There is this fantastic listicle by Ryan Holiday on creating work that stands the test of time. I revisited it this month after a close confidante (sultana!) confided the challenge of producing evergreen creative work. We easily recognise and gravitate towards skilled practitioners that capture and relay current affairs, cultural phenomena, and political developments. However the level of struggle, deep reflection, vulnerability and humility required to manifest truly game changing material is harder.
Ryan does a great job in articulating a few necessary (but insufficient) conditions required to deliver masterpiece level work including: intentionality, a propensity for action, patience, persistence, and grit. In my experience, attempting to pursue such high aspirations, the temptation to release work early, the difficulty in soliciting quality feedback, and the humility to accept flawed/biased critiques have all featured as challenges.
The two albums in progress are taking shape nicely. Thankfully an absolute genius (Rory!) is on the team weaving together live strings, crazy beats & vibey innovations into these tracks. Now being scrupulous with the details, carefully crafting the story & message, designing the accompanying artwork, etc are next steps. Thankfully my brothers at Dojang who brought the first album to fruition are ready to play the Dr Dre role (produce the producers).
On the one hand you could take a view that none of those next steps matter much. Seth Godin equivocates that all that matters is shipping the work (i.e. deliver it). That sometimes you can sit on stuff too much & it loses its raw essence/energy. On the other hand when you come across work that’s earned its place in the world through struggle: you know about it.
I remember reading somewhere that Jess Glynne recorded hundreds of tracks (demos) with a bunch of producers before crafting her sound. Sam Smith mentioned on the Graham Norton show that his team makes about 30 songs per album, then pick 10 to release (approx figures). I’ve tried to embrace this trial-by-fire approach in pursuit of creating classics.
In other realms of interest I've been particularly fascinated with the investing I mentioned last month, purely given the intense psychological stresses you’ve got to overcome to stick to the plan. This dude called Mark Heiffman introduced the idea of the cycle of market emotions which i’d experienced both practically and intuitively but never formally recognised as a pattern of behaviour I am prone to. There’s a support/investment group of mates I'm part of, that essentially coddles each other during market downturns to ensure no-one panic sells as well as ‘buying the dip’. FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) is a powerful driver of short term actions but, so long as there is long term belief in the intrinsic value of these assets, any strategies/tactics/supports that enable you to hold off on such action long enough for a rebound is gold dust.
Same goes for sport, running especially, which has been gangbusters this month. Currently averaging about 30 miles per week and have got a buddy (the sandman) at 48 miles per week which is fantastic. Will look to step it up in May. Anyway there’s a similar overlap in mindset / ideology that if you just hold on through the hard bits (keep up pace going up hill for instance), you will inevitably have time to recover and do an order of magnitude better than those that choose to give in to the hurt and stop. Sacrificing speed for comfort results in suboptimal performance. Loving Kenya vibes!! Lots of learning ahead. Let's get to it!
