Sometimes repetition is a sign that you’re returning to something important. Sometimes it’s a sign that you’re failing to learn something. Funnily, it can take some repetition to figure out the difference. But more importantly, it takes discernment. You have to stop and take stock of the situation, and ask, what’s really going on here?
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i’ve had a funny relationship with repetition over the years
i’ve decided to make a blogpost to point at re: repetition, so that I can repeat myself less, about repetition
we’ll see what goes in here.
i came up with this idea while saying “i might be repeating myself but i’m okay with repeating myself”. better to just get through it than to get flustered about it. self-consciousness about the repetition draws attention to it
to be updated the next time i have this thought
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it’s possible to have the same revelation repeatedly if you allow what is revealed to once again be concealed. why do people do this? because what is revealed is too bright, usually. blinding, overwhelming, too much truth, uncomfortable. implications too staggering. best put it back in the box, remind me later. if you journal enough over the years, you notice that your revelations start becoming reruns
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i repeatedly tell people that their early-stage artist/creative/entrepreneur/founder friends etc would appreciate your attention, encouragement and support a lot more than the big/famous ones
I repeatedly get excited about starting things and then spread myself too thin and get tired. this feels like a solvable problem, i need to sketch out the loops better, and anticipate the loop closer
i repeatedly find myself doing this lecture about being more strategic, thinking two steps ahead… i want my friends to be more effective, achieve their goals. and i want more cool friends, ha
i repeatedly quote victor wooten, kenny werner… i’d like to have better things to point at for those things. fanswitchboard, good reply game. put the gun down. don’t spend your precious life mocking those you perceive to be lesser than you
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2020may21: revisit what you love
Many years ago, I watched a TED Talk by Tony Robbins called Why We Do What We Do. I got a bunch of good stuff out of it – thinking about things like certainty and uncertainty, growth and connection and so on.
Now, I don’t blame Tony for this, but I also got something bad out of the experience, that’s taken me a long time to shake off. At about 11 minutes, he asks the audience, “Have you ever rented a video or a film that you’ve already seen? Who’s done this?” – and when a bunch of them raise their hands, he jokes, “Get a fucking life!” The crowd laughs, and he elaborates, “Why are you doing it? You’re certain it’s good because you read or saw it before, but you’re hoping it’s been long enough you’ve forgotten, and there’s variety.”
I know it was meant to be a fun, light-hearted, throwaway thing, and not some profound claim about the nature of creativity. But for some reason, when I watched the video at that time, it stung. It could be simply that I was younger, didn’t have much of an “audience”, didn’t have as much faith or confidence in my own abilities and methods.
I’m sure that as a creative person himself he would know the value of reviewing and revisiting great work. Was my model of creativity wrong?
When rewatching or rereading old material, I don’t “hope that I forgot” – rather I look for nuances. Each subsequent rewatch is interesting to me even & especially if I remember every single detail. I watch with a different perspective each time. Into The Spider-Verse is a movie that I really love, that I’ve watched maybe 6 or 7 times by now. And I watch it differently each time, focusing on different aspects and elements of it.
Anyway, the point is. I think it’s good to revisit what you love. It’s healthy. It refines your taste. It’s good to watch new things, too. There’s nothing bad or wrong with rewatching something. It’s never truly the same experience.
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somewhere in this post I should include a link to Chesterton’s “exult in monotony” quote