Self Awareness

Those Who Curate, and Those Who Consume.

Taste comes from awareness - it’s an outward expression of how one perceives the world and interact with it. Rather than liking something for the sake of being part of the “trend” as propagated by algorithm, liking something unapologetically, and taking time in solitude to understand what draws you to things around you is key to harvest that uniqueness. (You don’t necessarily need to find niche music to listen to if that’s not what you’re into. You don’t want to look different for the sake of it < another form of performative behaviour.)

Iris Murdoch: “Unselfing”

To see things as it is, without “fat relentless ego” with that self-referral lens (e.g. “what does this mean for me?”, “how does this serve my goals”?)

beauty as a discipline: on attention, care and what really matters

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But creatives also need thinking time, a moment to rewind and allow old thoughts to leave and new ones to come in. Creative thinking rarely moves in straight lines. It benefits from pauses, detours, and periods where nothing tangible appears to be happening. These phases often feel rich from within, yet they offer little external proof.

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The Pressure to Always Be Productive as a Creative

The in-between process between creating <> thinking, reflecting, digesting, learning and brewing has become the “gap” of why creators are absent and has added the pressure of needing to “over-explain” themselves for visibility.

The pressure to always be productive is distributed unevenly. Audiences move fluidly, entering and exiting work without obligation. Creatives, on the other hand, carry responsibility for continuity. For returning. For staying legible.

The Pressure to Always Be Productive as a Creative

Imbalance of dynamics between those who dip in and out as an audience vs the creator who always need to be “on top of” the game.

From a psychological perspective, slower processes restore agency. When attention is no longer fragmented, intuition sharpens and confidence becomes quieter yet more durable. Creative decisions begin to feel internally aligned rather than externally validated.

Zoë Yasemin • Article

Slow down, and trust your internal instincts. Let your brain do the thinking slowly. Take time to digest and make sense of things, rather than leaving trends (external) to drive your creative decisions.

“Listening without prejudice is how we grow and learn as people. More often than not, there are no right answers, just different perspectives.” (P.112)

[ Takeaway: p.112, Listening - The Creative Act: Rick Rubin ]

Stop getting comfortable or hung up on one way of doing things. Challenge your own processes.

[ Takeaway: p.101, Rules - The Creative Act, Rick Rubin ]

Be aware of the subliminal rules that underlies our actions, which can undermine our work - including cultural osmosis and childhood influence.

[ Takeaway: p.97, Rules - The Creative Act: Rick Robin ]