I remember watching an interview with M. Night Shyamalan of all people and the interviewer asked him what he would tell people who want to make movies. He basically said, "Don't do it. People will hate your work and they'll hate you for making it. The only reason why you should do it is because you literally can't feel yourself doing anything else." It always stuck with me.
@@TomJakobW unless it prints money, then that idea is THE idea. Just look at how generative AI is taking over despite literally all the smart people knowing that is like burning fosil fuels but for creative jobs and information sharing.
A friend of mine went to school with him, and remembered him as "this kid who hung out with a few friends and didn't do anything else but make movies." Basically Brendan Smalls from Home Movie.
@@TomJakobW Usually, those complaints pop up heavily when the new thing is a continuation of an older thing. In brand new things, those complaints don't really exist.
The reason kids are so afraid of failure "nowadays" (probably centuries by now) is because we have an entire system in place where we constantly threaten them with losing years of their life in a hostile, deeply uncomfortable and, in the case of americans, genuinely dangerous environment if they fail too much. Life as a kid is being told constantly how you're only a couple bad marks away from becoming a dredge of society. What Josh is saying has been said thousands of times, anyone that's old enough will tell you the idea of "talent" is a lie and skills are born from failure, but actually learning to fail takes a lot of deprogramming from the years of being constantly shown just how badly failure in academics can destroy your life.
Yup i used too feel that way too honestly, until i dropped out of school in grade 10 due to family issues and started working, i quickly found out that i was good at learning task and enjoyed it, and everyone around me was fine with me failing and trying again. Really shook my world for the better after being told i would be useless and homeless if i did drop.
Talent isn't necessarily a lie but it's really better off described as an aptitude for things. People learn some things better than others and different people learn the same thing at different rates. The important thing about it is that someone who doesn't have an aptitude but has still worked at something will basically always beat an unpractised natural.
The whole point of the education system that every country has (with minor differences) is that it conditions students into being good, obedient factory workers. It's the system funded by Rockefeller.
"Fail faster" is THE lesson for me. The sooner you fail, the sooner you realize what you're doing wrong, which means, the faster you can try again. Game jams, hourly comics, daily sketching, speed painting/speed inking, monthly novels, weekly animations... all of those community challenges that look like just another trend, are specifically made to make creative people lose their fear of creating. If ou've followed one to these, you know you can find some very creative and original ideas from the weirdest people, right from the source and without an industry filtering out "what cannot be sold", it's beautiful.
"Stop running around all the time" "Stop making weird noises" "You're too old for this" Yeah well guess what, I'm now 25 and I sit around all day, I'm quiet and I can't even raise my voice if I tried, and I feel depressed all the time. Is this what you wanted?
Family is supposed to model the real world. E.g. your parents punishing you for breaking the rules is a tiny analogy for how in the real world, governments punish you for breaking the rules. You are supposed to learn the skills to navigate the world by navigating the family relationships. There are many lessons to learn, and one is you are not supposed to blindly follow the authority. Tyrannical government is a real thing that happens. If you live in one, you need to stand up to one. You were supposed to learn this through practice - that sometimes, you realize that the authority is wrong, and you need to go against the grain to do what you know is right. Put simply, it is a test, which from the looks of it, you have failed. There is a great game about this called The Talos Principle (the first one, the sequel). I strongly recommend you play it and pay attention to the story. There's a lot of reading with the terminals, but it's the stuff that makes you think about important things from a different perspective. That's why it's a puzzle game, to facilitate the thinking.
2:58 : Yeah. I used to write poems about literally anything. Anything that bothered me, interested me, happened to me. I used to read them out loud to some of my best friends. That one time I wrote a rather big one about how I view my depression. I read it out loud, a few moments in another one of my friends would join the voicecall and said "Oh, you're reading your shitty poems again?". Never picked up a pen to be creative again.
I feel like some people need to be told "weirdness" isnt the same as "obnoxiousness." You can be weird but bearable, but you can also be an absolute displeasure to be around
I had a book idea that was a sendup to the Dying Earth genre and A Canticle for Leibowitz along with martial arts and anime like Fist of the North Star. I got asked what I was working on and gave the explanation and she promptly called me a virgin and now I'm writing that book out of sheer spite.
As if being a virgin is somehow a bad thing in the first place, at any age, really. I get that the sentiment there is "Well, no one wants to fuck you, so you're clearly too weird" or something, but that's just a bunch of dehumanizing objectifying nonsense. & I say this as someone who started having sex at an early age/did so a lot as a teen. The ones who do it a lot will pretend like they aren't, & the ones who don't will pretend like they are; because sex is seen as something you should always want more of, but when you actually have more of it, you're suddenly seen as too much of a deviant who's apparently unintelligent or too reckless or something. (You're especially seen as that if you're a woman, but honestly, that doesn't mean that men aren't still negatively effected by this, too, & so that still deserves to be talked about, too, even if it is technically more helpful to focus on women a bit more in this regard. Key word "if".) Sex or lack thereof really isn't everything; all that matters is that, if you're gonna have it, make sure you're doing it safely... & while you're at it, don't settle for someone you're not really FULLY comfortable with/interested in just because you think you can't do any better, because believe me, yes you absolutely can, regardless of what anyone says; if someone says you can't, that projection just says more about them than it does about you. I don't know. I guess that wasn't really the point of your comment, but still; she was the one who was actually being "weird" in the negative sense & was projecting that onto you, which says nothing about your own character but does say everything about hers.
@@SinWeissfell Actually true, haha. The first book that I've ever wrote was not a project that I was planning for long, but just the result of a session of brainstorming after I decided that I hated the ending of a book that I've finished reading earlier that day.
School, at least in our country, is too results-oriented and it was going that way for a while now. I wish every parent and teacher could spare the time to help kids understand stuff instead of punishing them for bad grades. If anything, grades are meant to show problem subjects rather than problem kids.
I was over 30 years old when I discovered the first creative thing I like. It just seemed to click and I spent hours and hours doing it because it just tickled my brain. After a hundred hours I showed some of my stuff to a friend and the first thing he asked me was: "Can you monetise this?" and inexplicably that just crushed me more than anything. It made me feel weird about it for the longest time.
This mindset has ruined a fair few things I wanted to get into for me. Everything's about making bank now, can't have a hobby for the sake of having a hobby.
Honestly it's not necessarily a bad idea to think about monetizing a hobby, you just don't have to. The friend asking the question might just have been curious whether it'd be possible. It's not outright a toxic question to your relation with the hobby. Instead, ask yourself the question whether any downsides of monetizing would be worth the money it brings you. Often times, you'll find a hobby shouldn't be monetized and that is more than fine - in fact, it could even strengthen your passion for it knowing you thought about it and decided it's not worth it.
Do not monetize anything you enjoy. It's a lie. It will slowly drain the life from you. The second you start attaching income, deadlines, and consumer expectations to it, it's all over. This only works if you are the rare creative/enterprising hybrid, which 99% of us aren't. Not even most of the TH-camrs are, that's why they're all burning out and quitting.
Another thing people should know is that you don't need any prerequisites to make stuff. A lot of people hold off on writing books because they're not sure if their writing is good enough. But what they don't know is that everyone that has ever written a book felt like that at some point. So these are creative people that are passionate but anxious, the only remedy is to just do it, start writing, start creating. The longer you wait to start creating the more your passion will seep away, even if what you make is pure garbage it's better than if it had never existed before.
Ive written nine books, seven of them where pretty garboge but two where ok. Funny enough the one's that felt where ok where light-hearted introductions to retro gaming (specifically, old NES/Famicom games).
It's a pretty common trap, you are so right to point this out, I see a lot of young artists getting stuck in this mentality of being a student who only focuses on training, instead of creating, they forget why they are training and never create anything, allways searching for that mythical mastery.
I find I can only be creative now when no one is watching me. My parents tore my soul apart because they thought it anything that couldn't make you money was a waste of time. Started writing only at school to avoid them and then got pushed into the unfriendable because I was weird. Despite the fact that no one had read anything I made, I was still labeled because I was doing it at all. I'd finished multiple books then because well, there was only one thing to do when I wasn't socializing with kids, and had once thought of publishing. But I'm still crushed the day I mentioned it to my mother, which I know now was doomed to fail because they didn't approve of it in the first place and why would it matter I had actually completed something, and she harshly reinforced her stance. I wrote a bit throughout university, even taking a degree that supported it because I just really wanted to learn, but it died out surrounded by other people seeking success in a different way; not paths that were going to fail them as opposed to mine (apparently, though I'd love to ask my family now if they've seen the job market lately). Many years out of school now and I'm desperately trying to recapture what I used to have but I just can't. I learned I was so terrified of opinions now that the presence of anyone, like someone coming into the house without knowing I'm there, was enough to kill any creative desire instantly, and it meant publishing now would be impossible. I've shown things to my husband now trying to get used to showing work to people and he's always been excited what I did and never had anything bad to say. I even had the opportunity to be a DM in a DnD group where I trialed the world from one of my completed works (never told them) and it got a great reception. I've made people tear up with excerpts of a scene that I randomly got inspired to write down while eating pizza. I gave people chills and spooked them with a meanacing character no one had any information about except a written delivery. Yet none of this has reassured me that I could produce something worth publishing. The handful of people now vs an entire childhood of backlash still has a clear winner. Even though I know none of those people who hated me for what I did even read a sentence of what I could do and that alone should mean they don't have a leg to stand on...I'm too paralyzed to do what I love and they've won.
Plenty of people in college told me to tone down the weirdness. So I did. Lead to 10 years of depression. Then once I decided to find my weirdness again, even at the risk of alienating everyone around me, I've found a wonderful life.
same story. After that ten years, I burned out while writing my thesis to finish my chemical engineering studies. Realized I like people more than numbers and now I work with children with learning disabilities and do teaching an a gig to gig basis. So wonderful to be weird again, the kids love it.
I was thinking something along those lines watching this and glad to see others had stories of it too. For me I never really toned it down but I ended up in the corpo IT world where the nail that sticks out is going to get hammered hardest. I've been getting back into dumping loads of time into game dev, 3d modeling, painting, programming and other stuff despite the lack of free time as a way to reclaim a sense of self my job & surroundings repeatedly try to iron out of me. It can be tough, especially when a lot of people around you don't understand the value in creating things, art or the spark to create. Just keep being yourself and don't let others take it from you, because it's the worst feeling when they do.
I did that too but never went back, and guess what? In my 30s, done a lot of things I regret, one divorce, and while I'm not depressed I've lost a lot of deeper emotional reactions. I've begun embracing my past again and noticed some of myself returning. Don't do finance kids, it's bad for the soul. Oh and the alcoholism has definitely damaged my brain. I miss my intellect.
My weirdness and passions have been trampled on so much for so long that now I'm standing in front of a pile of rubble and I don't even remember what it once was. I wish I could be creative again.
Slowly and steadily rediscover the things you once liked. Discard any notions of "childishness", it's just a word used by adolescents to appear more important than their peers and it's something many fail to grow out of. Creativity requires the childlike freedom from care, children just take and create without anyone telling them to. And that carefree ability to create comes from an absence of judgment, absence of desires to do "good" work.
It's doable, it just takes a lot of time and effort. Josh is right, don't be afraid of making trash. Make trash, be uncreative for long enough and you'll figure it out. Patience is hard, but worth the effort.
When i was a kid, i kind of liked drawing, wasn't a huge passion but i had fun One day i showed a drawing to my mother, i was trying to draw sponge bob jellyfishes, and she said "oh! Such cute Fleas! Very well done!" I was like 4 at that time but my brain worked something like "She said it was pretty despite not knowing what it was, so she lied, so no matter if I try hard to improve, she'll just keep lying to me, so what's the point?" So what killed my interest in art was the lack of actual feedback, ironically, my mother was an artist and art teacher too Luckily i ended up picking art 3 years ago and may soon be able to make money out of it but I can't stop think I'd be really great already if i didn't quit art for 17 years (dropped ar 4, picked at 21)
I am also a creative who struggles with feeling behind the curve. The best time to start doing anything will always be ten years ago. But remember that the second-best time to start doing anything is today.
@@aricwilson9711 Yeah, i keep telling myself the same, no matter how much i regret not starting earlier, it wouldn't change anything, so i just keep pushing forward so the future me doesn't have to ask "why didn't i start earlier"
I've always struggled with what to tell my kids about their pictures. I think most of the time parents aren't happy the picture actually looks good, they're impressed the picture actually looks like something. It's a big step as kids go from scribbles. There isn't a lot of winning as a parent in those cases. Sometimes if you guess wrong what the picture is the kid is sad you can't tell what they made. If you ask what it is they're sad you can't figure out what it is. And in either case, by the four hundredth picture you may not always be giving critical feedback :)
@@ceritops Personally I think the best way is a mix of praise and criticism. Showing that you're proud they give they best, but also showing them that they can still improve. So they can feel that they effort is recognized while also knowing they can be better than they are now. Something like "oh, seems like you put a lot on effort drawing this tree, good job! But maybe it's a bit flat? Why don't you try learning how to give more volume to it next time?" If you're into art yourself you can either teach them if you already know or learn with them. Children are sensitive but they can still take some constructive criticism
7:27 With books heres some other things you wanna answer first and go from there -> What does the character want? Why do they want it? How are they going to get it? What are the rewards of getting it? What are the consequences of getting it or not getting it? What is their internal conflict? (What misbelief do they have about themselves that they need to overcome in order to prevail?) Go to the Marcel Proust character questionnaire (or any really) and interview your character. You can draw up questions to fit any setting, answer in your characters voice and see what happens because, oftentimes, your characters reveal themselves to you instead of the other way around. Sounds crazy right? Writing goes to every extreme, embrace the craze and especially embrace the weirdness of it. And then build up from that. Have other people read it, doesn't matter if its IRL people or in online spaces. Get used to getting constructive criticism and you'll learn how to filter out what works for you and what to disregard. Some people are going to be dbags about it, take time to feel the feelings but keep it pushing. Remember, some of the best writers of our time wrote MANY drafts and were rejected left and right before getting their break. Read in the genre, play games, watch TV, movies, etc because inspiration can strike wherever and whenever. Don't think your writing is good? Think no one will read it? All writers feel this way, including famous ones. (Also, read BAD books like most Booktok books and use that as motivation because those got published and you can too). Remember, when writing a book you're going to go through many many revisions. You're going to get there.
Josh: "You can do anything, what's important is to try. Go out there and make something." Chat: "Scientifically accurate dragons" Josh: "Don't you dare"
wish this video existed long ago, I used to be outgoing, talkative. I've wanted to make content, stream, work in psych, and I feel paralyzed by the idea of failure or being cringe because of the things I've been through it's hard to even talk to someone about something I'm passionate about without feeling like I'm annoying them or they don't care, even now writing this and knowing these flaws its still so difficult to get over them.
As someone with AuDHD and a ton of trauma, to me, there is nothing like being able to give people space so they can talk about their hyperfixations/special interests. And here's the kicker; I rarely find the subject *they* are interested in, interesting when they start. But the look in their eyes, the love they have, and the joy of getting to talk about it in detail; that's my Roman Empire. So please, if you ever want to share a story, an interest/hobby or otherwise topic you love, I will always take a seat, have some popcorn, and have a great time. One of the funniest presentations I saw in school was one dude talking about sand and deserts. The driest topic you could've done. But you know what; he owned it by having fun. Throwing in references, jokes, laughing at them himself, and we all loved that presentation.
Came home from college one summer with a new harmonica. I was inspired by one of my professors who built canjos and played the bones. Tiny instruments like that. They look so fun to play. Well, when I went home and shared with my parents about the harmonica, my father complained, “oh, great. Now we have to listen to you practice!” That broke my desire to even try. The thing is, he’s the audiophile and music lover of the family. I’ve estranged from that family. Fuck them.
All of this hits in such a way... I've always been afraid to create things because of what people would say, or because it's not profitable. Today I finally finished a game. A playable, fun, game. Is it great? No, it's basic as heck, but it's my baby.
I am a creative intelligent like you. I didn't care what people thought about me, i just did what I loved. I was abused pretty heavily which causes to, even now, struggle to be creative. I still can be, but it's in short bursts. I'm trying to get back to the point i can finally finish my story, but it's a very slow road to recovery.
I FUUUCCKIING LOVE this video, this year I've started my own business and also gone from full time work to part time, chasing what makes me happy. Every year I write an album, not a lot of people hear it but I have so much fun and joy from the end product and also improving on my skills as a musician, write, vocalist, producing skills with each project I do and I always START to FINISH, properly . This theory in the video is so damn good. I love this.
When I was little I would always draw draw draw, in like 3rd-4th grade I made my own comics with sorta "Goosebumps choose your own adventure" at the end of each page... I made like 30-40 of these and they were around 40-50 pages long with about 9 panels per page. I would buy Pokemon cards from those coin machines so I could get those blank folded cardboard sleeves and rip the sleeve in two so I could draw my own weird fantasy cards on them... I made at least 100 of them... When I got to middle school I drew more comics, and started working a lot harder on story, character, adventure, creature design... I love worldbuilding. I was also making two card games, one was like a weird Megaman sorta card game, and the other was basically discount YuGiOh lmao... I made probably around 300 for each game. In high-school I discovered D&D, and I wanted to make tabletop-RPGs and my own game worlds... but something went wrong, idk what really but I got extremely depressed, I stopped doing art for like 10 years... But my passion is slowly being rekindled, I bought an art tablet and I've been learning digital art... and thanks to TH-cam I've been able to learn from heroes I've had my entire life, and discover artists who as a child I had no clue were hiding behind things I had always admired. Now I'm depressed that I wasted so much time and I'm so far behind... :')
if Josh was actually a mimic taking the form of a human do you reckon the vest is connected directly to the skin or separate? I mean he's probably not a mimic but who knows.
I stream and make videos because I have fun doing it. I don't care if there's no one, or seemingly no one, watching. What made me feel a bit better though, is one of my friends said I have a soothing voice so she just listens with her cat. Anywho, I used to draw. Haven't in a long time, and I don't know why I stopped. I want to get back into it, but I don't have the energy.
I'm an artist, work with ilustration, photography, painting etc, I'm also over 30 and this was such a struggle in my life, cause when we are teenagers, at least back then, we would surpress our weirdness and it took me sooooo long to undo that damage, I spent years being depressed stuck with people I hated in jobs I hated because I thought I had to act normal, and conform to social structure. If you are young do not make this mistake; you are buying short term social acceptance from ppl you dont liike by paying a decade of therapy, it's not worth it. I think this generation of young teens are better off than we ours tho, the internet has become really mainstream and the internet loves weirdness, I think a lot of them will be fine
Well of course I know him. He's me. I tried to write each and every day. One page. Every day. For a month. I tried to change it into a habit. Then I didn't for one day, because life happened. I hadn't gone back to this fiction for 6 years, and I have not written anything else for many months. I later wrote different things, but thinking about this one story still brings disgust. If you are one of the majority of people who can, through repetition, change something into a habit, then I am extremely jealous; my brain does not work like that. I have to trick myself to do things that I love/like that demands effort.
I've been doing something similar. I'm halfway through a book and still going and I think I've managed to nail the habit by negotiating. I have my minimum daily word count at 500 words, this is the amount that I will *force* myself to write even if I'm feeling down and exhausted. But my target is 1000 words a day, and if I'm still up to it, 1300-1500 a day. I think this way I can 'negotiate' with myself and do the amount of writing I feel is fair for my condition(the other day I was afflicted by primer fumes and so couldn't even stay awake. Still got my 500 words in since it felt like I was being lenient to myself). Habits really do just be tricking your brain into thinking it got a good deal.
I think you overshot on the expectation on what you should do in a day and that is what really soured you. There was too much pressure put on you, and so when something broke the cycle, all you felt was relief that you don't have to push yourself to write it anymore. I did a similar thing with writing, except my win condition was 5 minutes of writing, at least 25 words. That's not even this comment's length, that's two sentences. Usually I wrote much more. Some days I didn't write anything at all. And some days, I managed to write just those 25 words in 5 minutes. The trick was to learn to be okay with that - to tell myself, "great, I did what I set out to do, that's good enough". By setting a very low bar for daily success, it feels that much better to actually keep the habit going even if you don't do what you "think" you should be doing. But those thoughts are based on unrealistic, weird standards like certain word count a day, or pages, or whatever else. So long as my habit continued (with some acceptable downtime rate), that's all that mattered. Now I have no issues with writing. I wrote a 150k novel manuscript, and I've been collaborating on another story just as long. I began writing a second manuscript as well, and I've been slowly sprawling from just a story into an entire universe - 5 minutes a day, 25 words at a time. Some days, I write nothing at all. Some days, my writing is just an idea post-it note on the wall. But that is writing still, even just thinking about the work is still work if I'm trying to figure out a problem. Creative work is not 9 to 5. It can be. You can be professional in the sense that you do it as a "job" and loathe it just as much as I did my office jobs. But you never truly do it for any specified billable hours. Sometimes you do less, other times you do more - it all fluctuates, because not always do we have the solution for the problem. But what matters is to just slowly chip at it, day by day, and be okay with some downtime.
I'm a teacher student. We are taught that everyone learns by mistakes and those should be always allowed. It's very damaging for any learning process to make someone feel bad about making mistakes.
3:09 - Heh, you must know my father. He literally shat on every single ambition I ever had growing up. Now in my 30's I don't even know why I bother with life anymore.
I owe all my success in the "creative department" to Josh and his advice regarding these kinds of things. His vlogs have been quite literally life changing for me and without his words I'd prolly be stuck doing nothing productive all day. Thanks to all the things he said over the years (I started following him in 2021) I mustered up the courage to do reignite my passion for being silly, doing video editing and just talking about things I like. I'd not be here doing things like these without you Josh, so thank you
I think about problems and solution, because it is calming to let my mind wonder On another note, you learn so much by falling, the only way to fail is by doing and the only way to begin is by beginning Whatever you want to do, go, begin and fail, again and again. You will never stop failing, but every time, you will do something bigger, and bigger. Your scribble become a painting, your taped plastic bits become a sculpture, your buggy piece of code become a program. The only thing is, you can't fail from too high (don't start by building a house, build a shed before, and a dog house before that). This result in loss of motivation and or injuries (don't climb Everest if you've never climbed that hill next to your house). Finally, you might think "It takes too much time", remember. You only lose time if you procrastinate. So rise early, pick your boots and climb that hill tomorrow, you should be able to climb higher the next day.
I made a big leather messenger bag, well it is almost like a small trunk. I specifically decided to use various techniques, things I knew wouldn't deliver the best result, because I wanted to learn why certain techniques work better and some don't. And it worked. A lot of work and I learned, so, so much
My family made fun of me when I got into trail riding with my mountain bike. It was a fun activity; I got to be out in nature, explore cool trails, and I was exercising as well. The nicest people I met while exploring this hobby were the people I expected to be the most judgmental: other bikers. I remember getting to the top of a really long climb and the group that was waiting there checked to see if I was ok (I'm a bigger guy, weigh quite a bit). We had a laugh and I continued on my way. The only reason I stopped was because my apartment refused to let me store my bike in the sheltered stairwell. They wanted me to keep my bike on one of the racks, on the other side of the complex... exposed to the elements. Once I get my own place, I hope to pick up biking again. I miss the trails.
A thing I've read from true comic makers on the indie space: "If you want to make a comic, don't, because there's too much competition and everything you do will be decent at best, I am moderately succesful, but that doesn't mean you will be, get over yourself, do something good with your life. I was lucky, most likely you wont". I'm paraphrasing here, but for a lot of creators, the fact that they're popular but not getting a Netflix or Hollywood contract is the worst thing that has ever happened to them, their concept of success is so twisted by the industry and their "MILLIONS" talk, that they find deppression in their own success, so they don't wish it to their worst enemy.
Every time I started making it seem like I wanted to seriously pursue a creative career, my mom would be there to sternly tell me to "make sure I have a back up plan so you don't end up a loser if this fails", but not in a way that felt like she was being caring, it was always in a "I don't believe in your ability to make it in this and I'm not going to support you if you go this path and get unlucky" kind of tone. Constant reminders that if I wasn't perfect, if I didn't dedicate my life to getting a "real" job and didn't "stop being lazy", completely killed my ability to take any kind of risk, and implanted a deep, DEEP fear of failure. Even now, when I start trying to make something, I feel a deep fear that if I don't get it right *immediately*, the world will see me and my efforts as worthless and my life will be ruined. Obviously that isn't the case, as Josh said a lot of people will be simply impressed by you making *anything*, and you have to fail to learn to be good, but it's definitely still hard even now as a 25 year old to shake off the incredibly tightly wound pit of anxiety in my chest formed from years of being told that failure is guaranteed to make me a loser that everyone hates.
I came to them late in life, but for me it's tabletop RPGs. I love looking at their rules and thinking about how they interact and how I would change them, fix the, expand them, etc. I've even thought about essentially rewriting the entire rule system for the old 40k RPGs to fix a lot of their problems and integrate neat ideas that came up in the later games (or even newer ones like Imperium Maledictum). There's something I love about the mechanics and systems of tabletop RPGs, on top of how much I already love lore and storytelling.
One of my science teachers was teaching us about theory's, She said a failed theory is one that has been proven to be correct (like the earth being flat Vs round) but it takes many successful theory's to make a failed one, it doesn't mean that the "successful" ones are bad theory's but more stepping stones, (you make a theory, you test said theory, if it doesn't prove what you're trying to accomplish you make up and new theory and test again) at the end of the semester she made us make up our own theory's and test them out as a sort of final project, she said the more theory's you can come up no matter how silly or bazaar they may seem will help build your creative and critical thinking as well as helping us see that how we understand laws of the universe come from some of the most outrageous thinkers constantly "failing" (even though they don't see it as failure as much as growing one step closer to understanding)
I had passions when I was a kid, we were too poor for me to ever try chase any of them Then I had passions as a teen, and my entire family discouraged and hated them, even the one time I took a step for myself, everyone in school still kept talking down on me. I did that step, it was mostly a failure, but I did get part of what I wanted, but I never ended up hearing the end of the negativity. Now as an adult I'm just left as a blank person with no creativity, no passion and no desire to pursue anything because of it.
I can empathize with that. The beauty of my job, at least, is that being a welder, I am forced to think outside the box sometimes and get creative to solve issues with getting my job done. But, I'm not passionate about it like I was with gaming and art. My family wanted me not to fail, and they succeeded sadly, lol.
I used to draw a lot. I mean, A LOT. I would draw during classes, after school, whenever I could (if I wasn't busy playing video games or watching something). In my senior year of high school, I took AP Studio Art, and it broke me. Before then, I never had to "grind" in order to finish a piece of art, but that class put me through the wringer. I did an absurd amount of art, and I was surrounded by 3 other students who were just LEAGUES better than me. It completely destroyed any joy I derived from creating art, and it made me give up on the idea of doing art as a career. I've only done a few art pieces since then, but the joy just simply isn't there anymore. I had my passion, and now I have nothing. I just wish I could someone feel passionate about it again, but I just don't know how anymore.
Just yesterday, I picked up a comic book from the library for the first time at age 30. Social pressures have kept me from doing this because society finds comics to be childish. I finally decided that I don't care what other people think, and now I'm reading Batman Beyond: Neo Year and it is fantastic!
I made my own RPG of some sort in elementary school, where each page in the sketchbook was a level and there was a shop where classmates could buy items from and upgrade their characters.
Remember when I tried to get into creative writing back in grade school and never really went anywhere with it because I felt like I wasn't being "creative" as much as just taking ideas I had gleamed and consumed over the years and just twisted them around one another... Then years later I learnt that's basically what creativity is.
THANK YOU! Weird is a compliment, weird is a badge of honor. You should strive to be weird and surround yourself with weird people. Normal people are just as weird, the only difference is there are enough of them to make their weirdness seem normal. Gonzo fist.
Worldbuilding, my whole life I cant help but immerse myself in developing worlds. When I was a kid I would try to create worlds similar to the cartoons I would watch. As I got older it became about creating characters, abilities, and environments that didn't exist in media. There was a 6 year stretch where I obsessively designed D&D campaigns for friends. Now I've been developing my own universe and systems to create robust cultures, characters, histories, etc...
One thing I did in elementary school was drawing cartoons, drew quite allot of cartoons with marker pens. Wish I still had them, despite how ugly they ended up becoming. One cartoon I wanted to draw was ""FartMan", a superhero that propelled himself through the air by the power of flatulence. Never ended up happening, most of my comics where of cats and star wars and worms (inspired by the game worms). 4:29 loved inflating small empty juice containers and stomping on them, they made quite a satisfying loud popping sound.
I am trying to write a RPG tabletop board game with my own lore, universe and gameplay. I am too scared to make this an official game because I am scared of failure, it does not help me when people has told me: "Why not just play DnD? Some systems in your game is very similar.". People comparing my work to DnD is a real passion killer. I really want this game to become a reality and not just a personal scribble to pass the time.
Release it for free, and explain why you made it. Passion doesn't pay the bills, but making a name and a reputation is important in the field. Matt Colville's MCDM is successful because he was well-known before he launched the idea of a new game.
My ex killed my passion to WH as hobby. She made me feel bad for painting, building and even making fan merch based on WH40k, she said it was waste of time
John carpenter said it beautifully “…I grew up in a strange place, so I became a strange kid…” and after this, he states that he used to seek refuge in cinema and realized that someone had to be behind the camera shooting the movie, so he wanted to become that. This one’s for all of us folks, embrace that weird kid, I sure know I’m know trying to
This was a good vid to find. I always had something I wanted to make, comics, stop motion, and music, and I’m in a bit of a slump but this was a good listen. Especially how others can effect what you want to do, and what you want to stick to
I used to love taking photos, but my Dad said to me "you can't live your life through a camera" and then i stopped taking as many photos, but still did it. Then one of my close friends said all my photos are shit - and that was the nail in the coffin. I bareley EVER take photos anymore basically because of that.
Dude made me remember when I was 15, drawing all kinds of "items" as in a videogame inventory. I made tons of good stuff and was eager to make more. However, I did end up being hugely ridiculed, to the point of completely forgetting about it until now (I'm 31). It's amazing the things we do and stop doing in order to not be bothered.
dude thats so true. That's how I've gotten good at programming slightly. My first go at a game was so inefficient I burnt myself out having doing tedious things and thinking about the rest of the tedious things I thought I had to do in my head. Took a break learned some more things of how my workflow was bad. Came back to it things were way more seamless. Hit a wall again and took a break learned more and now I'm at a point of understanding how to be good at this. I started off really shit now I may not be good but I understand how to get good so now my improvement increases exponentially. The only thing powering me was energy drinks and the love of the idea of making a computer do whatever you want akin to like drawing. I'm doing something right now and my workspace looks so professional, we have come a LONG way.
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with salamanders and newts. My mother was always on my case about how I would never make a living at that. I love my mom, and she was a great person in most way, but if I had stayed with that I'd have had my pick of jobs. She kept after me enough that I gave up on that. The last time I looked there were 8 states here in the US looking for an expert to study and help preserve their amphibian populations. In particular newts and salamanders.
its kinda funny how we get told that something we love when we are young wont make us a living... i was told that with my love of Video games and now, Video games are a Multi billion dollar industry.
Regarding the first question - I love the way it's handled in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, you don't level up, enemies don't level up, items don't level up, there are no levels, there is no skill tree, no classes either. But it still feels great! About creating stuff I only regret that I hadn't started uploading on TH-cam earlier. Me and friends did stuff before, but we started sharing online much later and Facebook was a worse platform to do it.
Writing. My English teacher was horrible. If you wrote something in a genre she didn't like she'd pick it to pieces. If it was a genre she did like, it wasn't good enough, plus you were a suckup.
13:58 the gacha game Fate Grand Order put out its first animation update in 2 years for two year 1 servants from 8 years ago on the Japanese server. New outfit for fan favorite characters, first time in years. Everyone’s mad hype. Then the data lost her, and people are unironically crying in community forums. That’s how you get people to care about a product.
As someone who was always trained by a (problematic) parent to be so afraid of failure that I should give up on anything (schoolwork, my passions, career path) if there was any risk of failure, because I was taught that failure is worse than quitting... I'm trying to unlearn that, and I needed this pep talk. Been rediscovering lost passions and trying to work out a career path I'd like to follow in my 30s, but hey. Never too late to start.
I really agree with Josh but i dont think his advice is usefull. In my personal experience people that have this obsession will do it anyway there is not need to be told to and i dont think "normal" people can follow this advice.
Was helping a TH-camr make a comic/manga it was fun and he was going through a lot of self doubt, I told him that the story was really unique and if I wasn’t working on it I’d still probably read it, but one day he was telling me he was still unsure about it and asked his friend who gave him a question that made him think “if you knew no one would read it would you still make it?” He asked me if I ever felt like that and I said yeah a lot of the time there’s art I make but never show off to anyone, pieces that I made for the fun of it but don’t post, and it reminded me of a moment in a directors commentary for 28 days later; the director said they filmed a scene that he believed was “the perfect scene” something he was so proud of and loved so much, he was asked what’s the scene in the movie and the director said no, and it’s not a deleted scene either because he destroyed it because he was so satisfied with it when asked why he just said it’s his own personal philosophy.
One of my favourite quotes is "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good". Honestly, you can take the a step further and say "Don't let the good be the enemy of the finished." Until you can make something good, just make something, identify what makes that something not good, and make it again without those not good bits. That might mean "I didn't research this bit enough", or "I should've put more time into that bit" or "I put too much sugar into the cake mix and it went hella grainy", you can't figure it out unless you actually do the thing. Get a first run in and refine from there, but never expect to be perfect, or good, or even sufficient on the first run.
bulldog clip glued to 2p was my go-to for making standee miniatures when I started playing tabletop. After a while I'd take a miniature base from GW, make a card standee double length, with a little tab at each end. Fold it in two, post the tab through the miniature base, and then fold it out like a split pin.
This actually gives me a chance to mention my own recent experience with this; my interests combine in a way where talking about in-game economies is something I'm able to do well, so I started writing scripts on that topic. The initial way I had it framed was basically pulling from TVTropes and explaining examples based on what the given trope was; kind of crap, but it worked at the time. While I was thinking about the first full breakdown script I was writing, a completely different way of framing the topic as a whole came to mind, letting me drop the TVTropes thing entirely...something that wouldn't have happened had I had started the writing in the first place. :D
As and Old QA guy, I love the comment Perfection is the enemy of done. There is a reason it is not called Perfection Assurance. QA and QC are mostly mitigation. Thank you for inspiring this miniature TedTalk.
Exactly the motivation that fits my feelings right now. I have a strong urge to continue a personal project, what I already did in this project (years ago) was insane, now I can't stop thinking about all the parts and necessary process that would shape it even further. Like a crazy person, like fire in the soul. But I'm not here to announce how I will do something (this kills further motivation) but to share my personal joy of how much more insanity I am willing to put in this project. Tbh the initial motivation is to do anything else but reading social media. I need to flee this trash behavior.
I know you meant it as motivation, but your voice DOES matter somewhat. One of the reasons I prefer listening to you Josh over any other reviewer is your charismatic as hell voice and your passion. Still waiting for my ASMR josh audiobook series. ❤
I think you hit the nail on the head by saying "do a thing even if everyone you know is against it". I feel that mindset separates the folks trying to make something worth caring about vs a quick buck or clout or whatever.
Skill-based, non-level based MMO (Kinda. It's instanced 4p-Coop, but MMO in towns). A: ** Spiral Knights ** Yeah, that ol' game is STILL alive and free. Completely skill-based and gear is only helping you take less damage, do more damage. If you're skilled enough, you can never get hit. Schmup MMO disguised as a cartoony zelda'esk system. Also, I remember really loving drawing when I was young. I used to design Megaman robots in my notebook when I got free times. My 5th grade teacher picked up mine off my desk one day and flipped through it even though the assignment was up. She then proceeded to wave it in front of the classroom asking what it was. Really embarassed me. Never went back.
I swear, if I could sit down at an EDH table with Josh, my gamer life would be complete. Yes, I remember his story about the anti-fun deck, but I play Esper so...
The creative thing that others around me made me stop: I was obsessed with Robot Wars as a kid/young teen, to the point where I really wanted to make my own; I'd do things like attach cardboard or lego to my remote control cars and want to fight with them with somebody else. There was a robot-making magazine that gave you the parts of the robot that you'd be progressively making over the course of the magazine series (i believe it was called "Cybot"), and I took it to my school's after-school tech shop and asked those there what to do to start making my own. I was utterly ignored by everyone, teach included, so I sat there for 90mins taking apart my little robot and putting it back together again until it was time to go home. I wouldn't say I've ended up all too bad because I've a career using statistics a lot, but I find myself thinking back to that day and feeling very sad for a passion that would've EASILY blossomed had anyone have helped me and pointed me in he direction where I could've learned more.
Creative professional here. Can confirm I'm weird. Always have been, always will be. Making music has become my go-to for weird creative output. Obsessive weirdness. Now that's the name of my next album!
100% scientific dragons could be almost anything you want. It’s been said that magic is just technology we don’t understand yet. As long as it’s logical it’s scientific, no matter how strange it is.
Hard to not let your weirdness get beaten out of you though. It does matter if one or more parents used violence as a training tool. I couldn't even tell you what I was passionate about as a kid. The most creative thing I do is run a long time Pathfinder game. I agree that school fails kids. Never gave me an alternative to home's environment. But your advice on failure is spot on. I tell my kid that failure is how we learn because of you.
I think one reason success is difficult is because you not only need to be crazy enough to do it, but also to keep doing it while having high standards to aim for. Most people don't seem to handle that pressure.
The worst thing that happened to mine creativity has to be the art teacher i had at school, she was so terrible she made me hate drawing because it reminded me of her lessons, I am trying to repair mine passion but its going slowly.
we had little plastic barrel shaped drinks topped with aluminum you'd peal away, no straw included. but we'd bite down like a sabre tooth making 2 holes in the top to drink from
woah thats crazy! I made an entire set of cards when I was a kid as well! still got em in a draw somewhere, I had my grandparents keep the little dividers between teabags and used them as the card material. Luckily they drank a LOT of tea so I made a good 200-300 unique cards!
I used to be weirder and I was more creative. As I made myself more normal to progress in a normal career after I quit game development to chase money I lost a lot of what made me happy and myself. It's hard to go back since the misery of normalcy makes it hard
I find myself wondering... I'm weird, I have a lot of ideas and I like to create worlds and characters, but I don't feel creative. But in the past, when I've expressed my creativity, it's gotten me rejected, it's been ignored, nobody wanted to hear it. Even today, I'm surrounded by people at my Pathfinder table who often cringe at any creative idea I have that isn't tangentially related to Warhammer or Magic the Gathering, or another guy- who's the only person in my life who bothers to engage with anything I say, but 75% of the time it's just made up nonsense about how that's not physically possible, or nobody's gonna care 'cause my idea doesn't map to the real world 1:1, or I'm wrong about a thing because he heard from a guy whose brother went to college with another guy who read a book ten years ago. It all leaves me with the question... Am I really that uncreative? Or have I developed such an expectation of punishment for my creativity that my more creative ideas fill me with dread? At least I've got my own game I'm working on for fun, even if nobody in my life gives enough of a shit about programming to engage with any of it for now. Idk, just thinking about stuff out loud on a youtube comment, probably in some desperate reach for validation
*_🎶I get knocked down_* *_But I get up again_* *_Failure never gonna keep me down_* *_I get knocked down_* *_But I get up again_* *_Failure never gonna keep me down_*
I remember watching an interview with M. Night Shyamalan of all people and the interviewer asked him what he would tell people who want to make movies. He basically said, "Don't do it. People will hate your work and they'll hate you for making it. The only reason why you should do it is because you literally can't feel yourself doing anything else." It always stuck with me.
People want new things but will hate them for being different. The eternal struggle of progress and new ideas.
@@TomJakobW unless it prints money, then that idea is THE idea.
Just look at how generative AI is taking over despite literally all the smart people knowing that is like burning fosil fuels but for creative jobs and information sharing.
A friend of mine went to school with him, and remembered him as "this kid who hung out with a few friends and didn't do anything else but make movies." Basically Brendan Smalls from Home Movie.
@@TomJakobW People want old stuff with a new coat of paint 🤣
@@TomJakobW Usually, those complaints pop up heavily when the new thing is a continuation of an older thing.
In brand new things, those complaints don't really exist.
The reason kids are so afraid of failure "nowadays" (probably centuries by now) is because we have an entire system in place where we constantly threaten them with losing years of their life in a hostile, deeply uncomfortable and, in the case of americans, genuinely dangerous environment if they fail too much. Life as a kid is being told constantly how you're only a couple bad marks away from becoming a dredge of society.
What Josh is saying has been said thousands of times, anyone that's old enough will tell you the idea of "talent" is a lie and skills are born from failure, but actually learning to fail takes a lot of deprogramming from the years of being constantly shown just how badly failure in academics can destroy your life.
Yup i used too feel that way too honestly, until i dropped out of school in grade 10 due to family issues and started working, i quickly found out that i was good at learning task and enjoyed it, and everyone around me was fine with me failing and trying again. Really shook my world for the better after being told i would be useless and homeless if i did drop.
Talent isn't necessarily a lie but it's really better off described as an aptitude for things. People learn some things better than others and different people learn the same thing at different rates. The important thing about it is that someone who doesn't have an aptitude but has still worked at something will basically always beat an unpractised natural.
I HATE people who think that the only way to motivate their kids is to threaten them with failure.
this blew my freaking mind
The whole point of the education system that every country has (with minor differences) is that it conditions students into being good, obedient factory workers. It's the system funded by Rockefeller.
"Fail faster" is THE lesson for me. The sooner you fail, the sooner you realize what you're doing wrong, which means, the faster you can try again.
Game jams, hourly comics, daily sketching, speed painting/speed inking, monthly novels, weekly animations... all of those community challenges that look like just another trend, are specifically made to make creative people lose their fear of creating. If ou've followed one to these, you know you can find some very creative and original ideas from the weirdest people, right from the source and without an industry filtering out "what cannot be sold", it's beautiful.
Gamejams and such are perfect to start indeed. no one expects you to do great, they just expect you to do SOMETHING.
"Stop running around all the time"
"Stop making weird noises"
"You're too old for this"
Yeah well guess what, I'm now 25 and I sit around all day, I'm quiet and I can't even raise my voice if I tried, and I feel depressed all the time. Is this what you wanted?
Hey. It’s me.
I’m in this post.
"I'm in this post and I hate it." vibe
Family is supposed to model the real world. E.g. your parents punishing you for breaking the rules is a tiny analogy for how in the real world, governments punish you for breaking the rules. You are supposed to learn the skills to navigate the world by navigating the family relationships.
There are many lessons to learn, and one is you are not supposed to blindly follow the authority. Tyrannical government is a real thing that happens. If you live in one, you need to stand up to one. You were supposed to learn this through practice - that sometimes, you realize that the authority is wrong, and you need to go against the grain to do what you know is right. Put simply, it is a test, which from the looks of it, you have failed.
There is a great game about this called The Talos Principle (the first one, the sequel). I strongly recommend you play it and pay attention to the story. There's a lot of reading with the terminals, but it's the stuff that makes you think about important things from a different perspective. That's why it's a puzzle game, to facilitate the thinking.
@@peezieforestem5078 What they said has absolutely nothing to do with your claptrap about authoritarianism, or your hacky videogame philosophy.
@@tbotalpha8133What does it have to do with, in your opinion?
2:58 : Yeah. I used to write poems about literally anything. Anything that bothered me, interested me, happened to me. I used to read them out loud to some of my best friends.
That one time I wrote a rather big one about how I view my depression. I read it out loud, a few moments in another one of my friends would join the voicecall and said "Oh, you're reading your shitty poems again?".
Never picked up a pen to be creative again.
I feel like some people need to be told "weirdness" isnt the same as "obnoxiousness." You can be weird but bearable, but you can also be an absolute displeasure to be around
I had a book idea that was a sendup to the Dying Earth genre and A Canticle for Leibowitz along with martial arts and anime like Fist of the North Star. I got asked what I was working on and gave the explanation and she promptly called me a virgin and now I'm writing that book out of sheer spite.
Spite is what gets books written. You got this!
As if being a virgin is somehow a bad thing in the first place, at any age, really. I get that the sentiment there is "Well, no one wants to fuck you, so you're clearly too weird" or something, but that's just a bunch of dehumanizing objectifying nonsense.
& I say this as someone who started having sex at an early age/did so a lot as a teen. The ones who do it a lot will pretend like they aren't, & the ones who don't will pretend like they are; because sex is seen as something you should always want more of, but when you actually have more of it, you're suddenly seen as too much of a deviant who's apparently unintelligent or too reckless or something.
(You're especially seen as that if you're a woman, but honestly, that doesn't mean that men aren't still negatively effected by this, too, & so that still deserves to be talked about, too, even if it is technically more helpful to focus on women a bit more in this regard. Key word "if".)
Sex or lack thereof really isn't everything; all that matters is that, if you're gonna have it, make sure you're doing it safely... & while you're at it, don't settle for someone you're not really FULLY comfortable with/interested in just because you think you can't do any better, because believe me, yes you absolutely can, regardless of what anyone says; if someone says you can't, that projection just says more about them than it does about you.
I don't know. I guess that wasn't really the point of your comment, but still; she was the one who was actually being "weird" in the negative sense & was projecting that onto you, which says nothing about your own character but does say everything about hers.
@@SinWeissfell Spite can move mountains.
@@SinWeissfell Actually true, haha. The first book that I've ever wrote was not a project that I was planning for long, but just the result of a session of brainstorming after I decided that I hated the ending of a book that I've finished reading earlier that day.
Good. Do it!
School, at least in our country, is too results-oriented and it was going that way for a while now. I wish every parent and teacher could spare the time to help kids understand stuff instead of punishing them for bad grades. If anything, grades are meant to show problem subjects rather than problem kids.
I was over 30 years old when I discovered the first creative thing I like. It just seemed to click and I spent hours and hours doing it because it just tickled my brain. After a hundred hours I showed some of my stuff to a friend and the first thing he asked me was: "Can you monetise this?" and inexplicably that just crushed me more than anything. It made me feel weird about it for the longest time.
This mindset has ruined a fair few things I wanted to get into for me. Everything's about making bank now, can't have a hobby for the sake of having a hobby.
Amen. Don't make things for money, it ruins things.
Honestly it's not necessarily a bad idea to think about monetizing a hobby, you just don't have to. The friend asking the question might just have been curious whether it'd be possible. It's not outright a toxic question to your relation with the hobby. Instead, ask yourself the question whether any downsides of monetizing would be worth the money it brings you.
Often times, you'll find a hobby shouldn't be monetized and that is more than fine - in fact, it could even strengthen your passion for it knowing you thought about it and decided it's not worth it.
Do not monetize anything you enjoy. It's a lie. It will slowly drain the life from you. The second you start attaching income, deadlines, and consumer expectations to it, it's all over. This only works if you are the rare creative/enterprising hybrid, which 99% of us aren't. Not even most of the TH-camrs are, that's why they're all burning out and quitting.
@@plebisMaximusTrue, but... most of the times the "hobby" in question: "I like to play videogames!"
Another thing people should know is that you don't need any prerequisites to make stuff. A lot of people hold off on writing books because they're not sure if their writing is good enough. But what they don't know is that everyone that has ever written a book felt like that at some point. So these are creative people that are passionate but anxious, the only remedy is to just do it, start writing, start creating. The longer you wait to start creating the more your passion will seep away, even if what you make is pure garbage it's better than if it had never existed before.
Ive written nine books, seven of them where pretty garboge but two where ok. Funny enough the one's that felt where ok where light-hearted introductions to retro gaming (specifically, old NES/Famicom games).
It's a pretty common trap, you are so right to point this out, I see a lot of young artists getting stuck in this mentality of being a student who only focuses on training, instead of creating, they forget why they are training and never create anything, allways searching for that mythical mastery.
I find I can only be creative now when no one is watching me. My parents tore my soul apart because they thought it anything that couldn't make you money was a waste of time. Started writing only at school to avoid them and then got pushed into the unfriendable because I was weird. Despite the fact that no one had read anything I made, I was still labeled because I was doing it at all. I'd finished multiple books then because well, there was only one thing to do when I wasn't socializing with kids, and had once thought of publishing. But I'm still crushed the day I mentioned it to my mother, which I know now was doomed to fail because they didn't approve of it in the first place and why would it matter I had actually completed something, and she harshly reinforced her stance. I wrote a bit throughout university, even taking a degree that supported it because I just really wanted to learn, but it died out surrounded by other people seeking success in a different way; not paths that were going to fail them as opposed to mine (apparently, though I'd love to ask my family now if they've seen the job market lately). Many years out of school now and I'm desperately trying to recapture what I used to have but I just can't. I learned I was so terrified of opinions now that the presence of anyone, like someone coming into the house without knowing I'm there, was enough to kill any creative desire instantly, and it meant publishing now would be impossible. I've shown things to my husband now trying to get used to showing work to people and he's always been excited what I did and never had anything bad to say. I even had the opportunity to be a DM in a DnD group where I trialed the world from one of my completed works (never told them) and it got a great reception. I've made people tear up with excerpts of a scene that I randomly got inspired to write down while eating pizza. I gave people chills and spooked them with a meanacing character no one had any information about except a written delivery. Yet none of this has reassured me that I could produce something worth publishing. The handful of people now vs an entire childhood of backlash still has a clear winner. Even though I know none of those people who hated me for what I did even read a sentence of what I could do and that alone should mean they don't have a leg to stand on...I'm too paralyzed to do what I love and they've won.
Keep trying. Share your story. You're not alone here :)
Plenty of people in college told me to tone down the weirdness. So I did. Lead to 10 years of depression.
Then once I decided to find my weirdness again, even at the risk of alienating everyone around me, I've found a wonderful life.
same story. After that ten years, I burned out while writing my thesis to finish my chemical engineering studies. Realized I like people more than numbers and now I work with children with learning disabilities and do teaching an a gig to gig basis. So wonderful to be weird again, the kids love it.
I was thinking something along those lines watching this and glad to see others had stories of it too. For me I never really toned it down but I ended up in the corpo IT world where the nail that sticks out is going to get hammered hardest. I've been getting back into dumping loads of time into game dev, 3d modeling, painting, programming and other stuff despite the lack of free time as a way to reclaim a sense of self my job & surroundings repeatedly try to iron out of me. It can be tough, especially when a lot of people around you don't understand the value in creating things, art or the spark to create. Just keep being yourself and don't let others take it from you, because it's the worst feeling when they do.
@@HyperioGames Amen.
Its easier to just ghost them
I did that too but never went back, and guess what? In my 30s, done a lot of things I regret, one divorce, and while I'm not depressed I've lost a lot of deeper emotional reactions. I've begun embracing my past again and noticed some of myself returning.
Don't do finance kids, it's bad for the soul.
Oh and the alcoholism has definitely damaged my brain. I miss my intellect.
'I spent hours making rules for Warhammer because I couldn't afford the books'. YES. That and making scenery are the best way to play that hobby...
The only difference between a master and a student is the master has failed more times than the student has tried.
I'm not sure that's the only difference but I understand the sentiment
Heh, nice. The difference between one who can do something and one who cannot is the former never stopped trying.
Another quote like this is "training is not so you can do it right, it's so you can be aware of what you are doing wrong".
My weirdness and passions have been trampled on so much for so long that now I'm standing in front of a pile of rubble and I don't even remember what it once was.
I wish I could be creative again.
I relate to this in a primal way. We will feel that spark again, someday.
Slowly and steadily rediscover the things you once liked. Discard any notions of "childishness", it's just a word used by adolescents to appear more important than their peers and it's something many fail to grow out of. Creativity requires the childlike freedom from care, children just take and create without anyone telling them to. And that carefree ability to create comes from an absence of judgment, absence of desires to do "good" work.
It's doable, it just takes a lot of time and effort. Josh is right, don't be afraid of making trash. Make trash, be uncreative for long enough and you'll figure it out. Patience is hard, but worth the effort.
When i was a kid, i kind of liked drawing, wasn't a huge passion but i had fun
One day i showed a drawing to my mother, i was trying to draw sponge bob jellyfishes, and she said "oh! Such cute Fleas! Very well done!"
I was like 4 at that time but my brain worked something like
"She said it was pretty despite not knowing what it was, so she lied, so no matter if I try hard to improve, she'll just keep lying to me, so what's the point?"
So what killed my interest in art was the lack of actual feedback, ironically, my mother was an artist and art teacher too
Luckily i ended up picking art 3 years ago and may soon be able to make money out of it but I can't stop think I'd be really great already if i didn't quit art for 17 years (dropped ar 4, picked at 21)
Do you have a store? I'd be really interested to see some of your art
I am also a creative who struggles with feeling behind the curve. The best time to start doing anything will always be ten years ago. But remember that the second-best time to start doing anything is today.
@@aricwilson9711 Yeah, i keep telling myself the same, no matter how much i regret not starting earlier, it wouldn't change anything, so i just keep pushing forward so the future me doesn't have to ask "why didn't i start earlier"
I've always struggled with what to tell my kids about their pictures. I think most of the time parents aren't happy the picture actually looks good, they're impressed the picture actually looks like something. It's a big step as kids go from scribbles.
There isn't a lot of winning as a parent in those cases. Sometimes if you guess wrong what the picture is the kid is sad you can't tell what they made. If you ask what it is they're sad you can't figure out what it is. And in either case, by the four hundredth picture you may not always be giving critical feedback :)
@@ceritops Personally I think the best way is a mix of praise and criticism.
Showing that you're proud they give they best, but also showing them that they can still improve. So they can feel that they effort is recognized while also knowing they can be better than they are now.
Something like "oh, seems like you put a lot on effort drawing this tree, good job! But maybe it's a bit flat? Why don't you try learning how to give more volume to it next time?"
If you're into art yourself you can either teach them if you already know or learn with them.
Children are sensitive but they can still take some constructive criticism
7:27 With books heres some other things you wanna answer first and go from there ->
What does the character want?
Why do they want it?
How are they going to get it?
What are the rewards of getting it?
What are the consequences of getting it or not getting it?
What is their internal conflict? (What misbelief do they have about themselves that they need to overcome in order to prevail?)
Go to the Marcel Proust character questionnaire (or any really) and interview your character. You can draw up questions to fit any setting, answer in your characters voice and see what happens because, oftentimes, your characters reveal themselves to you instead of the other way around.
Sounds crazy right? Writing goes to every extreme, embrace the craze and especially embrace the weirdness of it.
And then build up from that. Have other people read it, doesn't matter if its IRL people or in online spaces. Get used to getting constructive criticism and you'll learn how to filter out what works for you and what to disregard. Some people are going to be dbags about it, take time to feel the feelings but keep it pushing.
Remember, some of the best writers of our time wrote MANY drafts and were rejected left and right before getting their break.
Read in the genre, play games, watch TV, movies, etc because inspiration can strike wherever and whenever.
Don't think your writing is good? Think no one will read it? All writers feel this way, including famous ones. (Also, read BAD books like most Booktok books and use that as motivation because those got published and you can too).
Remember, when writing a book you're going to go through many many revisions. You're going to get there.
Josh: "You can do anything, what's important is to try. Go out there and make something."
Chat: "Scientifically accurate dragons"
Josh: "Don't you dare"
wish this video existed long ago, I used to be outgoing, talkative. I've wanted to make content, stream, work in psych, and I feel paralyzed by the idea of failure or being cringe because of the things I've been through it's hard to even talk to someone about something I'm passionate about without feeling like I'm annoying them or they don't care, even now writing this and knowing these flaws its still so difficult to get over them.
As someone with AuDHD and a ton of trauma, to me, there is nothing like being able to give people space so they can talk about their hyperfixations/special interests.
And here's the kicker;
I rarely find the subject *they* are interested in, interesting when they start.
But the look in their eyes, the love they have, and the joy of getting to talk about it in detail; that's my Roman Empire.
So please, if you ever want to share a story, an interest/hobby or otherwise topic you love, I will always take a seat, have some popcorn, and have a great time.
One of the funniest presentations I saw in school was one dude talking about sand and deserts.
The driest topic you could've done. But you know what; he owned it by having fun.
Throwing in references, jokes, laughing at them himself, and we all loved that presentation.
Came home from college one summer with a new harmonica. I was inspired by one of my professors who built canjos and played the bones. Tiny instruments like that. They look so fun to play.
Well, when I went home and shared with my parents about the harmonica, my father complained, “oh, great. Now we have to listen to you practice!”
That broke my desire to even try. The thing is, he’s the audiophile and music lover of the family.
I’ve estranged from that family. Fuck them.
All of this hits in such a way... I've always been afraid to create things because of what people would say, or because it's not profitable. Today I finally finished a game. A playable, fun, game. Is it great? No, it's basic as heck, but it's my baby.
I am a creative intelligent like you. I didn't care what people thought about me, i just did what I loved. I was abused pretty heavily which causes to, even now, struggle to be creative. I still can be, but it's in short bursts. I'm trying to get back to the point i can finally finish my story, but it's a very slow road to recovery.
I FUUUCCKIING LOVE this video, this year I've started my own business and also gone from full time work to part time, chasing what makes me happy.
Every year I write an album, not a lot of people hear it but I have so much fun and joy from the end product and also improving on my skills as a musician, write, vocalist, producing skills with each project I do and I always START to FINISH, properly .
This theory in the video is so damn good. I love this.
When I was little I would always draw draw draw, in like 3rd-4th grade I made my own comics with sorta "Goosebumps choose your own adventure" at the end of each page... I made like 30-40 of these and they were around 40-50 pages long with about 9 panels per page. I would buy Pokemon cards from those coin machines so I could get those blank folded cardboard sleeves and rip the sleeve in two so I could draw my own weird fantasy cards on them... I made at least 100 of them...
When I got to middle school I drew more comics, and started working a lot harder on story, character, adventure, creature design... I love worldbuilding. I was also making two card games, one was like a weird Megaman sorta card game, and the other was basically discount YuGiOh lmao... I made probably around 300 for each game.
In high-school I discovered D&D, and I wanted to make tabletop-RPGs and my own game worlds... but something went wrong, idk what really but I got extremely depressed, I stopped doing art for like 10 years...
But my passion is slowly being rekindled, I bought an art tablet and I've been learning digital art... and thanks to TH-cam I've been able to learn from heroes I've had my entire life, and discover artists who as a child I had no clue were hiding behind things I had always admired. Now I'm depressed that I wasted so much time and I'm so far behind... :')
if Josh was actually a mimic taking the form of a human do you reckon the vest is connected directly to the skin or separate?
I mean he's probably not a mimic but who knows.
Do the people in Star Trek get nekked before going on the holodeck, or do the holodeck clothes materialise on top of their normal clothes?
Connected directly to the skin… just like real Josh
I stream and make videos because I have fun doing it. I don't care if there's no one, or seemingly no one, watching.
What made me feel a bit better though, is one of my friends said I have a soothing voice so she just listens with her cat.
Anywho, I used to draw. Haven't in a long time, and I don't know why I stopped. I want to get back into it, but I don't have the energy.
I'm an artist, work with ilustration, photography, painting etc, I'm also over 30 and this was such a struggle in my life, cause when we are teenagers, at least back then, we would surpress our weirdness and it took me sooooo long to undo that damage, I spent years being depressed stuck with people I hated in jobs I hated because I thought I had to act normal, and conform to social structure.
If you are young do not make this mistake; you are buying short term social acceptance from ppl you dont liike by paying a decade of therapy, it's not worth it.
I think this generation of young teens are better off than we ours tho, the internet has become really mainstream and the internet loves weirdness, I think a lot of them will be fine
Well of course I know him. He's me.
I tried to write each and every day. One page. Every day. For a month. I tried to change it into a habit. Then I didn't for one day, because life happened. I hadn't gone back to this fiction for 6 years, and I have not written anything else for many months. I later wrote different things, but thinking about this one story still brings disgust. If you are one of the majority of people who can, through repetition, change something into a habit, then I am extremely jealous; my brain does not work like that.
I have to trick myself to do things that I love/like that demands effort.
I've been doing something similar. I'm halfway through a book and still going and I think I've managed to nail the habit by negotiating. I have my minimum daily word count at 500 words, this is the amount that I will *force* myself to write even if I'm feeling down and exhausted. But my target is 1000 words a day, and if I'm still up to it, 1300-1500 a day. I think this way I can 'negotiate' with myself and do the amount of writing I feel is fair for my condition(the other day I was afflicted by primer fumes and so couldn't even stay awake. Still got my 500 words in since it felt like I was being lenient to myself).
Habits really do just be tricking your brain into thinking it got a good deal.
I think you overshot on the expectation on what you should do in a day and that is what really soured you. There was too much pressure put on you, and so when something broke the cycle, all you felt was relief that you don't have to push yourself to write it anymore.
I did a similar thing with writing, except my win condition was 5 minutes of writing, at least 25 words. That's not even this comment's length, that's two sentences. Usually I wrote much more. Some days I didn't write anything at all. And some days, I managed to write just those 25 words in 5 minutes. The trick was to learn to be okay with that - to tell myself, "great, I did what I set out to do, that's good enough". By setting a very low bar for daily success, it feels that much better to actually keep the habit going even if you don't do what you "think" you should be doing. But those thoughts are based on unrealistic, weird standards like certain word count a day, or pages, or whatever else. So long as my habit continued (with some acceptable downtime rate), that's all that mattered.
Now I have no issues with writing. I wrote a 150k novel manuscript, and I've been collaborating on another story just as long. I began writing a second manuscript as well, and I've been slowly sprawling from just a story into an entire universe - 5 minutes a day, 25 words at a time. Some days, I write nothing at all. Some days, my writing is just an idea post-it note on the wall. But that is writing still, even just thinking about the work is still work if I'm trying to figure out a problem.
Creative work is not 9 to 5. It can be. You can be professional in the sense that you do it as a "job" and loathe it just as much as I did my office jobs. But you never truly do it for any specified billable hours. Sometimes you do less, other times you do more - it all fluctuates, because not always do we have the solution for the problem. But what matters is to just slowly chip at it, day by day, and be okay with some downtime.
I'm a teacher student. We are taught that everyone learns by mistakes and those should be always allowed. It's very damaging for any learning process to make someone feel bad about making mistakes.
3:09 - Heh, you must know my father. He literally shat on every single ambition I ever had growing up. Now in my 30's I don't even know why I bother with life anymore.
I owe all my success in the "creative department" to Josh and his advice regarding these kinds of things. His vlogs have been quite literally life changing for me and without his words I'd prolly be stuck doing nothing productive all day.
Thanks to all the things he said over the years (I started following him in 2021) I mustered up the courage to do reignite my passion for being silly, doing video editing and just talking about things I like. I'd not be here doing things like these without you Josh, so thank you
I think about problems and solution, because it is calming to let my mind wonder
On another note, you learn so much by falling, the only way to fail is by doing and the only way to begin is by beginning
Whatever you want to do, go, begin and fail, again and again. You will never stop failing, but every time, you will do something bigger, and bigger. Your scribble become a painting, your taped plastic bits become a sculpture, your buggy piece of code become a program.
The only thing is, you can't fail from too high (don't start by building a house, build a shed before, and a dog house before that). This result in loss of motivation and or injuries (don't climb Everest if you've never climbed that hill next to your house).
Finally, you might think "It takes too much time", remember. You only lose time if you procrastinate. So rise early, pick your boots and climb that hill tomorrow, you should be able to climb higher the next day.
I made a big leather messenger bag, well it is almost like a small trunk.
I specifically decided to use various techniques, things I knew wouldn't deliver the best result, because I wanted to learn why certain techniques work better and some don't.
And it worked. A lot of work and I learned, so, so much
My family made fun of me when I got into trail riding with my mountain bike. It was a fun activity; I got to be out in nature, explore cool trails, and I was exercising as well.
The nicest people I met while exploring this hobby were the people I expected to be the most judgmental: other bikers. I remember getting to the top of a really long climb and the group that was waiting there checked to see if I was ok (I'm a bigger guy, weigh quite a bit). We had a laugh and I continued on my way.
The only reason I stopped was because my apartment refused to let me store my bike in the sheltered stairwell. They wanted me to keep my bike on one of the racks, on the other side of the complex... exposed to the elements. Once I get my own place, I hope to pick up biking again. I miss the trails.
A thing I've read from true comic makers on the indie space:
"If you want to make a comic, don't, because there's too much competition and everything you do will be decent at best, I am moderately succesful, but that doesn't mean you will be, get over yourself, do something good with your life. I was lucky, most likely you wont". I'm paraphrasing here, but for a lot of creators, the fact that they're popular but not getting a Netflix or Hollywood contract is the worst thing that has ever happened to them, their concept of success is so twisted by the industry and their "MILLIONS" talk, that they find deppression in their own success, so they don't wish it to their worst enemy.
Every time I started making it seem like I wanted to seriously pursue a creative career, my mom would be there to sternly tell me to "make sure I have a back up plan so you don't end up a loser if this fails", but not in a way that felt like she was being caring, it was always in a "I don't believe in your ability to make it in this and I'm not going to support you if you go this path and get unlucky" kind of tone. Constant reminders that if I wasn't perfect, if I didn't dedicate my life to getting a "real" job and didn't "stop being lazy", completely killed my ability to take any kind of risk, and implanted a deep, DEEP fear of failure. Even now, when I start trying to make something, I feel a deep fear that if I don't get it right *immediately*, the world will see me and my efforts as worthless and my life will be ruined.
Obviously that isn't the case, as Josh said a lot of people will be simply impressed by you making *anything*, and you have to fail to learn to be good, but it's definitely still hard even now as a 25 year old to shake off the incredibly tightly wound pit of anxiety in my chest formed from years of being told that failure is guaranteed to make me a loser that everyone hates.
I came to them late in life, but for me it's tabletop RPGs. I love looking at their rules and thinking about how they interact and how I would change them, fix the, expand them, etc. I've even thought about essentially rewriting the entire rule system for the old 40k RPGs to fix a lot of their problems and integrate neat ideas that came up in the later games (or even newer ones like Imperium Maledictum).
There's something I love about the mechanics and systems of tabletop RPGs, on top of how much I already love lore and storytelling.
One of my science teachers was teaching us about theory's, She said a failed theory is one that has been proven to be correct (like the earth being flat Vs round) but it takes many successful theory's to make a failed one, it doesn't mean that the "successful" ones are bad theory's but more stepping stones, (you make a theory, you test said theory, if it doesn't prove what you're trying to accomplish you make up and new theory and test again) at the end of the semester she made us make up our own theory's and test them out as a sort of final project, she said the more theory's you can come up no matter how silly or bazaar they may seem will help build your creative and critical thinking as well as helping us see that how we understand laws of the universe come from some of the most outrageous thinkers constantly "failing" (even though they don't see it as failure as much as growing one step closer to understanding)
I had passions when I was a kid, we were too poor for me to ever try chase any of them
Then I had passions as a teen, and my entire family discouraged and hated them, even the one time I took a step for myself, everyone in school still kept talking down on me. I did that step, it was mostly a failure, but I did get part of what I wanted, but I never ended up hearing the end of the negativity.
Now as an adult I'm just left as a blank person with no creativity, no passion and no desire to pursue anything because of it.
I can empathize with that. The beauty of my job, at least, is that being a welder, I am forced to think outside the box sometimes and get creative to solve issues with getting my job done. But, I'm not passionate about it like I was with gaming and art. My family wanted me not to fail, and they succeeded sadly, lol.
I used to draw a lot. I mean, A LOT. I would draw during classes, after school, whenever I could (if I wasn't busy playing video games or watching something). In my senior year of high school, I took AP Studio Art, and it broke me. Before then, I never had to "grind" in order to finish a piece of art, but that class put me through the wringer. I did an absurd amount of art, and I was surrounded by 3 other students who were just LEAGUES better than me. It completely destroyed any joy I derived from creating art, and it made me give up on the idea of doing art as a career. I've only done a few art pieces since then, but the joy just simply isn't there anymore. I had my passion, and now I have nothing. I just wish I could someone feel passionate about it again, but I just don't know how anymore.
Just yesterday, I picked up a comic book from the library for the first time at age 30. Social pressures have kept me from doing this because society finds comics to be childish. I finally decided that I don't care what other people think, and now I'm reading Batman Beyond: Neo Year and it is fantastic!
I made my own RPG of some sort in elementary school, where each page in the sketchbook was a level and there was a shop where classmates could buy items from and upgrade their characters.
Remember when I tried to get into creative writing back in grade school and never really went anywhere with it because I felt like I wasn't being "creative" as much as just taking ideas I had gleamed and consumed over the years and just twisted them around one another... Then years later I learnt that's basically what creativity is.
THANK YOU! Weird is a compliment, weird is a badge of honor. You should strive to be weird and surround yourself with weird people. Normal people are just as weird, the only difference is there are enough of them to make their weirdness seem normal. Gonzo fist.
Worldbuilding, my whole life I cant help but immerse myself in developing worlds. When I was a kid I would try to create worlds similar to the cartoons I would watch. As I got older it became about creating characters, abilities, and environments that didn't exist in media. There was a 6 year stretch where I obsessively designed D&D campaigns for friends. Now I've been developing my own universe and systems to create robust cultures, characters, histories, etc...
One thing I did in elementary school was drawing cartoons, drew quite allot of cartoons with marker pens. Wish I still had them, despite how ugly they ended up becoming. One cartoon I wanted to draw was ""FartMan", a superhero that propelled himself through the air by the power of flatulence. Never ended up happening, most of my comics where of cats and star wars and worms (inspired by the game worms).
4:29 loved inflating small empty juice containers and stomping on them, they made quite a satisfying loud popping sound.
this changes everything
I am trying to write a RPG tabletop board game with my own lore, universe and gameplay. I am too scared to make this an official game because I am scared of failure, it does not help me when people has told me: "Why not just play DnD? Some systems in your game is very similar.". People comparing my work to DnD is a real passion killer.
I really want this game to become a reality and not just a personal scribble to pass the time.
Release it for free, and explain why you made it. Passion doesn't pay the bills, but making a name and a reputation is important in the field. Matt Colville's MCDM is successful because he was well-known before he launched the idea of a new game.
My ex killed my passion to WH as hobby. She made me feel bad for painting, building and even making fan merch based on WH40k, she said it was waste of time
John carpenter said it beautifully “…I grew up in a strange place, so I became a strange kid…” and after this, he states that he used to seek refuge in cinema and realized that someone had to be behind the camera shooting the movie, so he wanted to become that. This one’s for all of us folks, embrace that weird kid, I sure know I’m know trying to
"why can't you put this much effort in schoolwork instead?"
This was a good vid to find. I always had something I wanted to make, comics, stop motion, and music, and I’m in a bit of a slump but this was a good listen. Especially how others can effect what you want to do, and what you want to stick to
I used to love taking photos, but my Dad said to me "you can't live your life through a camera" and then i stopped taking as many photos, but still did it.
Then one of my close friends said all my photos are shit - and that was the nail in the coffin. I bareley EVER take photos anymore basically because of that.
Ow. Hope you heal out of that. That sucks ass and taking photos is fun.
Dude made me remember when I was 15, drawing all kinds of "items" as in a videogame inventory. I made tons of good stuff and was eager to make more.
However, I did end up being hugely ridiculed, to the point of completely forgetting about it until now (I'm 31). It's amazing the things we do and stop doing in order to not be bothered.
I know man. I just wanted to build and go home... let me mod let me play. Man..
I used to write a bit, people (my parents included) mocked me so everytime I try I make myself cringe. I stuck with drawing fortunately
dude thats so true. That's how I've gotten good at programming slightly. My first go at a game was so inefficient I burnt myself out having doing tedious things and thinking about the rest of the tedious things I thought I had to do in my head. Took a break learned some more things of how my workflow was bad. Came back to it things were way more seamless. Hit a wall again and took a break learned more and now I'm at a point of understanding how to be good at this. I started off really shit now I may not be good but I understand how to get good so now my improvement increases exponentially. The only thing powering me was energy drinks and the love of the idea of making a computer do whatever you want akin to like drawing. I'm doing something right now and my workspace looks so professional, we have come a LONG way.
6:04 I’ve heard, similar to this, about writing, “become an editor, not a writer”
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with salamanders and newts. My mother was always on my case about how I would never make a living at that. I love my mom, and she was a great person in most way, but if I had stayed with that I'd have had my pick of jobs. She kept after me enough that I gave up on that. The last time I looked there were 8 states here in the US looking for an expert to study and help preserve their amphibian populations. In particular newts and salamanders.
its kinda funny how we get told that something we love when we are young wont make us a living... i was told that with my love of Video games and now, Video games are a Multi billion dollar industry.
Regarding the first question - I love the way it's handled in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, you don't level up, enemies don't level up, items don't level up, there are no levels, there is no skill tree, no classes either. But it still feels great!
About creating stuff I only regret that I hadn't started uploading on TH-cam earlier. Me and friends did stuff before, but we started sharing online much later and Facebook was a worse platform to do it.
7:30 I think there’s far fewer people than we think that like the sound of their own voice.
@@der_Flert it’s due to bone conduction; makes it sound darker, more resonant. Our voices sound brighter and less thick to others. Makes it weird.
That’s probably a huge hurdle for some, but yea. After a while it probably just becomes a tone you’re listening to for editing purposes.
I really needed this video and i didnt even know it, thanks bro
Writing. My English teacher was horrible. If you wrote something in a genre she didn't like she'd pick it to pieces. If it was a genre she did like, it wasn't good enough, plus you were a suckup.
13:58 the gacha game Fate Grand Order put out its first animation update in 2 years for two year 1 servants from 8 years ago on the Japanese server. New outfit for fan favorite characters, first time in years. Everyone’s mad hype. Then the data lost her, and people are unironically crying in community forums. That’s how you get people to care about a product.
As someone who was always trained by a (problematic) parent to be so afraid of failure that I should give up on anything (schoolwork, my passions, career path) if there was any risk of failure, because I was taught that failure is worse than quitting... I'm trying to unlearn that, and I needed this pep talk. Been rediscovering lost passions and trying to work out a career path I'd like to follow in my 30s, but hey. Never too late to start.
3:05 I used to love painting. My 10th grade art teacher killed that for me.
I really agree with Josh but i dont think his advice is usefull. In my personal experience people that have this obsession will do it anyway there is not need to be told to and i dont think "normal" people can follow this advice.
Was helping a TH-camr make a comic/manga it was fun and he was going through a lot of self doubt, I told him that the story was really unique and if I wasn’t working on it I’d still probably read it, but one day he was telling me he was still unsure about it and asked his friend who gave him a question that made him think “if you knew no one would read it would you still make it?” He asked me if I ever felt like that and I said yeah a lot of the time there’s art I make but never show off to anyone, pieces that I made for the fun of it but don’t post, and it reminded me of a moment in a directors commentary for 28 days later; the director said they filmed a scene that he believed was “the perfect scene” something he was so proud of and loved so much, he was asked what’s the scene in the movie and the director said no, and it’s not a deleted scene either because he destroyed it because he was so satisfied with it when asked why he just said it’s his own personal philosophy.
One of my favourite quotes is "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good". Honestly, you can take the a step further and say "Don't let the good be the enemy of the finished." Until you can make something good, just make something, identify what makes that something not good, and make it again without those not good bits. That might mean "I didn't research this bit enough", or "I should've put more time into that bit" or "I put too much sugar into the cake mix and it went hella grainy", you can't figure it out unless you actually do the thing. Get a first run in and refine from there, but never expect to be perfect, or good, or even sufficient on the first run.
bulldog clip glued to 2p was my go-to for making standee miniatures when I started playing tabletop.
After a while I'd take a miniature base from GW, make a card standee double length, with a little tab at each end. Fold it in two, post the tab through the miniature base, and then fold it out like a split pin.
This was an excellent video that helped thanks man.
I used to be fanatical about lego until my parents told me older kids dont play with lego when i was 12 and took them away.
That's a sad thing to tell a child, especially when there are adults that get paid to create things in lego.
This actually gives me a chance to mention my own recent experience with this; my interests combine in a way where talking about in-game economies is something I'm able to do well, so I started writing scripts on that topic. The initial way I had it framed was basically pulling from TVTropes and explaining examples based on what the given trope was; kind of crap, but it worked at the time. While I was thinking about the first full breakdown script I was writing, a completely different way of framing the topic as a whole came to mind, letting me drop the TVTropes thing entirely...something that wouldn't have happened had I had started the writing in the first place. :D
As and Old QA guy, I love the comment Perfection is the enemy of done. There is a reason it is not called Perfection Assurance. QA and QC are mostly mitigation. Thank you for inspiring this miniature TedTalk.
Exactly the motivation that fits my feelings right now. I have a strong urge to continue a personal project, what I already did in this project (years ago) was insane, now I can't stop thinking about all the parts and necessary process that would shape it even further. Like a crazy person, like fire in the soul. But I'm not here to announce how I will do something (this kills further motivation) but to share my personal joy of how much more insanity I am willing to put in this project.
Tbh the initial motivation is to do anything else but reading social media. I need to flee this trash behavior.
I know you meant it as motivation, but your voice DOES matter somewhat. One of the reasons I prefer listening to you Josh over any other reviewer is your charismatic as hell voice and your passion. Still waiting for my ASMR josh audiobook series. ❤
This is GOLD ADVICE right here. Great perceptions and great lessons.
I'm trying to get out of the habit of getting excited for something, doing it, and then quitting halfway through cuz it's not good enough lol.
I think you hit the nail on the head by saying "do a thing even if everyone you know is against it". I feel that mindset separates the folks trying to make something worth caring about vs a quick buck or clout or whatever.
Skill-based, non-level based MMO (Kinda. It's instanced 4p-Coop, but MMO in towns).
A: ** Spiral Knights ** Yeah, that ol' game is STILL alive and free. Completely skill-based and gear is only helping you take less damage, do more damage. If you're skilled enough, you can never get hit. Schmup MMO disguised as a cartoony zelda'esk system.
Also, I remember really loving drawing when I was young. I used to design Megaman robots in my notebook when I got free times. My 5th grade teacher picked up mine off my desk one day and flipped through it even though the assignment was up. She then proceeded to wave it in front of the classroom asking what it was. Really embarassed me. Never went back.
I swear, if I could sit down at an EDH table with Josh, my gamer life would be complete. Yes, I remember his story about the anti-fun deck, but I play Esper so...
The creative thing that others around me made me stop: I was obsessed with Robot Wars as a kid/young teen, to the point where I really wanted to make my own; I'd do things like attach cardboard or lego to my remote control cars and want to fight with them with somebody else. There was a robot-making magazine that gave you the parts of the robot that you'd be progressively making over the course of the magazine series (i believe it was called "Cybot"), and I took it to my school's after-school tech shop and asked those there what to do to start making my own. I was utterly ignored by everyone, teach included, so I sat there for 90mins taking apart my little robot and putting it back together again until it was time to go home.
I wouldn't say I've ended up all too bad because I've a career using statistics a lot, but I find myself thinking back to that day and feeling very sad for a passion that would've EASILY blossomed had anyone have helped me and pointed me in he direction where I could've learned more.
Creative professional here. Can confirm I'm weird. Always have been, always will be. Making music has become my go-to for weird creative output. Obsessive weirdness. Now that's the name of my next album!
100% scientific dragons could be almost anything you want. It’s been said that magic is just technology we don’t understand yet. As long as it’s logical it’s scientific, no matter how strange it is.
"The right to fail" was something I wish we had as a kid.
The hate-your-voice thing is helpful. I stopped quickly trying videos because of that.
Hard to not let your weirdness get beaten out of you though. It does matter if one or more parents used violence as a training tool. I couldn't even tell you what I was passionate about as a kid. The most creative thing I do is run a long time Pathfinder game.
I agree that school fails kids. Never gave me an alternative to home's environment.
But your advice on failure is spot on. I tell my kid that failure is how we learn because of you.
I think one reason success is difficult is because you not only need to be crazy enough to do it, but also to keep doing it while having high standards to aim for. Most people don't seem to handle that pressure.
Remember that you are making the “thing” for the people that will love it, not for the people who will hate it.
The worst thing that happened to mine creativity has to be the art teacher i had at school, she was so terrible she made me hate drawing because it reminded me of her lessons, I am trying to repair mine passion but its going slowly.
People generally aren't perfect, but they are good enough.
_“Creative people are WEIRD”_
Can confirm 🥸
we had little plastic barrel shaped drinks topped with aluminum you'd peal away, no straw included. but we'd bite down like a sabre tooth making 2 holes in the top to drink from
100% scientifically accurate dragon dongs
woah thats crazy! I made an entire set of cards when I was a kid as well! still got em in a draw somewhere, I had my grandparents keep the little dividers between teabags and used them as the card material. Luckily they drank a LOT of tea so I made a good 200-300 unique cards!
I used to be weirder and I was more creative. As I made myself more normal to progress in a normal career after I quit game development to chase money I lost a lot of what made me happy and myself. It's hard to go back since the misery of normalcy makes it hard
I find myself wondering... I'm weird, I have a lot of ideas and I like to create worlds and characters, but I don't feel creative. But in the past, when I've expressed my creativity, it's gotten me rejected, it's been ignored, nobody wanted to hear it. Even today, I'm surrounded by people at my Pathfinder table who often cringe at any creative idea I have that isn't tangentially related to Warhammer or Magic the Gathering, or another guy- who's the only person in my life who bothers to engage with anything I say, but 75% of the time it's just made up nonsense about how that's not physically possible, or nobody's gonna care 'cause my idea doesn't map to the real world 1:1, or I'm wrong about a thing because he heard from a guy whose brother went to college with another guy who read a book ten years ago.
It all leaves me with the question... Am I really that uncreative? Or have I developed such an expectation of punishment for my creativity that my more creative ideas fill me with dread? At least I've got my own game I'm working on for fun, even if nobody in my life gives enough of a shit about programming to engage with any of it for now. Idk, just thinking about stuff out loud on a youtube comment, probably in some desperate reach for validation
*_🎶I get knocked down_*
*_But I get up again_*
*_Failure never gonna keep me down_*
*_I get knocked down_*
*_But I get up again_*
*_Failure never gonna keep me down_*
If an RPG doesn't use level progression it isn't really an RPG. Gear progression can fuck right off though.
« Dreamers dream, writers write » - I heard that from a game designer
Saving this to rewatch when I feel like not continuing to draw. Thanks!