Remember to Be Inspired

Posting every day on YouTube has its advantages. You are no longer your limiting factor because you have to repeatedly publish videos that aren't done or perfect. You have to make unrefined ideas work. You have to come up with ideas. You have to work around time constraints. You have to work around hardware limitations. It reminds me of back in school and after graduating, where I squeezed out every single value I could get out of my laptop at the time. The creativity you need in those moments is something that's valuable in any level. We just forget about it.

It also gives you one important thing. Speed of executing your ideas and hunches. Currently working on video 19 as I type this, each video with its own incremental opportunity for me to try something and get better. I wouldn't bore you with the details but basically imagine I started with 1 video a week. That means I have compressed almost 5 months of learning into like 20 days.

But it doesn't come without its limitations. One of which is being able to properly review. In a 24 hour window, you can't really learn too much about how well your video is doing on YouTube. Sometimes videos take days to know where it will end up. But at this stage, one could say that the views are so low that any data I get is somewhat statistically irrelevant compared to just having sheer quantity. One could even say that any positive data you get might be a fluke. The other limitation, however, quantity can never override, which is not having enough time to take in and study the work of other people.

As a perpetual YouTube watcher, I probably subconsciously know what a good video is. But most of my time is spent as a consumer, not as someone with a creative mind. Because of that, many details fly over my head. I would just know that I enjoyed it or didnt. Don't get me wrong though, I've been following enough creators to not be clueless about what a hook is, thumbnails, retention, etc. But I haven't actually studied it, not recently anyway. As a designer, I remember spending time saving posters, trying to figure out why they worked. I used to go through websites every day to feast my eyes on beautiful things that other people are doing.

That's something that's easy to lose today. Everything is moving fast. AI is dominant. Most careers are going through some form of existential crisis. Most of us are just trying to keep doing things to make sure we don't get left behind. Unfortunately, creativty didn't get the memo. It's sometimes like a cat that needs to be pampered and not like a dog that is eager to please.

You're only as good as what you know and consume. But in addition, you're only as good as what you synthesize. If you stop all these things, you get stale and stagnant. Unfortunately, nature doesn't have stagnancy, just progression or regression. So basically, you're only as good as how long ago you let yourself be inspired and learn. At some point, you would just keep churning out stuff that would just keep getting less and less creative because you're pouring from an emptying cup. Eventually, you won't have anything to give and even if you do, you might as well be a zombie or a robot moving on autopilot.

So yeah, this journey has been a reminder for me to find time to be inspired. To restart the side of myself that didn't just consume but also wondered. Also studied. Also paid attention to details people didn't notice. Also found links between things that people wouldn't normally link. It's like how sleep is productivity. It's not an intuitive idea but creativity needs gaps and breaks not creating. Creativity needs time that doesn't feel productive. Progress is not always doing but also experiencing. No matter how great the software on your phone is, it still gets outdated. You need to invest into updating yourself, even when it doesn't feel high priority or important.

So yeah, after the 30 days I would reduce my frequency but it does get me a bit excited to sort or remember again why I like YouTube. Why things work. What clicks. It's also going to spill over in other areas of my life. Why is that movie great? Why do I like this book? What is a good design? How are people still creating amazing stuff? What level do you need to be at to be easily distinguishable from AI? So many whats and hows. What does originality even look like? If everyone is doing the same thing how do the few that stand out manage to do it?

I basically have to find my wonder in the creative again. I teetered too much towards the technical and pragmatic. Life being life, I'll probably forget again but at least this would be here to remind me when I need it.

And hopefully, it would do the same for you too.

Latest Youtube Video

I have now posted 18 "long form" videos. 11 to go as far as the daily challenge is concerned. The latest one is a video titled "You have time to read. You just don't know it yet." Like, share, subscribe, let me know what you think (I actually listen to feedback. They help a ton). Thanks ☺️

That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed it.

À la prochaine 😊.