It blows my mind that this image was created (almost) entirely on my phone– the only exception being that I made this particular crop on my laptop. I took the photo with the phone and processed it with an app on the phone. Said processing was done while the same phone sent and received text messages and streamed music wirelessly to a pair of speakers across the room. Technology is seriously insane. This is the first time I’ve imported a photo from my phone to my computer to take a closer look at it… and I’m just amazed. Never would have thought to crop in this closely if I hadn’t been monkeying around in iPhoto with the zoom tool.
Anyways, this is only a tangent to the topic I wanted to write about.
A few weeks back an iPad app started making some waves online. It’s called “Paper by 53” (it’d just be called Paper but there were some other apps released prior to it also with the name paper, I think). The idea behind paper was to let me people draw and sketch naturally. The interface is elegant and simple– it gets out of your way so you can simply create.
Well it was a quote from one of the creators of this app, Georg Petschnigg, that got me thinking and connecting some dots. I was reading a review of the app, and he was quoted thusly:
“People are at their best when they’re creating.”
Bam. The truth of this statement resonated instantly, and struck me as being terribly profound.
Some people think that “creatives” are artists and musicians, or at the least, “right-brained”. But everyone creates– whether or not it takes the form of “the arts”. I really believe it’s our nature as humans to create– to produce, if you will. To take what’s around us and make from those materials something greater than what the original parts were by themselves. Ideas, raw materials, organizing the talents of others– whatever it may be.
Initially I thought, “Yes, I’m at my best when I’m creating. That is when I feel the most alive, the most energized, the most satisfied.” But then I thought of the world we live in. The following scenario passed quickly through my mind: a company goes out of business. Everyone there “loses their jobs.” Are there just that many fewer jobs in the world now? That much less to do? No. We are creators. We are builders. We are organizers. We are growers and cultivators. We are producers.
Some will wallow in unproductively– they are obviously not at their best. Perhaps they have been deceived and believe happiness and satisfaction come from somewhere besides creating.
Not too many days later, someone posted a John Stossel report from a little over a year ago about “freeloaders”. Though this person only posted the clip having to do with those who pose as pan handlers to make an easy living, I found the rest of the program and this same thought about creating came back to me as I watched John make a real world comparison between those who are entitled and primarily consume, and those who strive to create and build:
I watched this and realized it was a perfect illustration. Now, certainly this is a piece produced by the mainstream media to illustrate a certain point of view– but it rings true to me in general. The group that is spoon fed is worse off for being so, and the group that expects no one else to support them actually really prospers and has a much better life.
I don’t really have anything profound to conclude this rambling with– just the observation that a major factor in the health of our nation depends just how many people buy into the lie of happiness by consuming, vs the truth happiness by creating. The pie is infinite, it can only get bigger. There is no finite amount of prosperity to go around– only people who would stand in our way of freely creating and producing for their own selfish purposes.
If you didn’t see or watch this video I posted on Facebook a couple days ago, take a minute and watch it. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched creativity and passion work at such a young age. This kid is a builder, a creator, a producer. He has an awesome life ahead of him.
Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.