In the land of fairytales

in #thoughts5 years ago

I am first and foremost, a content producer on Steem and while this may not always be the case, this is where I currently enjoy myself the most. I know that a lot of people are pretty negative on the amount of internal Steem facing content that gets produced, but at least for me, this is where I like spending my mental energy, as well as my creative energies.

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be very intelligent, read them more fairy tales.
Einstein

I am far from intelligent and I am extremely poorly read, but what I do generally excel at is when given some variables to work from, imagining where they could lead from there. This isn't necessarily about accuracy of prediction, just the ability to extrapolate information outward along various paths. With limited artistic craft, this is still an artistic pursuit.

The reason Einstein recommended fairytales is because it builds imagination, however he did say read fairytales, not watch fairytales. This is a very important distinction because while one guides the mind to create a fantasy world, the other feeds the mind and keeps it passive. More detail on that can be for another post, or a repost perhaps as I think I have one along those lines.

What I find though is these days people are decreasingly good at imagining what the future might look like, the same skill that is required to build a world upon a fairytale frame. The difference between fairytale and reality is that instead of components of a fairytale to build from, we have information available in our present that has an often traceable history. Using these blocks with their individual histories in combination can point to potential outcomes for the future.

This is experience talking.

 
Literally.

Experience is having the history with various subjects and events and understanding how they have moved and progressed over time and, where they could lead in the future. However, never confuse age as experience (especially these days) because so many people have lived sheltered lives that time passed for one is not equivalent to that of another due to the fullness or emptiness of life content.

But, I digress.

 
Or is it regress? Whichever it is doesn't really matter because while I write I am able to process my thoughts and each word created influences the next and, inspire many more. The more I write, the more I can write and the more I explore, the more I discover and the cycle goes on and on. But, this isn't for everyone.

A lot of people on Steem feel that Steem has failed because it hasn't inspired content creators to create yet, I quite strongly disagree because if one is actually creative, the framework is not required at all, just a few building blocks. This is akin to a painter only needing the primary colors and a black and white paint to darken and tint to mix the world of all colors. Or how the same notes can be used to build a classical or a jazz piece of music and everything in between.

Jazz music isn't for everyone and for many, they dislike the seemingly unstructured mess and cacophony of sound that assaults their ears. While someone else listens and hears the subtlety, the nuance and the combination of notes that blend into - a fairy tale.

Once upon a time before MTV, lyrics were not the story teller in the music, it was the music itself that would create the mood and inspire the imagination to create. I think Vivaldi's Four Seasons is a good representation of how a story is weaved through music alone. I think that these days there is far too much targeted content for ease of passive consumption and fast thinking.

Besides it being in my nature, I can actually control my presented thoughts when needed but generally choose not to as I would rather freestyle think and present a piece of art where the audience gets to discover what is important to them, not be told what to look at. A joke that requires explaining is no longer funny, a painting that is obvious loses its depth and a person who is predictable loses their mystery.

I am predictable.

 
People know what I am going to write about most of the time however, how I write about it and the examples I use hopefully are varied enough that a reader can extract value from it, even if they are well aware of the subject matter themselves. I hope that there is enough ambiguity that people have to use their imaginations to close some gaps and use the block given in combination with what they already hold to predict the future. This is not common in a world of fast-food content and how-to lists.

But why would I be common?

 
Think about the movies you enjoy the most, the ones that stick with you - are they the ones where you can predict the ending, or the ones with a twist? Even the stories you know well can bring surprises in the retelling as the presentation breaks expectation, creates cognitive dissonance between what one "knows" and what could be known.

There are a lot of smart people in the world yet, how stupid must we all be to not be able to imagine a world that actually works and then, build it. This is the problem with a lack of imagination and the reason history keeps repeating as instead of rearranging the building blocks of the known to create a new form of music, we rebuild what we have seen before, lived before, despised before.

But it is familiar.

 
You might know it all, you might have explored every path and have all the answers yet - if you aren't having fun how creative are you? What I find is that the people who get bored in this life are the consumers because they are unable to imagine different than what is fed them or to create amusement for themselves, so they have to rely on others to be entertained.

Consumption is necessary. It is food, it is energy.

 
And like energy, if you aren't using it actively, it will dissipate passively. If you aren't inspired to think, act and create after finishing what you consume, you have likely lost your imagination.

Go find it.

 
This is Steem, there are plenty of places to look as this is the land of magical money, potential treasures, undiscovered innovations, digital wildlands and thousands of characters each with their own history and story to tell.

It is a land of fairytales - and some of them may just come true.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

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Think about the movies you enjoy the most, the ones that stick with you - are they the ones where you can predict the ending, or the ones with a twist?

I hope that there is enough ambiguity that people have to use their imaginations to close some gaps and use the block given in combination with what they already hold to predict the future.

That was good!!!

But, That is a terribly structured last sentence :D

Do you mean this? -->

lol no, the movie and the bottom quote was missing all kinds of punctuation.

Hello @tarazkp, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!

Thank you very much :)

This is Steem, there are plenty of places to look as this is the land of magical money, potential treasures, undiscovered innovations, digital wildlands and thousands of characters each with their own history and story to tell.

So much truth here. As I'm reading about Vivaldi's Four Seasons I'm listening to Metallica's, Unforgiven 1-3.
Each is one story retold from multiple perspectives.

I have never been much of a Metallica fan other than what got airtime, but isn't it funny how great albums have a flow and create an experience, and others are just songs one after the next?

These three were on separate albums, decades between them.

I sometimes wonder if in a decade from now I will go back and rewrite some of my posts or, update my thoughts about the topics. I think it would be interesting to have a collection of thoughts recorded and their progression over time.

Your blog is perfect
To start my day, continue
And even end it.

Your blog is perfect
To start my day, continue
And even end it.

                 - organduo


I'm a bot. I detect haiku.

The fact I am able to express my thoughts demonstrates how my time here has added value to me a personal development effort even if it doesn't result in higher prices. The reality is that enjoying and learning is part of the value equation!

Do you think that writing about your investments has helped you clarify your approach to investing?

however he did say read fairytales, not watch fairytales. This is a very important distinction because while one guides the mind to create a fantasy world, the other feeds the mind and keeps it passive.

I prefer visual storytelling to text storytelling and animated at that (not sure if there is some irony there as I communicate a metric boatload better in text than in person XD) so I think I'm supposed to be feeling attacked right now? XD

A lot of people on Steem feel that Steem has failed because it hasn't inspired content creators to create yet

Really? o_O

I can't even

are they the ones where you can predict the ending, or the ones with a twist?

I love Pokemon (so much so I jumped at the chance to do the "field test" for Pokemon Go before it was released, and I'm still playing to some value of playing). But I only played three of the main games before I got bored because it's the exact same formula every single time with little to no deviation. I don't actually know if anything has changed since because I haven't picked up any of the more recent versions. Yet they're still incredibly popular. And I keep getting told by more avid Pokemon fans that each game is "completely different" because the stories and cultures in each region is "completely different". I guess my detail obsession only applies to things I do XD

And maybe also why history repeats.

so I think I'm supposed to be feeling attacked right now? XD

But you create visual stories, not just consume them. This also means that when you do consume them you are actively taking in elements with a trained eye that most would miss. A musician listens to a song differently than a person who cannot play music.

But yes, this was a personal attack directed specifically at you :D

But I only played three of the main games before I got bored because it's the exact same formula every single time with little to no deviation

I used to watch a lot of shows and then, a lot more when @smallsteps was a baby and sick all night. I was getting frustrated as I was able to pick extras out of the background from different shows, and the story lines were all slight variations on each other.

Glad I found Steem and began creating again.

I KNEW IT.

And I'm making them...FOR PEOPLE TO MINDLESSLY CONSUME WAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAA [dramatic anime villain pose]

Actually I hope it will be interesting enough for people to at least look at never mind overanalyse and assume that I wove in deep philosophical things I wasn't even aware of at the time - I remember hearing stories about some author who liked to occasionally attend lectures about their work without letting anyone know they were there and listen to what all these academics interpreted XD

You hadn't quite discovered your love/proficiency at writing when small was really small? Or was she that sick that it needed more attention than cuddling upright/pacing the house like lions in tiny cages all night D:

one of my favorite quotes: "Fairy tails do not show children that dragons exist, they show them that dragons can be defeated." I am paraphrasing this from memory so the exact words might differ.

Maybe we could just as well say "Steem doesn't show us that bad content/spam exist, it's shows us that bad content/spam can be defeated."

Perhaps it doesn't need defeating as much as ignoring by bringing good content up. A few require a good beating however :)

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