Category: Things That Blow My Mind

In a 1979 interview with Charton Heston in Conversations at the American Film Institute with The Great Moviemakers, he has this to say about technology:

Technology has given us so much more opportunity to do unusual things that you couldn’t do with a camera before. The equipment is lighter, more portable; the film is faster, the lenses are faster. Everything is more readily available to you, and directors sometimes tend to get caught up in exclaiming how wonderful a shot is. But what is it about? How does it serve the story? I remember something Wyler taught me. I had come back from seeing some film and was saying how well directed I thought it was, and he said, “You have to be careful with that. If everybody says, ‘Isn’t that well directed?’ it means they weren’t paying attention to the story.” The direction should not call attention to itself. Neither should the acting or the writing.

This quote is even more true today and there are many more aspects of film production we can add to this list: color correction, motion graphics, computer generated imagery and effects. We can even add other industries that are affected by this thought: design, web development, app and software development, video games.

It all comes back to story. Want to stand out? Tell a story that really matters and affects people. Everything should serve that central goal, not the other way around.

As I was planning my weekly schedule this past Sunday evening, I had planned to write about how to tame emotions and ignite focus. As a creative person, I have struggled with a wide range of emotions as I go from project to project: insecurity, fear, anxiety, mania, flow, excitement, and dread. It’s amazing how difficult working on a project can be.

About an hour ago, I was reading Uncertainty by Jonathan Fields and he artfully dismantled my feelings that I was the only person who struggled with these emotions. He tells several stories about how creativity can sap your brain power and leave you vulnerable to emotions as well as a loss of willpower (which explains my Hot Tamales addiction). Because the brain is easily fatigued, Fields provides two reasons why this should cause everyone to take notice:

What we often experience as resistance, desire, distraction, burnout, fatigue, frustration, and anxiety in the process of creating something from nothing may, at least in part, be PFC [prefrontal cortex] depletion that reduces our willpower to zero and makes it near impossible to commit to the task at hand . . . . In addition, what so many creators experience as a withering ability to handle the anxiety, doubt, and uncertainty as a project nears completion may actually be self-induced rather than process-induced suffering (p. 56).

Lightbulb moment: This explains a lot of my emotional struggles the past year. But what I love is that it hasn’t been the work that has made me suffer, it has been me. I have been forcing myself to work longer hours, with less breaks, eating horrible (although tasty at times) food, and not working on passion projects.

What is the solution? Fields suggests, through a literary hat tip to Tony Schwartz, that we work in 45-90 minute bursts, then refuel our prefrontal cortex by walking, relaxing, or engaging in activities that refresh us. In addition, he talks about the importance of maintaining a daily ritual for the purpose of gaining momentum through difficult times.

What does your daily ritual look like? Are you planning every moment or do you give yourself time to breathe?

Thank you Mr. Fields.

Buried in The Education of an Illustrator by Steven Heller and Marshall Arisman is a beautiful quote on what it means to be a student of the arts:

“Education should stress the fundamentals, encourage the desire to learn, and create a safe environment in which the students can learn more about themselves, take risks, and grow to exceed their perceived potential. But, no matter how well the educator orchestrates this, it will only work if the students are not only willing to learn, but have a burning desire to excel in their chosen field. Going through the motions is a sure path toward being stuck in the pursuit of the norm. The main problem is that the norm isn’t achievable because it’s always changing. However, with a willingness to learn and a desire to excel, today’s students can create the next norm and the next.” — Thomas B. Allen

Do you have a burning desire to excel?

That feeling when you read something that sticks in your mind like a nagging thought. It won’t go away. It feeds on hope and insecurity. All that is right with the world, all that is wrong, is consumed by the thought that perhaps as a society we’ve been here before.

Joseph Campbell (2008) writes in The Hero with a Thousand Faces:

As Professor Arnold J. Toynbee indicates in his six-volume study of the laws of the rise and disintegration of civilizations, schism in the soul, schism in the body social, will not be resolved by any scheme of return to the good old days (archaism), or by programs guaranteed to render an ideal projected future (futurism), or even by the most realistic, hardheaded work to weld together again the deteriorating elements. Only birth can conquer death–the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new. Within the soul, within the body social, there must be–if we are to experience long survival–a continuous “recurrence of birth” (palingenesia) to nullify the unremitting recurrences of death.  (pp. 11-12).