Jesse Thorn recently wrote an article on Transom.org
“I’ve been giving an occasional lecture called Make Your Thing for the past couple years. It focuses on twelve independent creators who I really admire, and how they turned what they love into brilliant careers. Among the folks I talk about are Killer Mike, Kate Beaton and Jonathan Coulton - it’s a diverse group.” -Jesse Thorn
Like most who read this essay (I high recommend it by the way), I was blown away. “Make Your Thing” makes familiar points on turning passion into a living.
What I really took from this wasn’t “keep doing what you know how to do and eventually somebody will notice”, but rather “find a way to keep doing it differently until it becomes something brand new.” This is huge for me.
I struggle with innovation every time I begin to make something. It’s the really hard part about bring creative. I constantly find myself thinking “this has already been done” or “why isn’t this as good as so-and-so”.There comes a point where we, as individual makers, have to stop looking at what everybody else is making, and begin pushing the limits of what we think we are capable of, and it is only then that we may truly discover ability, fervor, and innovation.
