Current location: Milwaukee, WI, USA
Reading: Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
Listening: Desire Path by Lila Tirando a Violeta(if you have a moment, reply with your own 3-item status—via email or in the comments)
Boxes and Tools
One way to assess the settings on our creative endeavors (professional, hobbyist, experimental, or any other commitment level) is to think in terms of boxes and tools.
In this context, our boxes are the containers in which we put the stuff we make and in which we create.
In some cases these boxes will be literal spaces in which we work, in which we put our work when it's done, and in which we display or sell our work.
In others, the metaphorical boxes will be the publications, websites, brands, and mediums that house the words we string together, the graphics we design, the spreadsheets we orchestrate, or the videos we produce.
Our tools are the things that help us make the work we put in these boxes.
These can also be tangible objects—paint brushes, typewriters, slide-rules or baking sheets or table saws—but they can also be digital objects like software suites, search engines, AI-based platforms, or cognitive enhancements like systems and habits.
Whatever their corporeality (or lack thereof), these tools are effort-enhancers, leverage-augmenters, and force-amplifiers if we allow them to be so.
We become more capable when we use well-honed tools skillfully, so the right tools and a fair amount of practice with them can shape the work we do while also determining what sorts of work we’re capable of doing (our table saws are unlikely to help us paint portraits, and we probably won’t be able to produce videos with a typewriter).
Our boxes, on the other hand, delineate the scope, scale, and structure of the spaces in which we do said work and through which we’re able to maintain, archive, and transmit that work for our own future enjoyment, reference, or remixing, and for similar utility by others.
These containers not only inform how much and what sorts of work we can manage, then, but also how far that work will be broadcast, what shape it’ll be in when it arrives, how it will be perceived and categorized by folks on the other end of its transmission, and how great or small its shelf-life will be.
I find that checking in on these sorts of assets periodically helps me make iterative changes to my making-things setup (my tools and boxes), and process almost always points me toward new, interesting ways of producing, arranging, broadcasting, and maintaining things—some of which may ultimately suit my purposes better than my existing setup (and in some cases it points me toward entirely new ways of defining my purposes).
Holidays are opportune moments for this sort of self-exploration because they serve as a chronological mile-marker at which we can stop and assess all aspects of our lives, comparing where we are now to where we were the previous year, and setting goals for where we’d like to be next time around.
Culturally agreed-upon moments of significance aren’t necessary for this type of self-inventory, though.
Checking in semi-regularly, whenever is most convenient (and meaningful) to us, individually, makes it less likely that we’ll fall into rhythms and routines that don’t serve us, and more likely that we’ll keep our tools honed, our boxes right-sized, and our acts of creation fulfilling for everyone involved.
If you found value in this essay, consider buying me a coffee :)
My Work, Elsewhere
Aspiring Generalist / Brain Lenses (podcast) / Climate Happenings / Let’s Know Things (podcast) / Curiosity Weekly & Daily / One Sentence News (podcast)
Note: I’ll be expanding on the sorts of things I share through Aspiring Generalist in the new year, and I’ve added two new projects—You Probably Don’t Need and Notes On the News—to my 2023 lineup, if you’re interested in subscribing to either or both (the former is “a consumption-skeptical recommendation newsletter” and the latter is focused on concise, news-related notes and analysis).
Interesting & Useful
Some truly lovely, dramatic, and breathtaking photos on this year’s roundup lists.
“The success of a generation ship depends on children born aboard taking over the necessary duties, as well as having children themselves. Even if their quality of life might be better than, for example, that of people born into poverty on Earth, philosophy professor Neil Levy has raised the question of whether it is ethical to severely constrain life choices of individuals by locking them into a project they did not choose. A moral quandary exists regarding how intermediate generations, those destined to be born and die in transit without actually seeing tangible results of their efforts, might feel about their forced existence on such a ship.”
How to Film a Burger Falling Perfectly Into a Model’s Hand
“We go behind the scenes with a production company that specializes in food and is known for making precise (and pretty amazing) robotic rigs for food and drink ads.”
Outro
Whatever you’re getting up to (or consciously deciding to not get up to) heading into the new year, I hope you have a wonderful final couple days of 2022, that your ambitions for 2023 (whatever they might be) are fueling and inspiring you, and that you’re feeling primed to face (and find fulfillment in) whatever comes next.
I’d love to hear about what you’re planning for next year, what you’ve learned this year, and anything else you’d like to tell me about yourself, your life, struggles you’ve overcome (or are still facing)—whatever you feel comfortable sharing with a stranger from the internet.
The best part of my job is getting to hear from folks from around the world, and I respond to every email I receive. You can say hello by replying to this newsletter or by writing to colin@exilelifestyle.com (you can also leave a comment if you’d like to share something publicly).
I appreciate you, and I’ll talk to you again next week.
You can also communicate via the usual methods: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or wildlife photography roundup.