Quick thoughts on creation

Posted by Manuel on September 21st, 2011 - Follow me on Twitter and Google+

At some point in my life I decided that no music could satisfy me. It was 2003, one night, I was alone trying to figure what track of my gazillion gigabytes of mp3s could be ok to listen to but really nothing was enjoyable. So I chose to create one track by myself. I had never learned music or anything, I just did it. One week and several hundreds cups of

coffee later I had the track I wanted to listened to. Not really finished, not really perfect. I did a couple more the same year. Nothing fantastic but it got me satisfied. (Don’t ask me for the tracks by the way, I trashed them a while ago).

More recently I decided I would love to have an app to interact with music. I am the kind of guy who air drums while listening to my ipod and I think there is something to do with that. I am still learning about creating iPhone apps but I am confident I will get to make one that satisfy me. And I also envision the programmer I want to be and my goal is to be a full-time iphone app developer  in a near future. And I am half excited / half terrified about this idea.

My message here is that we got so much used to consume that we forgot how to create. I am not here to fight consumerism, you probably know what is good for you. What scares me though is that we have lost the art of creating. Everything is here ready for us to use so we just have to sit, buy, watch and eat. And when we have interactive channels we only share useless information like those stupid cat videos on Facebook. (watch it , they are coming on google+ now it is open to everyone).

So next time you can’t find music to listen to or you see a crappy movie for 15$ or have a piece of software that keeps freezing, take it as an opportunity to create. Try to make the music that you would like to hear. Take a camera and invite some friends and make a damn good movie. Learn how to program and create you own software.

Creation is powerful… more than just criticizing.

The mass consuming market decided that we should all have the same tastes, the same envies. But we know that we are all different. We are just too lazy to 1) look somewhere else and 2) decide that we can do better. The thing is we are all waiting for better, all the time: better jobs, better computers, better houses, better phones,better everything…

I think if you know better, you can do better. You can learn better and create better. It is just a matter of energy and sweat. And yeah, you might just suck… it is part of the deal. Maybe , just maybe, you should keep on sweating.

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  • http://www.thepanamericans.net Mark David Robertson

    Have you heard of Bloom by Brian Eno? I only heard him talking about it, but it mixes the raw sonic material of a place and turns it into some kind of cohesive dub-step pattern. The guy also leads an a cappella group where he finds one’s voice “at once less than and more than one thought imaginable.” The moment we stop consuming and start creating (as you’ve noted) we become agents of cultural renewal. We take the raw stuff of life (sounds, experience, scents, wood), and join the disparate parts together. ALSO, the strange thing: I find I don’t need as many toys to keep me entertained. I don’t consume as much. This is a quiet way to live the ex-consumerist lifestyle without preaching too much.

    “Create better.” Yessir, Manu, sir!
    Epic post.
    M

    • http://www.inspacewetrust.com Manuel Loigeret

      I have to listen to Brian Eno. It seems everybody tells me about it lately but I am incapable of even imagining how he sounds like.
      Thanks for the comment Mark.

  • http://www.andrewcaldwell.org/blog Andrew Caldwell

    Brilliant, this is a good bit of clarity first thing in the morning.

    The new style of inspace looks very cool too Manu

    • http://www.inspacewetrust.com Manuel Loigeret

      Hey… Thank you Andrew!

  • http://www.identitales.com Esther van der Wal

    This is amazing! While reading, I found myself thinking “I wish I could do that” (e.g. create the music that I’d want to hear), but in a sense, I can. Maybe I’m not an app developer or a musician, but I might be able to create what I feel is missing or fun in other areas.

    I’ve been very lazy lately and that’s been bugging me. Nothing is created without a healthy bit of sweat. Thanks for pointing that out to me once again.

  • http://www.identitales.com Esther van der Wal

    This is amazing! While reading, I found myself thinking “I wish I could do that” (e.g. create the music that I’d want to hear), but in a sense, I can. Maybe I’m not an app developer or a musician, but I might be able to create what I feel is missing or fun in other areas.

    I’ve been very lazy lately and that’s been bugging me. Nothing is created without a healthy bit of sweat. Thanks for pointing that out to me once again.

    • http://www.inspacewetrust.com Manuel Loigeret

      I am glad you like this post Esther. I must say I spent a lot of hours to create simple melodies on my computer at that time. It was really a trial and error process note by note. Same thing with software development, it’s like learning another language, it takes some time and sweat . That’s it.

  • Elle Dougherty

    You brought back some memories for me from when I was a young teen. I loved to shop but I didn’t buy a lot because I was known to say, “I can make that.” As I got older I fell into the trap of lazy & easy. Thanks for the reminder I CAN do better!

    But if I make a movie there will be cats involved. ;)

    • http://www.inspacewetrust.com Manuel Loigeret

      Oh yes, please… make a movie with cats!

  • Anonymous

    Interesting Manu!

    Recently my wife has been doing something similar. She has been creating household items and food that we normally buy from the store (but that appear impossible to make) such as liquid soap, and washing powder. It’s been very eye-opening (and successful).

    Steve

  • http://liferapture.com Benjamin Spall

    This is all so true. Now, instead of creating, all we do is consume – day after day, week after week.

    The funny thing is, the lazier people get (as a collective whole) the lower the barriers to entry for people who want to create will be. Like now, for example, whenever I try something new (for an online business, or even a blog post) I have no worries about telling people about it before I launch, because the likelihood is nobody is going to act on it, nobody is going to create.

    Now it’s up to us to do the work.

  • http://www.actoftraveling.com Emiel van den Boomen

    Great post Manu! I am sweating like crazy when I try to write another blog post (yes, in our non-native language). But that is what I like to do. Some think I’m crazy spending so many (according to them: useless) hours on my blog. But I want to create.

    Love your post!

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