Pay Attention
To What You Pay Attention To
Photo by Fiona Smallwood on Unsplash
The Week That Was, What I am Pondering
For anyone trying to discern what to do with their life: PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO. That’s pretty much all the info you need”
— Amy Krouse Rosenthal
This is a quoted excerpt that I am been thinking about for the past week, from “Keep Going” by Austin Kleon. In this short but fantastic book the author lays out 10 ways to stay creative in good times and bad. I wont go into all of them as I highly encourage you to read it yourself and keep it close at hand for times you seem to falter and give up on yourself. There are lessons here to help you when you feel lost, feel unable to make progress or just feel like you are stuck with nowhere to go.
For my struggles its almost like being torn in half. One side wants to focus on career and making more money and getting a better job, which takes all your free time. Interviewing, coding/technical study, design study, behavioral, etc. These all take every ounce of free time to prepare properly, especially in the tech world. The other half wants to focus on creative endeavors. Building things on my own without the need for a corporate world. Building things for myself and not to make someone else rich. Building games, which is what I wanted to do since I first wrote that on a chalkboard in 3rd grade and people laughed. I have stalled on both endeavors. Career is not advancing because that industry is a soul sucking, passionless pit of rehashed work and ideas. So its hard to go “all in” on something that is slowly killing you. Meanwhile looking back at the things you failed to achieve creatively, because you were split too much, is as crushing as failing an interview.
I think, for myself at least, the lessons I gleamed from reading “Keep Going” is what I quoted at the top. Focus on what you pay attention to. I think I am done living someone else’s life. The startup tech world burned me out. There is no healing that. I am going to build worlds, build experiences, explore AI, write, read and find fulfillment outside of trying to make more money in tech. Time to bet on myself.
What I am Reading
Show Your Work!
By: Austin Kleon. On Amazon
Keeping up with the theme after reading his other offering, Keep Going (mentioned above), I had to jump into this. “Keep Going” offered invaluable ways to combat the slog and remain creative. Show Your Work! is about why generosity trumps genius. It’s about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time “networking.” It’s not self-promotion, it’s self-discovery―let others into your process, then let them steal from you. Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples, Show Your Work! offers ten transformative rules for being open, generous, brave, productive.
What I am Playing
Inscryption (PC/PS5)
Now this is an interesting one. I heard such good things about it, but it wasn’t until recently that it came to the PS5 that I decided to give it a go. I’m not one for card/deck builders but this is so unique that it blends a few genres.
Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards...
Yes I am also playing lots of Destiny 2, but I can only mention that so many times. Also someone sherpa me into Kings Fall.
Until Next Week
Go bills.
Twitter: @Corey_s_
