Olivia Dias Bagott

There has never been a better time in history to be a creative person. More people than ever before have the tools to create, share and earn an income from their art.

And yet, creators are facing more obstacles than ever. Volatile platforms, unpredictable income, difficulty reaching followers... the list goes on and on.

We shouldn’t just work less because it makes us better workers. We should work less because it makes us better people.

“we are all more than just workers. We’re parents and friends and citizens and artists and travellers and neighbours. Much like an investor benefits from diversifying the sources of stocks in their portfolio, we, too, benefit from diversifying the sources of meaning and identity in our lives.”

The way we’ve elevated professional identity to the centrepiece of selfhood comes at a considerable cost, narrowing our understanding of value and connection to something that can be neatly added to LinkedIn.

Life is hard enough without a handful of filthy-rich assholes sticking their nose into matters that affect our much-less-rich lives. And yet, here they are, on our screens, in our news and in our governments, like a stain on the planet.

I want to know and be able to explain my personal taste, not just accept one that’s been spoonfed to me because of a pay-for-play scheme at Spotify, for instance. I don’t want my behavior modified by a social media empire; I want to make all my own mistakes.

“Instantaneous access to everything obviously comes at a cost. The cost being that we all behave like demented Roman emperors, at once bored and deranged, summoning whatever we want at any time.”

“The proliferation of devices surrounding us at all times may help us ‘get in touch’ with other people, sure, but they impede our ability to get in touch with ourselves. A ‘touch’ screen would indeed seem to promise something tactile and real, but they leave us cold, tepid and listless. Something is deeply wrong when we sext the same way we order a

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I want to be bored this year. I want to swim in unstructured hours that allow me to catch up with myself, where I can realise thoughts I didn’t know I had; to let my imagination roam and bloom into shapes only possible without the constant distraction of a screen blurring my vision.