From the Inspirational Thought Unit
I've been talking to a wide range of artists lately for my podcast. Several of these interviews haven't dropped yet, but I'm seeing an emerging practice in the routine of these highly successful creators: lack of social media usage. And specifically a morning devoted to creating. One artist specifically left social media entirely and subscribed to a handful physical magazines to fill the inspiration hole that social media left.
There's two things at work here: concentration and inspiration. These might be the nucleic ingredients to creating. An artist needs to find a proper balance of input and output. I'm thinking a lot about input and where that should come from, and its delivery method. I think the worst possible way to get inspired is by surfing social media. Yes, you can get inspired, but at what cost?
I like Patricia Lockwood's perspective on this from her 2018 essay on writing. In it she says:
The first necessity is to claim the morning, which is mine. If I look at a phone first thing the phone becomes my brain for the day. If I don’t look out a window right away the day will be windowless.
I like the idea of windows. You can spend your day looking through a tiny glass window in your hand, seeing what thousands of other people are seeing. (Which does have its place, I admit). Or you can look out the full sized window in your house and see a view unique to you. What are other windows you have access to? And how can you replace the tiny handheld one with those?
This is still half-baked, but I'm thinking it through right now and wanted to share where I'm at.
-Jake