Thanks, Brian. This sentence in your essay stood out for me: “Human creativity, by contrast, thrives on disorder, experimentation, innovation—not a script based on what sold well in the past.” When people from different backgrounds or different cultures or different economic strata are brought together with open, curious minds innovation happens. They mash things up, push forward often changing directions and learning from their our mistakes. Machines (computers/phones/etc.) should be used to support the creative effort not replace it.
Hi all, here in Australia we have just had an election for the federal govt, The born to rule liberal party(Right wing) needed to pick up bout 12 to 15 seats to take back government with minor party support or 20 seats to govern in its own right.
It got thumped losing somewhere between 10 and 15 seats (counting continues) its leader aped the Canadian result by losing his seat, the first time in Australian history an opposition leader has lost his own seat.
It's blaming Trumps tariffs, the governing Labour Parties lies, hate media that didn't support them, This ignores the fact our biggest news organisation is Murdoch,
Anyway I was chatting with a neighbour Sunday morning after the Saturday election and he said he couldn't recall a first term government picking up seats at it first re-election campaign and I borrowed Brians thoughts before I read them, I said to the neighbour "If we accept that parliament is a place of excellence and big ideas the liberal party had gone on an extensive search for mediocrity and kept finding it"
I think many are using entertainment as a narcotic, wanting to be soothed, comforted, pacified. I don’t think the statistical analysis is wrong, since people are rewarding it with their time and money. Hollywood began its heyday during the Depression. Life was mean and dreary but for pennies you could spend a couple hours watching beautiful people swanning around in furs and jewels. Some of the films made at the time were trailblazing but mostly it was formulaic and intended to make audiences laugh and feel good about themselves.
I don’t know that there has ever been a large market for innovative and challenging art, but I’d love to be wrong.
Thanks for the recommendation for Brian and Charles; it’s now in my queue.
We don’t want algorithmic optimization in cancer research, either. I used to work in drug development. You want breakthroughs, there, too. If you base drug development decisions on past successes only, you are likely to miss the paradigm-changing mechanism of action that might be out there.
Steven King told reporters: "I don't like him, I don't respect his books because every one is the same," accusing the thriller writer of being formulaic.May 31, 2024
What is it when the electorate demands a sequel of the least successful performance in a drama, which is such a failure that it is mistaken for a black comedy?
We were original adopters of the old Netflix formula of DVD rentals of real films, and rejoiced seeing those red envelopes appear in our mailboxes. Fast-forward many years, and we've long ago cancelled our NFLX sub, as it's now about mediocre quantity rather than artistic quality...I mean, thousands of titles, mostly rubbish, and adverts — the bloody ADVERTS! — polluting even the few watchable titles.
And all the streamers are moving in the same direction, where AI slop soon will be indistinguishable from current production values, and here we are, not just dumbing down but rather perverting artistic intent for ad revenue, i.e., eyeballs. At least it has moved us to rediscover the printed word in books and novels, so there's that.
Ever read Jane Jacobs, "Dark Age Ahead," 2004. She begins with, "This is both a gloomy and hopeful book,” and ends with "History has repeatedly demonstrated that empires seldom seem to retain sufficient cultural self-awareness to prevent them from over-reaching and over -grasping. They have failed to recognize that the true power of a successful culture resides in its example..."
I strongly second your recommendation of "Dark Age Ahead".
Speaking of empires, and declines, and telltale signs:
"...transmitted with blind deference from one generation of disciples to another, precluded every generous attemp to exercise the powers, or enlarge the limits, olf the human mind.The beauties of the poets and orators, instead of kindling a fire like their own, inspired only cold and servile imitations..."
- Gibbon, "Decline and Fall..." from Book 1, around p. 75 ( "The Turn of the Tide") from a section captioned 'prosperity begins to breed decay'....hmmm.
Aha! The Agatha Christie connection is what attracts me to your writing. I spent my youth consuming every title I could find in our local public and high school libraries.
Creative industries follow a power law distribution eg few % books take a disproportionate amount of the money & a large % of books only sell a few thousand copies presumably below breakeven. So the publishers try to smooth out the profit distribution by trying to strike more winners even if mediocre (vs loads of flops and a rocket that makes all the money).
Am thinking whether the 2 principles that you highlight often (1. don’t blow up & 2. experiment) are in conflict here. Absent endless funding, there is a limit to how much money you can experiment with before you blow up.
Ideally, we would have a world in which both avenues are pursued - the “junk food” books to make money & the “this is weird but fun&interesting” books to chase the rocket. Perhaps it’s difficult to put the right incentives in place to make this happen. Different type of creativity needed for each avenue, internal friction as junk subsidises weird etc
He looks it that only 4 of the top 25 Spotify artists are under 30, contrasting then with the Beatles and the stones.
A couple of weeks ago I was walking through a store somewhere and came across a "New Vinyl" section. "Cool!" went my lizard brain and I trotted over to look. And right in the middle of the first rack was Tubular Bells.
thanks for this, brian. i've been saying the same things for years. in an earlier essay of yours, you talked about this dumbing-down in mainstream entertainment/culture when you described how netflix et al are producing movies and series that don't have actors showing what they are feeling, but telling us. and the worn out genres have me searching high and low for anything different and new. thanks the recommendation for brian and charles. as an aside, a friend of mine is a shakespearean actor. when i asked if he liked the upstart crow comedy, he said he cannot bear to watch it. i told him it's his loss. gemma whelanthe, the actress who plays the young chambermaid is excellent. i think she went on to lead in the bbc series, the tower. david mitchell is so good. surefire mediocrity all around us. we look for engaging entertainment. keep going. ur fan, j.
“Creativity is the pinnacle of humanity; it’s what separates us most from other species. The endless cultural engine we have firing constantly in our heads is perhaps the most astonishing outgrowth of evolutionary biology. So why are we suppressing it? The answer, as is so often the case, has to do with profits.”
One of my favorite riffs is “two cheers for uncertainty.“ WHAT? If we just knew everything (e.g., via “data analytics”), there would be no point in living. It’d all be “history.”
"like the Goth kid in 1990s high schools who hoped to show that they were different. They did so by buying all their clothes, like all the other countercultural Goths, from a corporate chain called Hot Topic. "
This reminded me of the old, but still relevant, article on the 'You Are Not So Smart' website:
Thanks, Brian. This sentence in your essay stood out for me: “Human creativity, by contrast, thrives on disorder, experimentation, innovation—not a script based on what sold well in the past.” When people from different backgrounds or different cultures or different economic strata are brought together with open, curious minds innovation happens. They mash things up, push forward often changing directions and learning from their our mistakes. Machines (computers/phones/etc.) should be used to support the creative effort not replace it.
Hi all, here in Australia we have just had an election for the federal govt, The born to rule liberal party(Right wing) needed to pick up bout 12 to 15 seats to take back government with minor party support or 20 seats to govern in its own right.
It got thumped losing somewhere between 10 and 15 seats (counting continues) its leader aped the Canadian result by losing his seat, the first time in Australian history an opposition leader has lost his own seat.
It's blaming Trumps tariffs, the governing Labour Parties lies, hate media that didn't support them, This ignores the fact our biggest news organisation is Murdoch,
Anyway I was chatting with a neighbour Sunday morning after the Saturday election and he said he couldn't recall a first term government picking up seats at it first re-election campaign and I borrowed Brians thoughts before I read them, I said to the neighbour "If we accept that parliament is a place of excellence and big ideas the liberal party had gone on an extensive search for mediocrity and kept finding it"
I think many are using entertainment as a narcotic, wanting to be soothed, comforted, pacified. I don’t think the statistical analysis is wrong, since people are rewarding it with their time and money. Hollywood began its heyday during the Depression. Life was mean and dreary but for pennies you could spend a couple hours watching beautiful people swanning around in furs and jewels. Some of the films made at the time were trailblazing but mostly it was formulaic and intended to make audiences laugh and feel good about themselves.
I don’t know that there has ever been a large market for innovative and challenging art, but I’d love to be wrong.
Thanks for the recommendation for Brian and Charles; it’s now in my queue.
After "Detectorists", I've learned to take your movie suggestions very seriously. Brian and Charles is on the list.
We don’t want algorithmic optimization in cancer research, either. I used to work in drug development. You want breakthroughs, there, too. If you base drug development decisions on past successes only, you are likely to miss the paradigm-changing mechanism of action that might be out there.
Thanks.
Case in point: James Patterson.
Steven King told reporters: "I don't like him, I don't respect his books because every one is the same," accusing the thriller writer of being formulaic.May 31, 2024
What is it when the electorate demands a sequel of the least successful performance in a drama, which is such a failure that it is mistaken for a black comedy?
We were original adopters of the old Netflix formula of DVD rentals of real films, and rejoiced seeing those red envelopes appear in our mailboxes. Fast-forward many years, and we've long ago cancelled our NFLX sub, as it's now about mediocre quantity rather than artistic quality...I mean, thousands of titles, mostly rubbish, and adverts — the bloody ADVERTS! — polluting even the few watchable titles.
And all the streamers are moving in the same direction, where AI slop soon will be indistinguishable from current production values, and here we are, not just dumbing down but rather perverting artistic intent for ad revenue, i.e., eyeballs. At least it has moved us to rediscover the printed word in books and novels, so there's that.
Ever read Jane Jacobs, "Dark Age Ahead," 2004. She begins with, "This is both a gloomy and hopeful book,” and ends with "History has repeatedly demonstrated that empires seldom seem to retain sufficient cultural self-awareness to prevent them from over-reaching and over -grasping. They have failed to recognize that the true power of a successful culture resides in its example..."
I strongly second your recommendation of "Dark Age Ahead".
Speaking of empires, and declines, and telltale signs:
"...transmitted with blind deference from one generation of disciples to another, precluded every generous attemp to exercise the powers, or enlarge the limits, olf the human mind.The beauties of the poets and orators, instead of kindling a fire like their own, inspired only cold and servile imitations..."
- Gibbon, "Decline and Fall..." from Book 1, around p. 75 ( "The Turn of the Tide") from a section captioned 'prosperity begins to breed decay'....hmmm.
Aha! The Agatha Christie connection is what attracts me to your writing. I spent my youth consuming every title I could find in our local public and high school libraries.
Creative industries follow a power law distribution eg few % books take a disproportionate amount of the money & a large % of books only sell a few thousand copies presumably below breakeven. So the publishers try to smooth out the profit distribution by trying to strike more winners even if mediocre (vs loads of flops and a rocket that makes all the money).
Am thinking whether the 2 principles that you highlight often (1. don’t blow up & 2. experiment) are in conflict here. Absent endless funding, there is a limit to how much money you can experiment with before you blow up.
Ideally, we would have a world in which both avenues are pursued - the “junk food” books to make money & the “this is weird but fun&interesting” books to chase the rocket. Perhaps it’s difficult to put the right incentives in place to make this happen. Different type of creativity needed for each avenue, internal friction as junk subsidises weird etc
I recently watched a video by Rick brato on the same effect in popular music. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/CgnpNLk59PY?si=r5OX0bzeYXlnyAcc
He looks it that only 4 of the top 25 Spotify artists are under 30, contrasting then with the Beatles and the stones.
A couple of weeks ago I was walking through a store somewhere and came across a "New Vinyl" section. "Cool!" went my lizard brain and I trotted over to look. And right in the middle of the first rack was Tubular Bells.
thanks for this, brian. i've been saying the same things for years. in an earlier essay of yours, you talked about this dumbing-down in mainstream entertainment/culture when you described how netflix et al are producing movies and series that don't have actors showing what they are feeling, but telling us. and the worn out genres have me searching high and low for anything different and new. thanks the recommendation for brian and charles. as an aside, a friend of mine is a shakespearean actor. when i asked if he liked the upstart crow comedy, he said he cannot bear to watch it. i told him it's his loss. gemma whelanthe, the actress who plays the young chambermaid is excellent. i think she went on to lead in the bbc series, the tower. david mitchell is so good. surefire mediocrity all around us. we look for engaging entertainment. keep going. ur fan, j.
“Creativity is the pinnacle of humanity; it’s what separates us most from other species. The endless cultural engine we have firing constantly in our heads is perhaps the most astonishing outgrowth of evolutionary biology. So why are we suppressing it? The answer, as is so often the case, has to do with profits.”
One of my favorite riffs is “two cheers for uncertainty.“ WHAT? If we just knew everything (e.g., via “data analytics”), there would be no point in living. It’d all be “history.”
You never disappoint.
"like the Goth kid in 1990s high schools who hoped to show that they were different. They did so by buying all their clothes, like all the other countercultural Goths, from a corporate chain called Hot Topic. "
This reminded me of the old, but still relevant, article on the 'You Are Not So Smart' website:
https://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/04/12/selling-out/