"When you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than your ability. Your tastes only narrow & exclude people. So create."

- Why The Lucky Stiff

@dansup
Long after first reading this, it's stayed with me. I always felt uncomfortable at the celebration of obsession I saw with niches of prepackaged, cultural artifacts, whether music, food, manga, coffee, TikTok channels, furniture, you name it. These things aren't inherently bad, but for a weird expectation that anyone who likes them should be obsessed more than all the people around them. The model consumer, separated from other people by the need to be the "biggest" fan (consumer).

🤮

@Blort @dansup What _why said echoes my comments about why the US app market could not have produced what is most loved about TikTok: ad hoc collabs. https://youtu.be/UgsurPg9Ckw

That’s because users are seen as people to hurl boxes o’ stuff at, not creators in their own right.

The Wellerman (Sea Shanty) - From TikTok to Epic Remix

YouTube
@dansup @tchambers I’m going to be chewing on this for awhile, the implications are deep.

@dansup

Some interesting insight, via #NPR's #Throughline, regarding "creativity":

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/12/1187308859/no-bad-ideas

And while I'm here, thanks for keeping active on #Pixelfed, which is quite the hub of people who create.

🖖 !

@dansup I miss _why
@james @dansup I miss _why too! Easily the most interesting book about programming ever.
@deirdresm @james @dansup they built a cool ruby ui thing and then I never really heard about them after that. I have also wondered where they are. Is this known?
@deirdresm @james @dansup I think they are okay. That’s very good to hear. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff
why the lucky stiff - Wikipedia

@benjohn @james @dansup

It sounds like the story of someone who realized that programming was far more ephemeral, and it’s not a great medium if you want to make something more enduring.

@deirdresm @james @dansup I was thinking about that while mixing up some dough… it’s pretty wild, no?

Software is pretty much transcribed thought stuff.

There’s nothing inherent about it to make it any less durable than mathematics. (Digital) software has complete innate durability, and can be embodied in to an infinite variety of forms or medium, losing nothing of its message.

And yet, last year’s hot repos don’t build 🤷‍♂️

@dansup @tonyarnold I’ve thought about this recently, and I believe people who don’t create are incapable of understanding the nature of skill, and are more likely to undervalue the work of others.
@brunoph @dansup yeah, it's pretty easy to see this reflected in the professionals around you.
@dansup whatever happened to Why?
@requiem @dansup He went back to his own time.
@dansup
Refinement is rejection. ~Voltaire

Or as Steven Pressfield put it in his book Going Pro;

"The pro writes, the amateur tweets."

Replace "writes" with any genuinely creative activity - *including* social media posting that's genuinely creative - and the same applies. Replace "tweets" with any form of snobbish criticism, including novel-length books that just bag other people's creation, same same.

@dansup @mckra1g

@dansup I just created an account. The site looks pretty good, congrats! Er.. the site doesn't seem to recognize photos from my Apple phone which saves them in HEIC format. However, it did recognize something I had in jpg. Maybe I did something wrong? The vast majority of my photos are in that HEIC format.
@dansup These words are medicine. Thank you.
@dansup Aaaaah why is great! I loved The Poignant Guide to Ruby!