Today is the first day of the rest of my life
I invested my last pay cheque in an adventure-packed future — join me for the ride…
Who doesn’t love this scene?! Royal Tenenbaum is a terrible role model but, like all of Wes Anderson’s ‘bad dads,’ he symbolises someone looking to pass on what he’s learned to the next generation, so they don’t make the same mistakes he did, to free them up to explore their full potential. And Gene Hackman plays him so perfectly, doesn’t he.
My old posts were sort of doing something similar but I didn’t always manage to get across my Joie de vivre, in the same way Royal does.
Having quit my job and served my notice, today is the first day of my adult life without some significant form of income coming in. I’ve jumped off the cliff and I’m learning to fly!
From now on, I’m living the life I always longed for and you’re welcome to join me on my adventure, right here in my weekly musings.
Here’s what’s in the full post this week:
What’s new and why Generation Create
The most important lesson I learned in Japan
What I spent my last pay packet on and why
Bonus content: Introducing the Top 20 Club — are you already a member?
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What’s new and why Generation Create
Okay, so for the last couple of weeks, I’ve promised change (but not too much). This blog now has a new name: Generation Create. and I’ve updated the tagline and a few other things to reflect where I’m at right now, and the direction I’m heading in.
ConnectCurateCreate is still a thing, and it’s taking on a life of its own — besides the podcast, we’re planning community events and more. And as it becomes more tangible, it’ll really need its own identity with less of me and my musings wrapped up in it. The website will get a refresh and it’ll get its own newsletter, which will feature more voices than just mine alone. I’ll let you know when that’s ready to go.
Meanwhile, here, I’ll continue to write about my creative life, share what I’m learning along the way, and consider the future of creativity. This blog will continue to be about the things I find most interesting and important to share.
Why? Well, if you’re one of the OG readers, you’ll know I’m fascinated with what it is to be a Creator. And that’s because I’ve become one myself.
I don’t have millions of subscribers, and my YouTube channel is yet to materialise. But like every other Creator out there, I’m giving it a red hot go — not to make millions in brand deals, but to share what I love to do with folks like you who find it interesting. And maybe, sort of like Royal Tenenbaum, I’ll impart a little wisdom along the way, in my own inimitable style, with a little Joie de vivre.
In some way’s it’s a little like what being an academic used to be like. So, perhaps this is something I’ve been working towards, without realising it, for the past 25 years or so!
Anyway, Generation Create is a concept I’ve been thinking about for quite a while now. In short, I reckon we are all now either content creators or content consumers; and many of us are both. So, it’s an epochal phenomenon — a generational thing. We are all Generation Create!
And with so much social, cultural and economic activity being channeled through content creation, our experience of the world is transforming rapidly. Just yesterday, I was thinking about how the photos and videos we share have shifted from landscape orientation to square, and now to portrait. And that’s not an AI thing, it’s got a lot to do with how we consume content on our handheld devices.
It’d be easy to take such a straightforward transition for granted, but there’s actually so much going on behind this move. It’s a not-insignificant shift in how our bodies experience the world. Consider how it affects our hand gestures, eye movements and cognition — it’s fascinating!
By way of example, last week I made a conscious decision to document my daily experiences of Japan as 10-second video stories in portrait orientation on Instagram because I thought that they’d be far more dynamic, engaging and interesting than still square photos on my feed. And as a bonus, I actually found recording them far more fun — it felt much more creative, and involved a little problem-solving to get some of them made — they weren’t just snapshots, but more immersive and relatable exchanges with viewers.
Video copyright: @tim_butcher
And that’s the sort of thing that I’ll explore here in this blog. There is so much consideration, time and effort that goes into making the content we now consume. Production quality is extremely high, and that in turn elevates what we expect from content creators.
So, I reckon, there’s a super interesting story to tell here.
As I play around with ways of creating, I’ll share what I’m learning, offer hints and tips, and ponder what’s actually happening in Generation Create and where all of this is headed.
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