Category: My Books

When you are a creator – you are in control

Steve Jobs once said that the computer is going to be like a bicycle for the mind, Joseph Campbell called the inside of a PC a hierarchy of angels.

This is an insight into the meaning of tools and technology in our lives from an Indian teacher. He says machines are Yantras, deities that enhance what we already are, we are an enhanced beings:

So what is the problem with technology? People often complain and the media propagates this spiritless image of humans mindlessly staring down into phones and devices. We are bored already after a playlist or two, and surely fatigued with pictures of french fries stacked against stadiums..

But can you imagine Steve Jobs (rip) or Elon Musk scratching themselves on the back of their heads with their phones, bored out of their minds? That is what it means to be a creator, to use technology to be in control. You are only in the driver’s seat when you create, when you generate output. It is a one-way street, it is a drainpipe with one-way flow – you are either on the intake or you produce.

I had the privilege of teaching very little and very bright kids recently, and when kids are super bright there’s no hiding, all is reduced to a string of truths. I tell them that no matter what software they learn or what sort of science they master – they need to be aware of the fact that the only true power in the world is the power to create. When you are a creator – you are in control.

When you are mere consumer you are at the mercy of what has been generated for you. When you are the creator, whether you create objects of the mind or make cakes – you are in charge of the content and the process. You can use your faculties to get better at either. Software is just a tool, the computer is just a tool, once you have learned how to use couple of different software products – you get clarity on the principle and you can quickly grasp any other.

To be a creator requires a lot of mental and physical energy, it is a lifestyle and it can’t be done just a little bit. I remember Lessig’s AMA on Reddit where he said he wanted to be a part-time president… Can you imagine being 50 percent in control 50 percent of the time of the most powerful nation? How about being 50 percent in control 50 percent of the time of the most powerful intelligence on earth?

Recently had to put together a little awning for the top floor of my house, the old one was reduced to rags by strong winds, and had to find something quickly as guests were coming to stay in a few days. I have a great Brother machine back in the States and have only used it to make some canvas pieces and wearables for my installations. Sewing is otherwise boring and repetitive and I can’t stay with it for longer than the quick completion of a project.

At the house there is this absolutely incredible piece of German engineering – my grandma’s 1904 Singer sewing machine. Naturally, the machine manual was online and someone had already figured out how to thread it on youtube. I found a large piece of fabric and also some lost stretches of ethernet cable laying around.. It took 10 minutes of youtubing and 50 minutes of trial and error and these magical devices came together on my green drawing table to help me make a little wobbly but otherwise perfectly reasonable awning.

Yeah, it was a lot more fun than shopping, it was probably more time consuming as it took me awhile to put together the awning with lots of bobbin winding and battles with seas of fabric late at night. I affirmed the usefulness of a forgotten tool which later served me for more projects around the house, I saved tons of cash, I learned german engineers from 110 years ago knew more about ergonomics than I would have thought. This incredible piece of technology that is grandma’s Singer worked out of the box without a hitch.. knowing that no one had probably touched it in 20 years. High five to the creator who perfected it!

Oops! And how can I possibly forget about zip ties, such a simple thing but imagine trying to tie down my awning with rope?! It will take several experienced sailors! The short version, for those who are just browsing to kill some time at work and don’t really care is this: someone realized that it would be useful, and they invented it.

One more thing about Dreams and Louis CK on Flying

*Seriously, My Books

I was recently reading on the Wright brothers.. isn’t it amazing that I can read on and use their life experiences in my life today? I try to imagine their contraptions out in a field somewhere in Dayton, Ohio. I lived in Ohio for a bit and can imagine a field… but to setup a Da Vinci style contraption on a hill ( well they commuted to North Carolina for this ) with the intent to get it up in the air past the cows? Ridiculous and at the time the European press ridiculed the brothers calling them “either fliers or liars”.

D-Day, and Da Importance of Dreaming

My Books, The Lucasfilm Files

D-Day is worthy to remember if only to make sure we never need another triumph like that ever again. It is a terrible tragedy that we are so well gifted with the capacity to dream but do terrible things for despicable reasons.

Now that we are in the 21st century and knowledge so easily accessible I hope the necessity for greed will melt away. An average human needs 2000 calories a day, a decent shelter and good people to share a laugh with. A few good dreams and I think all our needs are met.

My personal dream is that one day it won’t matter neither where you were born nor how wealthy, I imagine humanity that dreams together of science and space exploration, so we can learn about and beyond the world we live in.

One of the greatest effects that working in the Silicon Valley had on me and one of life’s lessons I will never forget, in the greatest possible ironies of all, is that dreams come true. To dream well is very important and making a very good dream come true is very, very profitable. Ironic right? One of the management manuals at Lucasfilm had to Dream at number one position to do when starting a project.

In The Valley, as one of the most economically motivated places on earth after New York, the crazier the dream – the better likelihood it will get funded. An easy dream is easy to be dreamed up by the numbers. A hard dream has more likelihood to be unique and to get traction. Thus was Silicon Valley made on dreams. You would think that first came the money.. no, in fact a lot of the companies in the Valley that later went on to make global impact on literally millions of people, were started in the backyards of modest homes.

Hollywood Hills mansions are built on dreams.The dream factories of Hollywood create very profitable dreams by selling a great product at bargain prices, a movie that costs millions to make is sold to us for 15 bucks a piece. For Ridley Scott, for Spielberg, (no longer) for George – it is a numbers game. What has boggled my mind is the scale of it all. It really is of biblical proportions.

So imagine a Michelangelo – okay, perhaps that won’t work if you have no special place in your heart for George Lucas – imagine hundreds of talented individuals who collectively make up a Michelangelo talent. And they toil day and night and make a perfect marble statue. And the next day half a billion people on the planet get one, the same exact perfect copy. For a tenner. That’s Hollywood for you and this is how it works.

My old little iPhone is a dream, right? Gandalf the Grey’s Staff of Power is like a stupid twig compared to what the latest generation iPhone can do. In that regard Gandalf is practically a puppet compared to the great wizard Steve Jobs. My Mac Book Pro beats any wizard from Harry Potter at magic, I can put together a figment of my imagination and send it to 3D print across the globe and voila – we have a conjuring. There is a great website about the origins of the mac here: http://www.folklore.org/index.py if you are interested in how people dreamed up this magical device.

One thing that becomes clear is that dreams don’t come true in a dreamlike manner. Usually hard work is involved and serial dreaming. Make sure to have a good dream dreamed up. A good dream ensures you will be entertained and motivated for a long time. Because if money is all you wanna have – then you are all done when you get it and might as well order yourself a wooden box.

When you were growing up they told you to stop dreaming and plant you feet on the ground.. when instead they should have told you to dream more.. and better. It is important to have more than one dream. One day you will outgrow a dream, or an organization – you will need to be ready for the moment to employ another dream. Use your time wisely to dream better, get better at dreaming.

Use the Force

*Seriously, My Books, Star Wars