Seth Godin – The Practice

Notes from The Practice by Seth Godin.

Change someone, ignore everyone. (Seth Godin / Hugh McLeod)

You don’t create a hit trying to please everyone.

Create work that matters to someone. Develop a genre. Be peculiar.

Commit to the journey (not to the engagement).

Great work is work that’s worth doing.

Sales is turning “never heard of” into “yes” or “no”.

If it fails, would you still do it?

Reassurance is futile. Instead of worrying, get to work.

There is no guarantee that the world gives a shit about your mission. Nobody cares; it should be your starting point.

Balance your own point of view and pleasing the audience. How? Through work. Ship creative work on a schedule, without attachment or reassurance.

Art for free creates deniability: what did you expect? It was free.

Being peculiar is natural. And beneficial.

Just because the outcome is uncertain doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

Consistency is the way forward. Work that thymes. Not repetition.

Flow is productive, but desirable difficulty brings us to a new level. The hard work.

Generic is a trap; genre is a lever.

Find your cohort.

A few or one superpowers. Commit to it. We must choose.

Do your homework. Read the essentials in your genre.

Constraints can be a creative source.

Photowork – stijl en genre als beperkende concepten

Ik lees Photowork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice. Het is een leerzaam boekje voor de fotograaf. Vooral de antwoorden op de vragen over stijl en genre zijn onthullend. Er zijn nauwelijks fotografen die zich over stijl en genre druk maken. Velen wijzen de concepten af. Leuk voor analisten, achteraf, op zijn best. Zeker geen zaken waar de fotograaf zich tijdens het maken van het werk mee bezig moet houden. Voor je het weet worden het zelfopgelegde creatieve beperkingen.