time spent in the peaks and troughs of this rhythm is different. For others, the highs and lows themselves are distinct experiences.

The artist’s work now includes awareness. Awareness that sometimes, stagnation leads to breakthroughs more than constant improvement.

Do the Work

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

You are a multifaceted being. You have multiple interests and underestimate your own limitations. You believe in your ability to do a million things at once and save the world but in reality, you can only focus on a limited set of things spread over time.

I am learned this later in life. At first, I assumed this meant mutilating my interests in pursuit of one. So I stopped writing and making art to focus on UX Design. I was unhappy. I later learned to find work that aligns all interests to accomplish a few key objectives. This is how to excel at one thing.

Perfectionism creeps in when choosing the one thing. Preparing countless spreadsheets, participating in countless workshops, asking a million questions because that one thing has to be impactful, enjoyable, and others would want to pay you for it.

Ikigai, right?

Forget Ikigai. Do the work. Choose any problem, and start working. Put out a version of the solution. Then iterate violently. As frequently as possible. Only way you can learn about what you want to do is by refining a solution to a problem.

This process diminishes the ego and helps you identify your true calling.

Learn Discipline

Sun, 16 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Discipline is learning to choose one thing repeatedly for a long time. Would you want to work on improve yourself or mindlessly scroll on social media? How many times a day, a week, a month do you want to choose to do so?

Choosing to take one action repeatedly over time instills a sense of confidence. You begin to take on bigger challenges. You managed to read one book every two weeks. Now, you are inspired to read one book per week. Your standards are higher, your performance is improved.

Choice is freedom. There is freedom in pursuing that one thing that matters most to you, those around you, and the world. Sometimes, thought not rare, that one thing matters so much that others pay you for it.

I’ve learned that there is no need to overthink about that one thing to pursue. It’s okay to just pick one problem that can be tackled with one skill in hand and go with it.

The fruit of discipline is observed over longer time horizons because it compounds. You see the fruit of choosing to train for a 5k every morning for 6 months not in the first two weeks but you continue because you believe.

Faith is a leap in understanding. An explicable knowing that what you have chosen to pursue is worth being dedicated to. You have faith in finishing (or winning) that 5k because you’ve been training for 6 months.

Discipline is choice made repeatedly. A choice backed by faith. Faith in the importance of making the same choice repeatedly. And in that, we find freedom.

Fear Was a Friend

Sun, 09 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I heard someone use fear as an acronym. “False evidence appearing as real” they said. For some reason it stuck with me and I was reminded of it as I sat down to write.

Is this how we grapple with the unknown? Creating acronyms that expand on what the word means?

I do the same, but instead of making up acronyms, I will define fear based on my experience and understanding.

We don’t know fear. We experience its symptoms and effects. Defining it is a vain pursuit. We can, however, begin to understand what it is when we closely observe its symptoms, effects and how we make decisions based on that.

Fear is a form of self-preservation. It is a deeply rooted evolutionary adaptation that has helped all of our ancestors avoid or confront danger. In evolutionary psychology, fear helped our ancestors survive and pass on their genes. In a way, you are here because of a temporal combination of fight-or-flight responses.

In the modern world, fear keeps us from experiencing higher forms of ourselves, our environment, and others. You want to put in consistent work, but you can’t. You want to achieve better things, but you won’t. The minute you think about what’s better for you, fear in all its mouths pukes words of discouragement.

The fear of man brings a snare […] — Proverbs 29:25

Considering the recency of the Book of Proverbs (written in 10th BCE), we see fear evolve from self-preservation to a snare brought by the fear of the temporary opinions or (in)actions of fallible human beings.

The fear of man, the environment, and that which is external and is easier to manage than those that come from within.

What about the fear of failure and, surprisingly, the fear of success?

I experience both. Sometimes as compulsion and procrastination. Other times as subtle reminders or splinters of mindsets from an old life that tell me that I am just not good enough.

Fear of failure diminishes chances of starting with what we have. Fear of failure makes procrastination second nature because I’d rather let time pass than create opportunities for witnessing my own failure.

These fears are attached to unrealistic expectations and an (overly) ambitious understanding of our capacity as human beings. The less aware we are of them, the more they dictate our life.

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. — Carl Jung

Fear is a friend that no longer serves your higher purpose. And you don’t fight your old friend, you simply bid farewell. The first step is knowing that you’re afraid to run. Then, you put one foot in front of another despite the noises in your head, the compulsion to stop or procrastinate.

Run.

On Handling Criticism

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Receiving criticism with an appropriate reaction is key to self-improvement. Like many things, this too is learnable.

Learning to separate the work from self, knowing when to listen to intuition more, and having a (strange) ability to remove the delivery from the criticism from the truths it contains is a rare but useful combination of skills helpful in handling criticism.

Attachment of self (who you are) to work (what you do), or allowing identity to rely on how useful your are to others is unhelpful, if not detrimental.

Problems evolve, usefulness is subjective. Presented with a solution, what one needs, to another it’s an optionality, a fleeting desire. As soon as said usefulness is questioned, self-worth is questioned. This leads to different types of problems. Burnout is one of them.

Trust me, you do not want to burn out.

How can self and work be divorced?

By learning to see yourself from the eyes of someone who loves you. Love doesn’t hold reason as a prerequisite. People who love you, just love you. A simple exercise is to ask why they love your company. (Asking someone who loves you why they love you can sound narcissistic. You don’t want that. It’s a question difficult to respond to. How would you respond to, “hey, why do you love me?” I know I’d start by running away.)

Listening to the reasons why people love your company will give you plenty of starting points to help define yourself outside of what you do. It reminds you that Being precedes doing.

Every time I write and post, I am reminded of how much work I have to do to improve my writing skills. Writing has been a way of observing and shedding my previously-worse writer self to embrace a now-better writing self. This is because of two reasons:

Reading the writing in a different setting – after it is live and on a device different from the one I used to write it – detaches me from my work. Writing on a desktop, posting it, and then reading it from my phone makes me feel like I am reading just another essay. This way, the writing itself gives me feedback.
Having an accountability partner who sees my writings and gives me explicit feedback. This also happens after I post and detach myself from the writing I posted. I respect his logical, clear reasoning and look up to his discipline in doing work. You might want to subscribe to his substack.

One’s ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning is an underrated. In this case, reacting to feedback will have two components,

Intuition (understanding something) and
Judgement (making a decision based on said understanding) are two different tasks.

Intuition and judgement calls require sharpening through daily practice. Their combination is helpful in deciding when to ignore or accept feedback.

Creative work, especially writing is siloed and often a lonely pursuit. You may be able to set up an accountability group, join a writers’ club or even get others to write in the same coffeeshop as you do. The very practice of writing itself is a lonely pursuit. Only you are staring at a blinking cursor, trying to find the words and their perfect combination that’ll help you express your ideas in the best way possible.

Intuitively, you know the direction of your work. Feedback that doesn’t align with said direction, no matter how ‘right’ it may sound, will not be useful to you. In this case, you’ll have to ignore the feedback.

How can you discern?

A simple exercise is to ask yourself what you aim to do with your work. What is the intention? What is at the root? And why is reason x the root of your intention, and not reason y? Your answer should correspond the level of skill you’re at and output levels you would like to have.

I am writing as frequently as I can. I do this after realizing that it is a way to communicate, a way to produce, assemble, build, destroy. Through written words, nations have started wars, and stopped them. God has chosen to reveal Himself and His intention through the written word.

Wiring is the base skill for many other skills. Sales, audience building, marketing, and communication all take place through writing. Leaders move crowds through the speeches they read. Companies make into billions by writing to convince others to buy.

Writing can take many forms. You can take a long piece of writing and repurpose it as a short essay, a tweet, a podcast, a video, and more.

The reason I value writing even more is because it helps build clarity. Something magical about writing out your ideas on a piece of paper (or screen) frequently enough that you begin to see the gaps in your understanding of the world.

My intention to cultivate clarity. In posting my writing, I aim to get my ideas out there and find those that resonate with said ideas. Being an introvert, I expressing myself through words, posting it somewhere and see who I find that resonates with it is important to me.

Posting helps me test my ideas. Reactions to ideas – or lack thereof – are datapoints that help me understand how my ideas are interpreted.

I do not write to persuade. That is not the end or the means. I write to find gaps in knowledge and skills in the ideas I choose to pursue and express.

I write to practice writing. Only way to grow a skill is by practicing the skill and notice the gaps. Only way to fill the gaps is by practicing more.

The aim I’ve set for my practice forms a foundational understanding for gauging whether a feedback is helpful. As soon as feedback arrives, it’s easy to discern which pieces of given feedback are useful in improving the skill at different time horizons.

Sometimes, feedback can be delivered in a nasty package. Mean spirited people can give the most despicable feedback that’s difficult to approach, let alone unpack. Sometimes, the feedback belittles the receiver. Other times, the feedback crushes the value of the work in its entirety.

The ability to remove the delivery from the feedback does not come easy. One can’t help but become emotionally invested in what they create. Demeaning the creator or the creation can bring out worse reactions.

How can you dissociate?

Assume there is some truth in the feedback. While a lot of delivery of feedback carries with it a projection of self, the feedback itself carries some truth. Focus on extracting the truth.

A simple exercise is to write it down again. Whether the feedback was visual, or auditory, in your own language write down exactly what you understood from it. This makes it easier as you’ve began to digest the feedback.

Ask questions that help you find objective truths about yourself or your work in the feedback. Give these questions to yourself, and those that know you intimately and are honest with you. You may or may not like the answers, but they will help you capture the objective truth of your skills and yourself.

(L)earn Confidence

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Confidence is a deep conviction in yourself and your abilities. A conviction built on evidence. To some, evidence is provided. Kickstarting their path towards (l)earning confidence.

After Jon Snow learned that he’s Aegon Targaryen, he became a hesitant leader who later decided to prioritize the Greater Good - fighting the White Walkers.

To others, evidence is built. One must learn how to build. Building evidence is not as straightforward as one might think.

Arya Stark’s evidences were built when she looked back, remained present, and built her future. Looking back, we learn how Arya is unfit for a traditional lady-like role that was expected of her. Fueled by her father’s execution, she became an assassin. Through it all, she remained a stark of Winterfell. Her search for revenge was confident. She confirmed her abilities, and found her identity.

I’ve been given a chance to (l)earn confidence. A chance at re-discovering my identity as God’s creation, a human being, friend, provider, procreator, analyst, writer, skeptic, designer, builder, worshipper, wrongdoer, thinker, believer, builder, destroyer, liar, artist. I’ve been given a chance at confirming my abilities. Abilities to create, destroy, maintain, neglect, teach, forget.

Where’s the evidence?

While updating this website, I added ‘about’ and ‘now’. These will remain constant reminders of what I’ve done and what I’m doing.

But ‘about’ and ‘now’ don’t show what I am. Being precedes doing. Action spring from the being, not the other way around. While there are multiple ways to experience a being, time is what I want to focus on. The mention of time and experience imply an increase length, but the discussion here disregards that. Length of time does not correspond to how Being is experienced.

Being is better discovered. Dedicating quality time to experience Being rewards us with discoveries. Shared discoveries are stories that others relate to at different levels. These stories can leave the reader feeling elevated or diminished. Reactions, I hope, hints to the reader’s Being.

But remain optimistic, beloved. For Ye shall know them by their fruits. Being is discovered through Him then strengthened by repeated action.

‘About’ and ‘Now’ are a somewhat narrow glimpse of Being. Evidences that will help me (l)earn more confidence.

To develop a deep sense of conviction in self and abilities will require evidence. Evidence is provided and/or built. Building is preceded by discovery of Being. Shared discoveries are fruits of Being.

— Written by a twisted, tired, Introverted Thinking function who’s severely overthought the addition of ‘About’ and ‘Now’.

On Seeking Validation

Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I find myself struggling to share my work with peers. I find it even more terrifying to share on social media.

I wasn’t like this before. I shared without hesitation. But something changed. It’s not crippling perfectionism. It’s not a lack of output. Nor a lack of time.

It’s because I have come to prioritize others’s opinions over my own. Looking for likes, retweets, and higher views. Interpreting their silence as unspoken yet loud NO’s. I obsessed with the engagement numbers to the point where it began to dictate what I should post, or what to mint.

While I agree that one mustn’t carelessly denigrate social institutions, I believe individuation is all the more important.

This short exercise will help me dissect the issue and find some helpful remedies.

It’s okay to seek validation. It’s okay to look for that thumbs up or that pat on the back. It goes wrong when a) one values others’ validation more than self or divine validation, and b) one’s self-worth follows the peaks and troughs of the amount of outside validation they’ve received.

Why seek outside validation in the first place?

Fear of social rejection. Fear of public speaking ranks higher than fear of death. Seeking validation, therefore, is a form of self-preservation.

Then there’s a lack of confidence. When one lacks confidence in one’s own judgement, others’ opinions will be valued more. This is okay when one is seeking advice so as to maximize the probability of better outcomes. It goes wrong as soon as one stops filtering the best pieces of advice to take and lose sight of their own involvement in the situation. Taking advice from a uninvolved party without much thought and consideration is detrimental. Only those involved have full understanding of the situation. Discerning which piece(s) of advice to keep, and which ones to discard requires confidence.

Seeking validation from others, whether caused by fear of social rejection or lack of confidence, and letting that dictate some part of my self-worth, brought me to a place of unassured confidence.

Where do I go from here?

Value Momentum

Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a gift hidden in progress. A gift that defies this race against time we find ourselves trapped in. Momentum is a gift given to those making progress.

Momentum is understanding that we are the ones responsible for our progress. We control the difficulty and efficiency of our progress.

Need to finish writing 30,000 words in 3 months? Write 10,000 words a month. Or 30,000 words in a month. Or 20,000 in a month, then finish the rest slowly before the deadline.

Need to raise 1M? Self-fund it now. Or raise batches of it at different times. Or find a rich person to do it for you.

Momentum can go to zero. But that isn’t desirable. The point is to have a baseline number. Non-zero, Positive Momentum.

Either work on difficult tasks at slower speeds, or easier tasks at faster speeds. Whatever the approach, maintain a Non-zero, Positive Momentum.

The gift of making progress of any kind is realizing that one must keep moving forward. By varying levels of difficulty and efficiency of undertakings, maintain non-zero, positive momentum.

Burning Out

Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

He keeps telling himself to maintain. To not let his fiery passions consume him. He keeps telling himself to remain on fire without being consumed.

But he simply refuses to listen.

He keeps burning, like a candle, with his light diminishing the darkness around him. He keeps giving himself to the fire, believing he’s giving more light. He kept forgetting he is made of wax. Letting himself be consumed.

He is now an empty cocoon, nature edging to decide whether he is useful buried in the ground or left out in the open, waiting for a pig’s feet to crush him.

Why do I let my passions consume me into oblivion when, besides God, I am the only one I have?

The answers lie in the question.

I let my passions consume me.

He’s been allowing his desires to move his eyes away from God and to the world. We’re all programmed to want more. Human endeavor is reaching higher highs because we want more. We want to excel, beat the competition, conquer more, live longer, earn more, do more, explore more.

If a pursuer doesn’t tend to their mind often, the pursuit of more slowly begins to outweigh the value of the pursuer. The pursuer either values the importance of the pursuit more or the importance of self less.

He slowly became indifferent to himself, his well-being, and the way he spent his time. He looked away from himself and his Sustenance. He let his passion run amuck.

besides God

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack.”

“God is the only provision I need,” he said to himself in quite desperation, “a kind of provision that needn’t company. A provision that overflows.”

Yet, in a moment of dissatisfaction, he found myself searching for something, or someone BESIDES God.

The search itself carries hints of his own comprehension of God and His provision. Piecing together these hints requires observation without judgement. Examining life with a mind filled with reminders that weaken the strongholds of “perfection”.

I am the only one I have

Growing up alone bred in him a relentless pursuit of perfection, a genuine enjoyment of boredom, and a mind that wanders – off into the world, or away from matters at hand. Presence was a rare commodity.

Removing reliance on others became a practice of discerning transactional relationships, and genuine ones. To him, being precedes value.

Growing up alone gave him a vague sense of time and a forgetfulness of one’s finite existence. Equipping him with a sense of naive presence. “I can light this whole room,” he keeps telling himself, ”I’ll then see what’s around me. Others will too!”

He kept burning. Staring into the darkness hoping his light will help him – and the others – see. But the room was too big for one candle’s light. The others did not care to see what’s around them.

Darkness began to conquer the room slowly. He ran out of wax, and the room was engulfed by darkness. It blinded him.

A relentless pursuit of more while disregarding God’s work. That’s why he was burning out. That’s why the room went dark. That’s what blinded him. That’s what diminished his work.

What’s Wrong with You?!

Sat, 18 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever I feel uneasy, or left behind, I come back to a thought-pattern that grounds me. The following exercise is a structured form of said thought-pattern shared in case it helps anyone who finds themself here.

This is (highly) introspective and brings more responsibility to self and less blame on external variables. It is meant to be a collection of self-proven exercises that helped improve a specific or multiple aspect(s) of my life.

You’ve completed higher education, you work hard, you can think critically, communicate clearly, maintain good energy, focused, and a people’s person. People seem to want to have you around. You are invited to events, to important meetings, and interesting meetups.

Yet, you don’t find yourself on a sure path to realize your potential. You don’t find yourself doing work that you love. You don’t find yourself doing things for yourself. You find yourself stuck in a rut that lasts for what seems like an eternity. Everything seems great on the outside, but deep down, it just doesn’t feel right.

What is wrong with you?!

There are a lot of external factors — systemic barriers, economic constraints, or workplace culture – beyond your immediate control. These will limit you from reaching your potential.

But I digress.

It is much better to work on what you can control. On your deathbed, it’s much better to look back and remember that you have tried, than to wonder what could have happened if you did.

What’s wrong with you?

You don’t have clarity

Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence. — Naval Ravikant

In all aspects of life, you have to know – or find out – where you are going. This is obvious. But brings with it a slight misunderstanding. You expect yourself to see till the end of the tunnel in order to take a single step. How do you expect to see a fully-formed image without knowing how to decipher the form itself? Or without understanding the weather in the tunnel?

Let’s not stretch the analogy further.

“Finding clarity” implies an expectation of seeing a clear picture from the beginning. A better replacement is finding what catches our interest and asking questions. This is directional clarity.

With directional clarity, you see the beginning of your path, but the end is foggy. The questions you ask become the vehicle. Curiosity becomes your fuel. The end becomes clearer as you drive towards it.

What is it about [insert topic of highest interest here] that makes me feel [insert emotion(s) felt].

The statement above helps you find a way to follow your curiosity. A way that relies on time, and methods. This is granular clarity.

Directional clarity helps you find the what, granular clarity gives you the how. Granular clarity helps understand how you will follow your curiosity. It takes the high-level understanding you found in directional clarity and helps you formulate a plan.

Granular clarity sets you up to consistently follow your curiosity by mapping the time, and methods that suit you best.

Time has two components:

Frequency: measure of repetition of action item
Deadline: end of repeated action item

I will [insert action item] for [insert frequency] till [insert deadline].

You could use different method(s) to follow your curiosity. For simplicity, it boils down to 3 components.

Read: absorb knowledge about your interest.
Write: disperse knowledge about what you’ve read in your own words.
Do: with enough knowledge observed and dispersed, participating is a natural next step.

You don’t know who you are

I’ll start with a truth. You don’t know how to know who you are because you are scared. Self-awareness brings a lot of responsibility. Self-awareness requires discipline as you interface with the world. Contrary to what many believe, discipline leads to freedom.

Let’s change that

A way to cultivate self-awareness is to pick a life event, good or bad, and ask yourself why 5 times.

[This] happened when I was [this years old]. I felt [insert emotion felt]. Why did I feel that way?

Consider a personality test

MBTI test, like many personality-defining frameworks including astrology, fails to address a lot of nuances found in human behavior.

Another shortcoming of MBTI is that it uses answers provided by the user, which requires a level of self-awareness the user may not yet possess.

I still suggest you take the test. But be selective about the answers you’d like to integrate into your work.

Observation

Simply observe yourself throughout the week. We are our own worst critic. Refrain from making any judgement. The objective is to simple observe.

Note how you spend your time. You want to note the thoughts that cross your mind.

[Date]

[Thoughts] – a braindump of thoughts that went through your head all day

[Actions] – Actions taken throughout the day that encouraged or discouraged you

Test yourself

You will keep underestimating yourself until you begin to see, in tangible terms, how far you can go. You are unaware of your self-imposed limits. You are unaware of your preferences, or interests. You are unaware of your beliefs or lack thereof.

What drains you because you are yet to prove yourself to yourself. You have seeds of doubt in your mind that keep you away from self-awareness.

Taking action toward a goal is the only way to test yourself.

Start small

Discipline is important, yet misunderstood. When first starting out, consistency is more valuable than intensity. You’d rather walk a km daily for a week, than one intense burst of a walk 20km one day and calling it quits. or “resting”.

You want to make discipline accessible. You want to make it easy to get started with. You want to reduce the friction between thinking about the action and taking action. Starting small is important if you want to strengthen your discipline is important.

Focusing on consistency starts with defining what “small” means to you – a single task sitting between the hardest thing you can do, and the easiest. This gives you some difficulty in execution but not too much that it discourages you from doing it repetitively.

You definition of “small” should you of difficulty that makes you want to do it daily.

What do I do from morning to evening every day? How can I make time for this new thing I am going to do?

Start by writing down your daily activities on an hourly basis. This knowledge helps you find time for this new activity you are trying to pursue. Once you find the time, pin the activity, execute, and report back to yourself.

Keep a tracker

A simple checkbox-time graph helps you view and understand your progress. It is a simple way to keep yourself accountable.

Keep ticking the boxes after executing, review your performance after a longer time horizon (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.).

It is human nature to simultaneously find sources of encouragement and move away from social humiliation. Another method for holding your actions accountable is by telling someone about it.

Create and stick to a deadline

Deadlines give definiteness to your pursuit by creating a sense of urgency. Be strict about your deadlines.

You can have multiple sub-deadlines in addition to your main one. Eg: I will finish this challenge on the 4th week, with evaluation every 1 week.

Review what you’ve accomplished

Reviews should be done at longer time horizons or after a set of tasks have been accomplished. After each review, discuss about how you tested yourself and what you’ve learned.

Although often overlooked in self-improvement, reviews are important in making progress.

You are living a life that makes everything seem great on the outside, but something is amiss. This makes you feel uneasy. You look at external factors that make you feel this way, but would rather look towards yourself and ask,”What is wrong with me?!”

Without clarity, much of life won’t feel full. Without knowing why you have so much, having so much would make no sense. You are unclear about your internal problems. You want to cultivate directional clarity – having an interest, and asking questions – or granular clarity – a plan for having those questions answered.

You don’t know who you are. An anti-dote to which is self-awareness. It requires discipline to know self in more depth. Knowledge of self, coupled with discipline, is freedom. Cultivate the discipline to write down observations about yourself.

You don’t know who you are because you haven’t tested yourself. You haven’t proven yourself, in tangible terms, that you are capable of absolutely everything.

The beauty of finding out what’s wrong with you is finding everything is wrong with you. This brings a sense of humility, upon which the ego dies to give life to The Work.

Notes

You use productivity tools but make this process as simple and easygoing as possible. Make sure you don’t drown your clarity in excess information.
Don’t overthink it. Simplify so you can focus on taking action.
The methods are not prescriptive. The steps are non-linear. That is the beauty of it.

Choice is a Luxury

Mon, 13 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

You have been endowed with a luxury that’s taken for granted.

Choice.

The ability to become aware of alternatives in using resources for a specific activity, and pick one that brings the most upside, at different time horizons.

Think about it. You and I can choose what to think, just as much as you choose what to do per unit of time. For instance, I chose to write this just as much as you have chosen to read it. You made the choice to read it over a screen rather than printing it. I made the choice to write using specific words structured in a specific way. I chose to let the cursor blink five times before writing this sentence…

Okay, I’ll stop nerding out.

But know this.

You are endowed with a luxury of choice, but it requisites awareness. How can you become aware of this luxury?

Recognize that there are choices outside of what you are presented with. Like when Tyrion Lannister asked for Trial by Combat.

Tyrion was to plead either guilty or not guilty for the charges that were brought against him. He was aware of a third choice - Trial by Combat. Judging from the crowd and Tywin’s reaction, this was unexpected. (Law 17).

Tyrion knew the ins and outs of the law. He knew he can’t beat the system because everyone was against him. Trial by Combat was his way out. Here’s why:

The law allows Trial by Combat for highborns. Being a Lannister, Tyrion knew he could use it.
“I’ll let the gods decide my fate” removes the need for human intervention. The king and judge, Tywin Lannister, is left powerless.

Tyrion used the law and his privilege as a highborn to disarm the king and keep himself alive.

Think of time as a platform for choice.

Each moment is unique and irretrievable. Each moment registers a choice. Time determines the number of unique and irretrievable moments dedicated to an activity. Answers to “What do I want to do/be in x unit of time?” are exclusive by nature.

Naturally, you want to decrease the Opportunity Costs of choice(s) made. You want higher upside, with disproportionately downsized resource allocation. You want to spend less time mastering a skill. You want to spend less money acquiring high value assets. This is where intention steps in. Preceded by slowing down.

Practice making less hasty decisions. Practice connecting your higher vision with your daily life. Practice making each moment contribute to your higher vision. Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), is a kind reminder.

When you slow down, you cultivate clarity. You become aware of choices, revealed and unrevealed. You know what to choose. You know why.

No, you don’t need to stick to a choice you make. You can change your mind anytime, anywhere. Unless it affects others, avoid the need to explain your choice(s).

You don’t need to justify your choices. You don’t need a rational, logical explanation for what you choose to do, or think. But realize that, making up your mind initiates self-accountability. A consequence of which is growth.

Choice is an egalitarian luxury. Lacking this awareness makes choice an exclusive luxury. When you take it for granted, leads to an unexamined life. Choice requisites awareness. Knowing it exists can save your life.

Time is a platform for making choices. Deciding what we want to do/be in x unit of time initiates a level of self-accountability that leads to consistency. Consistently matching your highest vision with choices in shorter time horizons from the present brings growth.

Importance of Typing Instructions

Sun, 12 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What started as a thought experiment is becoming an experiment in artistic style. This experiment is morphing into interesting pieces.

Now is a good time to pause and explore why typing instructions is important.

typing instruction’s importance will expand as I dive deeper into it and find ways to integrate its philosophy, or artistic style into my practice.

As of this writing, here are two reasons that make typing instructions important.

It paves way for experiments in artistic style that use tools of creation as central piece(s) of the work. At the center of typing instructions is a recognizable figure — the keyboard.
It is a different route for my work. Whether or not I want to take that route — and whether it’ll be a one way or roundtrip journey — is completely up to me.

After Glimpses of Existence, I’ve been searching for a clear philosophical foundation for my practice that has deeper roots in the overarching vision for my work. typing instructions seems like a good start.

Bookshelf

Fri, 10 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Admittedly, I am not an avid reader as I’d like to be. Below, I have shared my book recommendations along with how much of it I have read. If you found any of these recommendations interesting, want to recommend me some books, or simply want to discuss ideas, reach out to me on Twitter.

This post will be updated.

Currently reading:

Through the Psalms

Typing Instructions

Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Like the pen, the keyboard has become a powerful tool used in building worlds, playing games, exposing secrets, investigative work, and more. It served as a unique interface between the mind and the digital world.

June 1, 2007 kicked off a teleportation of a physical interface into the digital realm. The touchscreen removed the need for physicality in portable digital devices. What started off as a trend soon became a ubiquity. It went digital, and has come to serve more than one function, while taking up less space. Digital keyboards made it easy to switch between languages, use symbols, and emojis – all in one device. Convenience at its best.

Ubiquity brings with it a kind of forgetfulness. The item becomes useful — and consequently important — its significance becomes less about who or what made it, and more about its necessity.

Necessities, when available 24/7, are taken for granted.

By using the keyboard as a central piece in an experimental artistic style, typing instructions, spotlights the most overlooked interface.

As an artistic style, typing instructions uses the digital keyboard as an artistic, expressive element. Changing its role from a tool used to create (a paint brush of sorts), to a piece within the creation. Questioning the disappearance of ubiquitous items in the things they helped create.

Exploring Artistic Style and Voice

Tue, 07 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I posted a poll on Twitter asking,”ever felt unsure about your artistic style?” An account with such low engagement these days received 9 votes. The topic must have been provocative. I remembered that I had also written a quick thread on sticking to one artistic style. I never posted it.

One has to make clear distinctions between artistic voice and artistic styles.

Metaphysically speaking, artists stand between the unknown and the known. They listen to the unknown and communicate that in a way that is, known. The artist uses their medium, and their message to provoke thought, evoke emotions, and action. The artist becomes a vessel through which the unknown is transformed into known, digestible, messages.

Artistic style is the way in which the artist passes on these messages. It is the medium, instrument, and genre of art they choose to use.

Should this be a song, a piece of art, photography, or performance art?
Should I use digital or analog music instruments to produce the song?
Should I paint this, photograph it, or use AI?

Artistic style answers the question,”How do I want to communicate?”

Metaphysically standing between the known and unknown, the artist receives a multitude of messages around a multitude of topics. Artistic voice is a distillation of what the artist chooses to speak about.

Artistic voice answers the question “What do I want to talk about?”

This choice of style and voice does not always happen overnight. Nor should it imply narrowing down to one style and one voice. The artist’s horizons expand, their growth is inevitable. Their choice of style or voice can change.

Even as it changes, there is a relationship their recent work has with their previous work. Even with a different style, or a different voice, one can tell the work under discussion belongs to the artist.

This relationship exhibits mastery. Mastery is when the artist’s work becomes an extension of themselves, transcending style or voice.

The first day of an art practice is vastly different from day 300. Through time, the artist’s practice rewards them with a well-articulated voice and a style no one can replicate.

The specificity, while largely considered a gift, can be limiting. Finding a specific style and voice can pigeon-hole the artist, caging them away from (re)discovering new forms of art. Sticking to one artistic style or voice depends on what the artist prioritizes and on the maturity of their practice.

It is up to the artist to find new forms of expression, or new messages to express. As audiences, consumers and collectors of art, we are here to write about them.

Through My Work

Mon, 06 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I have been exploring the nature of my work and trying to shove myself into a career, a massive injury to my Being. Whenever I try to label myself, or make myself available to only one occupation, I feel as though I am cutting pieces of my self. This is not good.

But at the end of the day, one must have a field they are occupied by. One they think is their life’s work. This obsession with making or being better at something. This could be a skill, a mindset, or creating systems. Finding that takes time. That is why I am writing this.

I am writing this to find a way to define my work. Not work in an occupational sense. The kind of work one does to respond to the “What do you do for a living?” question people ask to devise the kind of respect, and extent of transactional relationship they want to build with you.

No, not that.

I am talking about the kind of work I am here to do. The kind of work that, as I practice doing more and more of it, overflows to parts and aspect of my life. The kind of work that elevates others. The kind of work that moves beyond a title. Work that I love doing no matter when or where I am.

I have struggled to define that work. Only because I have been looking at it from the angle of a single title or skill. “I am a brand consultant”. “I am a data analyst”. While making it easier for others to understand me, it is highly exclusionary. Whatever words or phrases that follow “I am” exclude the existence of all the others. It does help make it easier for others to understand me. But this exercise is for me to cultivate an unfragmented view of My Work.

The work I do must be valuable to others in some way. There must be a way I serve others. When others interact with me or my work – in its various forms, my work ranges from visual art, to writings like these, to website design, UX Design, audience building, data analysis, product and app reviews, mentorship, and their likes – there must be some result they should get.

The work should always stimulate minds, strike emotional chords in a profound way. Others expect to experience deep emotional intimacy that moves beyond understanding. Expect the work to bring its audience back to itself, asking “What do I do?”. Through personal stories, anecdotes, and thought provoked, deep emotional intimacies formed will bring the observer right back to itself. In facing oneself, one is brought to a place of complete honesty, of catharsis, of experiencing a destruction of self.

That was intense, I know. And I am not there yet with any of my work. It is helpful for the exercise to talk about my work in its ultimate form.

My work solves the lack of critical thinking. It is for those who have been questioning themselves and their world(s) but did not have the time, hope or voice to answer some of them. My work brings clarity in a more contextual understanding of oneself. A clear awareness of who one is, while always knowing that one is not alone.

This brings a sort of relief, a relaxation, a level of peace from which one can rebuild themselves.

My work, by being a personal illustration of my journey, helps bring a sense of relief and peace from which one can rebuild themselves.

This means my work begins with the work I do on myself. I’d like to share bits and pieces of myself, expressed in contextually relevant ways, in the hopes to bring you, dear audience, a sense of belonging.

This exercise is not over. Barely even scratched the surface. I want to present the how of this exercise. How do I do my work? In what ways is it manifesting? What have I done till now?

These questions demand another writing, but for now, this shall suffice.

Reinterpreting YOLO

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In the face of death, we are compelled to seek the essence of life. — Unknown.

“You Only Live Once” (YOLO) gains a profound significance when aligned with our awareness of mortality. Following is a journey through psychological and philosophical frameworks that reveals how understanding death can deeply enrich our lives.

Epicurus, often misunderstood as a hedonist, actually advocated for a balanced approach to life. His teachings, focusing on life’s transient nature, encourage a liberation from irrational fears, particularly those about death.

An unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates.

Socrates urges us to reflect on the fleeting nature of our existence and to pursue a life of virtue in the shadow of mortality.

Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it. — Haruki Murakami.

Freud’s ‘death drive’ and Jung’s individuation concept reveal our subconscious grappling with mortality. Existential psychology further explores this theme, emphasizing the need to confront mortality-induced anxiety for a meaningful life.

Terror Management Theory (TMT) adds another layer, proposing that our cultural and self-esteem frameworks act as defenses against mortality fears, influencing individual and societal behaviors. Positive psychology, emphasizing resilience and growth, suggests that accepting mortality can deepen life’s purpose.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. — Maya Angelou.

Merging psychological and philosophical insights, this exploration is an invitation to embrace life’s fullness, recognizing our mortality. YOLO, reinterpreted, becomes a poignant reminder of life’s finiteness, urging us to live intentionally and deeply.

Embody

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A wise man once said life is vanity, like chasing the wind. A wiser One said one can feel the effects of the wind but cannot see it.

Is life’s meaning is so sublime, so subtle, profound and invisible that it cannot be found using the 5 senses? Or even chased?

Is it something that is found? or lost? Or is it a choice one makes to trust their instinct and live to make the Greatest Good?

Our days are numbered. And the time it takes to find meaning could be replaced by practicing it. What is “it”? The smallest step one can take to find meaning. It is the simplest thing or activity one can do, the low effort action.

There is a perceived exaggeration of “finding meaning”, especially in social media. A glorified journey of sorts. What if:

Meaning is neither lost nor found but embodied by starting with something one is already doing?
Meaning is clarified more simply by consistently practicing different ways of embodying it?

My approach to finding meaning has been a structured, step by step one. With it came very high expectations - imagined moments of epiphany, euphoria, and making a complete 180 afterwards.

But it really isn’t like that. Meaning is embodied. Meaning is practiced. And it starts with that one step, an attempt. Step by step, one foot in front of the other. Practice breeds conviction.

“We become what we repeatedly do” – Stephen Covey

This specific writing is a step. Convenience brings ease of practice. With consistent practice, embodiment begins. The length and stretch of how far this consistent practice will go is yet to be determined. But being here is a blessing in itself.

Teach your Kids English

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

okay, some context first. watch this video.

exposure to opportunity is privilege. granted to because of the color of their skin, who they are born from or, who they know. as soon as you are born, these determine the extent of privilege:

skin color
proxy
area

it does not depend on who you are and what you do.

being born in a third world country, with a darker shade of skin color doesn’t grant you the same opportunities as someone born in a first world nation, with a much, lighter tone.

my father might have been a genius. i am not saying this because he is my father, i have seen his genius in action; he does math on the fly. not your average two plus two math. i am talking serious math. he calculates without pen and paper and he gives us the right answer. guy never missed. a strategic thinker who founded a company and 3x’d its revenue in just a few years.

but i digress.

i’d loosely define him as a genius. because this is less about intelligence and more about potential and opportunities.

in a parallel universe, my father may have grown up in a country with more opportunities for gifted humans such as himself. i wonder how life would turn out to be if he was there. for one, i wouldn’t have been born. and that wouldn’t have mattered.

but what could have been? for once, i wish there was a parallel universe i can peak into. but i cannot, i am just human.

The (small) Niceties

Fri, 13 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

as an INFJ, Si (introverted sensing) is my weakest cognitive function. that means i tend to forget – and at times, forgo – the day-to-day: sleep, food, etc.

i’ve come to recognize these necessities as niceties:

sunlight. i wake up and let the sun hit my eyes. something nice about that. i leave my phone in another room the night before, sleep, wake up and let the sun hit my eyes like Andrew Huberman said.
naps. whether it is after eating well, or when i am trying to catch up on sleep, the after-feeling of naps feels nice.
inaction. there is a subtle magic in doing nothing. i take a pause from my-to-day, breathe, and try to be. some times it lasts for seconds, sometimes minutes.
sitting on the floor. very nice.
walks. nice slow walks. i go out at 17:30 for an hour long walk around my neighborhood. leaving all of my day-to-day related thoughts at home.
water. a glass of mildly cold water that is at the right temperature. one that leaves a nice ‘weight’ on my tongue. i pour water into a jug, put some ice. and wait for it to melt. the disproportion of ice-to-water modifies the water’s temperature to exact kind of water i like.

more niceties i’d rather keep to myself. it feels nice to have secrets, dark or light.

On Spirituality

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

spirituality is an all-encompassing, all pervading phenomenon. it is irrefutable, undeniable, insolvent, inevitable.

spirituality is about being first. doing second. you are first who you become. or who you choose to become. who you choose to become is a compound of the actions you have taken through a course of time. your actions, repeated without reset, become who you are. eventually you are actions become you. emphasis on eventually. lying once does not make you a liar. losing once does not make you a loser.

but we never know how to just… be. being is difficult because it is almost synonymous with being idle. it is more than that. being is the tiny brief stillness when you realize you have fallen in love. or the way you feel in a near death experience. or how you feel when you are sitting still for just 10 minutes. you will be, then.

being is found in stillness. perhaps that is why we celebrate people more once they die — we realize who they are.

being is found in deliberation. perhaps that is why intentions matter — they are tied in with who we are.

being doesn’t require work. we are not used to inaction. we are not used to intentionally engaging with inertia. we are either acting, or reacting. but being doesn’t require work as written by the sons of Korah.

being is close to God, no matter who you judge yourself as a human being.

being opens your eyes because you see your true colors. you realize you are one with the world. that you are a reflection of God and consequently of every being you encounter.

there is no alternative to being. no shortcuts either.

instead of working to be, let work become an extension of your being; stop working to be, let the being extend itself into work — St. Paul knows about this.

Let Brand Disappear

Sat, 07 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

there is a level of abstraction when it comes to interpreting what a brand is. understanding this abstraction unlocks untapped potential in building your brand. the abstraction is a paradox.

i do not know how to articulate it yet — this is me trying.

in my experience, i have learned how people understand what brands or branding is. both have their own distinct meanings but they are being understood as one and the same.

people see branding as the bells and whistles; fancy graphics, brilliant ads, well written copy. some commission branding work to agencies for the sake of having a brand. for the sake of standing out. for the sake of, well formality. “new business, we need a logo”. and this is how i understood it when i was starting out.

i will follow suit and use both terms interchangeably. the focus of this writing is not on semantics. it is on unpacking the level(s) of abstraction.

branding requires deeply thinking about what it is you want to do, and finding ways in which what you have found can be enacted. branding requires one to find the ease that comes with finding and being one’s true self.

branding is the act of becoming your authentic self so much so that you find yourself too busy living out your values to even look to at the bells and whistles that come with fancy graphics and copy.

branding is not something you maintain or uphold, it is something that you live out daily.

how?

well, you have to (re)discover yourself.

of course you want a sustainable brand. of course you want to make the world a better place. of course you want to be more or authentic. but not with some lofty ideals and blanket statements. use real descriptors. make it unique. why do you want to do what you want to do? what is that thing that ticks you? what is your hell? describe it in as much detail as possible. don’t look outside for answers. look within. what do you want to do in this world?

forget about customer profiles. describe yourself the Charles Dickens way.

forget value propositions. describe the problems you face every single day. long commute hours? write it down. nothing to do in your boring town/neighborhood? write it down. write about the most annoying part of your day/week/month. whatever you write, describe it. and do it the Charles Dickens way.

forget marketing strategies. describe what the world should know. what is it that you want to see in the world? describe exactly what you want to see in this world. and why.

forget focus groups. describe solutions to your problems. and create the solutions. product has shortcomings? work with people. the same kind of people who started with themselves.

i’m trying to show you a way to build something authentic. something that is you. it is more than a brand. it is more than some reputation.

branding disappears into who you are as you find more and more of yourself. branding becomes enacting different states of being. of who you are. and that’s when you win.

when you build a team. when you gather people who are like you but specialize in a different set of skills. you want to transfer being yourself to them. you want them to know. you want them to enact being yourself the way you would. and hopefully, you inspire them to find and be themselves.

and this is where you need to transfer knowledge. time to put all of your expressed states of being on paper. time to structure them. time to transfer them.

this is branding. transferring your vision of the world, to the world. until then, let the brand disappear.

Pause

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

i don’t know if it was my father passing 9 months after my brother did, but i gave up on living the way i used to: burnt out, spread thin, busy. on March last year, i decided to take a break, to reflect.

there was a deafening anxiety that crept up every now and then. the thought of life passing me by as i paused: colleagues, family, friends moving to different phases of their lives when i am just — pausing.

nonetheless, i hit reset. i stopped doing what i used to do and just let myself be. be lazy, lost, anxious, full of vigor, yet trying to push through the days that were slower than a mule, others that just passed by. i went through the ups and downs and sideways of life without work being my refuge.

i spent my days sporadically going to the gym, watching movies, passively engaged in meaningful and creative pursuits. i was all over the place. but it didn’t bother me — it shouldn’t.

i learned a lot about myself. my life as an artist, an entrepreneur, a human being exploring different spheres of life and found myself immersed in web3. i met people from different walks of life. and (re)discovered one thing I value most; accelerated learning.

i rethought most of the decisions i made in the past decade.

what’s my favorite part about being an entrepreneur?

it was having time and spatial freedom to do whatever i want. the ability to independently serve those i decided to serve. carrying the responsibility of knowing how to live was empowering. and i almost forgot to bear the weight it brought with it.

it was sharing what I know as a mentor, a content creator, or through dialogue. when you decide to share what you know, it forces you to learn more, continuously. and that was rewarding.

what was my least favorite part?

in retrospect, i’d say perfectionism. things have to be done in a specific way, have to look a specific way, have to feel a specific way. i expected nothing below that. i followed perfectionism and it led me to burn out.

replacing perfectionism with excellence will be useful.

might as well say it: this is the first issue of my newsletter.

i am not promising a specific cadence. but i know it won’t be the kind of newsletter that fills your inbox too fast that you’re discouraged to read. you won’t forget about it either — i hope you don’t.

i can’t promise expectations. i have been spinning my head trying to (re)focus the newsletter. trying to come up with topics, subjects, and whatnot only to find out that I am up at 2 in the morning writing my heart out. regardless of topic. or style.

i can promise this will be a fruit of love; when i start focusing on numbers only, i will stop.

i hope to see you around more,

On the Reproducibility of Photographic Work

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

An artisan’s work is that of the hands. Making is a sort of channeling of essence of the maker, the made and counterparts that make it to a single object; the Product. The maker lives uniquely, as experiences, in each make. The final product, besides being unique from the rest despite having the same measurements, also carries with it a unique form of the essence of its maker. Experiencing the product immediately implies experiencing the refined essence of its maker.

The industrial age has undermined this experience, for practical reasons of course. One of the ways industries undermine makers is through their ability of reproducing anything. When a product is easy to remake through the same process, using the same machinery, using the same process to do it, it begins to lose touch with its uniqueness. It is no longer a little bit different than its band of brothers.

To an extent, reproducibility of artistic work undermines its uniqueness. The work begins to lose a sense of divinity it once carried with it through the way one work is not the same as the other. Science relies heavily on consistency to make its deductions, hence why it is objective and logical at the way it studies the world. The world, falsely assumed by science as a state of consistent truths that recur when certain preconditions are met is highly unpredictable. Thus science either does not allow the existence of subjective, variable experiences or compensates for it through a series of objective, consistent experiences. It is the only way science understands the world. It is what makes the perception of science to be reliable.

The process of reproducing an art is a science. Through the reproduced art, the subjectivity of the experience of the art begins to fade. We are beginning to see repetitive objectification of subjective experiences.

Instagram

Social media platforms such as Instagram, besides reducing the photograph to just another image on a screen, further reduce the subjective experience each photograph is ready to give by having one photograph closely above the other as this makes scrolling easier than stopping to observe; the like button is a convenient tool to simply stop by for seconds, see the image, and decide quickly whether the image deserves it or not. This is especially true when one doesn’t stop and read through the caption regardless of how long the written material is.

Just how it is done for objectivity in science, one can/should enhance the role of subjectivity through making more and more unique experiences in forms of art. Even when viewed on screen, photography can still preserve its inherent subjective experience. Besides aesthetic and/or emotive quality, its production quality can be felt even when viewed on screen. An instance worth mentioning is the way some artists present the methods and process used in the making of the image. This gives the viewer some idea — a glimpse of sorts, if the viewer’s experience and imagination are broad — as to how the image is to be produced and presented which in turn makes up for the somehow lost, or at least, washed out version of the subjective experience given by the photograph.

Photography in Ethiopia: Where Are We?

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A series of questions one must ask:

Is there a way to measure the growth/development of photography?
Is there a need to measure the growth/development of photography?
Why would one want to measure the growth/development of photography in Ethiopia in the first place?
Would the result from these measurements contribute to further photography in its various forms for the elevation of the individual, community, country, continent, and ultimately, humanity?

Why Measure the Maturity of a Photograph?

The importance of Art, more specifically photography, is an unrivaled truth. Measuring maturity of a photographic work can help make a manual, a sort of production guide, to those working to consistently deliver mature photographic work. The more mature photographic work we have, the heightened the human experience in viewing art becomes. Production of the guide also helps in shortening the years of experience one must have to finally begin consistently delivering mature photographic work.

It is certain that empirically measuring the maturity of a photograph, a mostly subjective experience, is difficult and may not deliver a consistent result. A suggestion for a compensation to that challenge is that those with experience pass united judgements to the maturity of the photographs.

How Can One Measure the Maturity of a Photograph?

From my studies, observations, and experiments, there are four ways of measuring maturity of photography. The following methods of measurement are quite difficult to pick apart and use each one separately. The methods of measurement are one whole, beyond a sum of their parts.

Aesthetic Quality

A higher aesthetic shows a maturity of photography. Aesthetic quality depends mostly on the composition of the photograph.

Emotive Quality

When one’s emotions are stirred upon viewing a photograph, it is indicative of a higher emotive quality of a photograph. The emotive quality of a photograph is quite subjective as it requires one to be sensitive to objects of art, be able to properly and thoroughly express the emotions felt.

The Story Behind It

Upon hearing the story of Juan Pablo Echeverri, a Columbian photographer who has been taking photos of himself every day for the past 8 years, one’s curiosity is piqued. One would love to go and see this obsession, for a lack of a better word, behind the making of the photographs. The story behind the photographer or the photograph itself is a method of measuring the maturity of a photograph.

Production Quality

There are two ways to view a photograph: on screen and on print. When viewing photographic work on screen, observing production quality becomes similar to examining the aesthetic quality of the photograph. Thus, we will move to observing the production quality of printed photos. Production quality has factors that depend on the material on which the photograph is mounted, and the quality of the process. Take for instance, an inkjet print. The quality of the print depends on the type of paper used — the appropriate the thickness and texture of which is to be determined by the image maker — and the print quality on the paper — closeness in accuracy, in terms of color, contrast and exposure, of the reproduced photograph to the one made by the camera. In this case, a higher production quality i.e. the level of harmony reached in the unity of the type of paper used and the quality of print.

A Point System

After pointing out the criteria for measuring maturity of a photograph, it is necessary to construct a sort of measuring system where a photo is judged based on the criteria and given points from point range. Each criteria will have a scale ranging from 1 to 5 for which a photograph will be rated.

Through a universally agreed point system, one is thus able to measure the level maturity of photography, and, from these results, make conclusions of how to further the art and its many forms of manifestation.

Elevating Photography in Ethiopia

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Photography, in essence, stands on a fragment of truth, that which we call reality, to construct a truth of its own. Truth constructed by photography becomes so when the artist is fully satisfied with every aspect of the photograph: aesthetic, emotive, the story behind it, and the production quality. It is then that one can conclude that the produced work has spoken a truth of its own.

Photography boxes reality into a single, four-sided frame. It then constructs its own reality from that. Photography as a medium is able to construct its own reality by being itself, a quality that is intrinsic, and also through being the intentional creation of the artist, a quality that is not under the control of photography. By being an intentional creation of the artist, photography is then a formation of a glimpse into an intentional creation, a type of creation that, by being intentional in its own way, is divine.

Intentional creation comes through the connection between the intangible, the intuition, and the ability to realize the message through a form of self expression in reality. A photographer can gain this skill through severe and deliberate practice.

Elevating photography requires the artist to deliberately practice, while also questioning each and every step of his/her creation; the process through which the creation undergoes, and the final product.

Elevating photography also requires learning through critique. Elevation is by no means an individual process. It requires a system with which the photographer grows and shares experiences. In Ethiopia exists a lack in collaborative efforts between photographers. Caused by a variety of factors, collaborative efforts to create elevated work is non-existent. Surely, there are workshops and trainings being held throughout the year but their efforts seem to end at the end of their lifespan. For instance, the photographic work produced for CPE Workshop #4 have ended as soon as the exhibition ended. Peer reviews, friendships formed between each participant and the like has ended as soon as the workshop ended.

This is indicative of a larger problem, an ailment plaguing the photographic industry; A. doing things unenthusiastically (for a lack of a better word); and B. lack of focus on the long-term effects of practicing THAT ONE THING. Is this a generational problem? As the country-wide changes keep sweeping the nation’s generations, one can say, “to a certain extent, yes”.

Brook Getachew — Writing

Quantity As The Path To Great Work

Hey, Slow Down

Follow your Ebb and Flow

Keep Moving Forward

Knowing Rhythm Knowing Work

Do the Work

Learn Discipline

Fear Was a Friend

On Handling Criticism

(L)earn Confidence

On Seeking Validation

Value Momentum

Burning Out

I let my passions consume me.

besides God

I am the only one I have

What’s Wrong with You?!

What is wrong with you?!

You don’t have clarity

You don’t know who you are

Let’s change that

Consider a personality test

Observation

Test yourself

Start small

Keep a tracker

Create and stick to a deadline

Review what you’ve accomplished

Choice is a Luxury

Importance of Typing Instructions

Bookshelf

Books I’ve fully read and recommend:

Books I’ve partially read and recommend:

Currently reading:

Typing Instructions

Exploring Artistic Style and Voice

Through My Work

Reinterpreting YOLO

Embody

Teach your Kids English

The (small) Niceties

On Spirituality

Let Brand Disappear

i do not know how to articulate it yet — this is me trying.

Pause

what’s my favorite part about being an entrepreneur?

what was my least favorite part?

On the Reproducibility of Photographic Work

Instagram

Photography in Ethiopia: Where Are We?

Why Measure the Maturity of a Photograph?

How Can One Measure the Maturity of a Photograph?

Aesthetic Quality

Emotive Quality

The Story Behind It

Production Quality

A Point System

Elevating Photography in Ethiopia