#003 Advice For The Perfectionist, Observations, and Why Everything Matters
Common Discourse Weekly Briefing
Common Discourse is a weekly briefing designed to help others (and myself) think through creativity, focus, and intentional work. I send this newsletter out every Monday at 9:17am. To receive future briefings, sign up below.
Here are a few ideas from me, a quote from somebody else, and my favorite links from the internet from the last week. 👇
I. Advice For The Perfectionist
The longer you sit and look at your own work, the worse it seems to get. But nobody else has seen it yet and you are your own worst enemy.
So proclaim it done & share it so that you can get started on the next one. We only get better with time.
II. Observations
If the stories we tell creatively are limited by the things in life that we've experienced so far, then they will only get better with time.
Putting in a bunch of extra work and hours right now doesn't stand a chance against living through a moment and your life's best moments are still ahead of you.
So don't rush, just be observant.
III. Why Everything Matters
As an artist, everything you do is productive. There's no such thing as useful or waste of time.
Every experiment, every failure, all the photos you take, words you write, and songs you sing is a result of everything that has come before it.
It's all adding up to something, even if we don't know what that is just yet.
It all matters. Everything matters.
A quote from somebody else:
Self-improvement is a distraction. Even as the global pandemic triggers economic collapse, there’s pressure to stay productive. Memes are telling me if I don’t come out of quarantine with a new skill or side hustle then it wasn’t time I’ve been lacking, only discipline.
— Whitney Mallett
My favorite links from the past week:
📹 A five minute short film about a few friends coming face to face with mental illness for the first time.
📝 If you need some help describing what you do, David Wise collected a bunch of bios from websites of designers titled, "How Designers Describe Themselves"
🏝 Had a fun conversation with Simon Mertz from Welcome To Paradise. Journal isn't out yet but look at his work. We talked about how our process can better inform our outcome.
🙏🏼 Ministry Magazine from 1974-2000. Why doesn't church creative look anywhere near as good as this now?
🧠Open History Archive is a showcase of projects that is using the internet as a space for communicating historical knowledge through visual means.
Thanks for reading this week!
My name is Alex Tan and this is my newsletter. I’m a maker & educator, I created MOUTHWASH with my friends, and I own way too many white sneakers. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram.
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