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A hustler’s economy

Yet another thought about money and art.

We’re mostly living in a hustler’s economy. Nearly everyone is hustling to be seen, to make a quick buck, to get shares or mentions, and to be relevant.

This could equate to revenue. But it just as easily could not. More often than not, it doesn’t.

It’s important, now more than ever, to focus on quality and value. Don’t just pitch to the lowest common denominator.

But money…?

Following up on doing the thing, there’s a problem with money, though.

Among the creative, if you need money, creating becomes a byproduct of survival.

This prevents creative freedom, and you’re left hustling to make something sellable. Which is almost never a viable option.

If you’re not free to create, the quality of the creation will suffer

If you can do anything else

There’s an axiom in the theatre – don’t do it unless you can’t do anything else.

It’s believed that there is a lot of struggling to succeed there, so if you have interests outside of it, it’s better to pursue those. If not…

That is to say, if you happen to only have passion for one thing, then then that’s would you should be doing.

Coming back

I didn’t intend to aim for one a day again. But it has happened this past week.

The important thing is to make time for the important things. Don’t get caught up in the concern about its viability.

An interesting take on AI

Someone told me recently that there were more books in the public domain than any one person could read in a lifetime.

Sure, most of them read as old or outdated. But classics are classics for a reason.

And while there are those afraid of what AI will do to book writing, the true problem remains the same:

How to find an audience for your work.

The algorithm

We don’t always think about how curated the content we see is.

Isn’t as if there’s this one person directing content to our devices, or a Big Brother-esque organization.

Nonetheless, what we see is heavily affected by how some system determines our preferences.

And as we respond to their prompts, we become more like they think we are, and it’s an endless cycle.

That’s odd to me.