Incoming call: YOUR CURIOSITY
[ Pick up ] or [ Decline ]
In 2013 when I was 13, I was using photoshop & a 4d text modeler to create specialized youtube backgrounds for people. And I loved all of it, learning how to create new effects, putting my brain juices towards making something unique, something new, something impressive, something each person would love.
I ended up learning a ton in a short amount of time while having an absolute blast because I was simply diving into my curiosities and my own true nature.
guess what though? I never pursued it much further after I turned 14 because it "wasn't a high earning career path" to be in graphic design.
When I was 14 I didn’t know any better, that my parents were just humans like me and they weren’t some omnipotent beings that knew everything about everything. I love my parents, they are the best. But of course now I can see how being highly skilled in graphic design is not a low paying job when using the internet.
I know of many paths to make more than enough money using this skill… but this isn’t the point I’m trying to make…
Before we dive in…
This week I finished writing the final chapter of my book! My book is about creation and curiosity. I don’t have any links for you yet, but I just wanted to let you know about it.
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Finally, I have been working on creating a super cool hub for creation and curiosity… you can go check it out and explore @ frikit.net 🙂
okay, on with the good stuff now! (this is also a chapter from my book).
A sad loss of curiosity
What I’m trying to say is this: it makes me sad when I see others bashing on someone genuinely interested in doing something. Most people do not understand that we are in the age of the internet: anyone who is curious enough about something can excel in so many ways, money included.
Nowadays I see many graphic designers around who have been going for 10+ years and have an incredible body of work + a high demand for their work. It’s all so common, I even forgot about this lost dream of mine. With the tide it went along with many of my other aspirations that my younger self didn't see as a high enough earning potential. When I was 14 my curiosity already started being guided by my future thoughts of the earning of money, how ridiculous this is, how sad.
I know better now, and there is so much to be learned, it's actually pretty awesome where we find ourselves today regardless of the past. Skills you hone do matter, and on the internet the person with a high level of skill across one or many domains has so much leverage: no matter if they can earn a high salary via a job, there is so much potential in so many avenues.
The best way to develop skill is to learn, and the best way to learn is to be extremely curious. This means that yes, once again, curiosity is our guiding light, and as a kid it can be easy to have this light covered up, so I’m telling you to let it lead more of your way, it’s a wonder; being curious, and it’s another wonder to follow that curiosity.
I still remember how I had a blast when I was 13, made speed art videos of my process, and designed cool stuff because it was fun, I learned without trying, it was that interesting to me at the time. I was so curious about each part of what I could create, how I could improve, what new techniques I had yet to know. But little old me got his dreams crushed when he turned 14, with a new thought of having to go do something with a higher earning potential.
The task of life
“The task is to learn how to enjoy everyday life without diminishing other people’s chances to enjoy theirs.” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
I think this is a large part of adulting’s faults. They don’t know how much they don’t know, so they toss you around in their own perception of joy/ “what is best”(which is really often times your future misery you just don’t know any better as a child to go against the grains put onto you. Or if you haven’t figured such a thing out yet in your early adult years, that you know you best, and that you’re parents are only human, you can end up thinking something is wrong with you, when it is often not. Not that you’re perfect, but rather that the curious parts of you think to be odd or wrong are often your biggest strengths.
An example: Someone may make you feel like there is something wrong with you because you don’t enjoy leisure time or a vacation with ample idle time… you would rather find yourself working on your latest project, or learn more about what you’re curious about, or go for a run. To me I am restless on vacation, I can’t sit on the beach for long before I have the desire to go work on a project of mine, write an essay, design my website further, or in general just do something that puts me in a flow like state: do something i’m really curious about doing.
To supplement this I read a lot on vacation, but I just can’t seem to sit and do nothing for a week, 1 day or 2 sure, 30 minutes maybe an hour alone with my thoughts is nice, but after a certain point I lose the enjoyment aspect of vacation. You may be thinking about my ideals and be dreaming about just bathing in the sun, and that’s just how it is. We are all different in nature. If you want to increase how you mend with others it’s important to know there’s nothing wrong with you. This way you can find how you operate, and best mesh with others preferences.
We all have different needs, and many people have their optimal experience under different conditions. Someone may very much enjoy skipping rope, another person may think this activity is the absolute worst. Nothing is wrong with either of these people, they are just different humans with different preferences. We all inherently know this, but we seemingly can’t apply it to all senses of life, we forget that not everyone is thinking about what we are or can enjoy doing what we enjoy.
Final words for today
Follow your curiosity without breaking someone else's.
Quote again: “The task is to learn how to enjoy everyday life without diminishing other people’s chances to enjoy theirs.” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
This quote puts this writing perfectly into place.
This is the task of life to remember, especially when you’re exploring your own curiosity: so you can avoid being knocked off your own path, and so you can encourage others to keep going.
Thank you so much for reading my friend,
your friend,
jack ♠️
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