Art isn’t just about nice moments, drama, and dopamine hits; that’s the entertainment industry. An artist’s job, really, is to help us see. To become conscious of what we’re rushing past, and that which is getting lost in the tide of mindless living. To be an antidote to autopilot. The Thoughts of Others “It’s always time to question what has become standard and established.” – David Bowie

Whoever they are, it’s in their interests for most new artists to tap out. It means they can monetise the hope in the short term, but don’t have to change their own behaviours and systems too frequently in the long run. Like most important change, good art is more likely when an artist is both persistent and realistic about time horizons. ‘It’s got to happen now’ is just a quick way to hand over power and money to those who intend to be in it for the long run. Not too dissimilar to trying to ‘day trade’ financial markets –… Read more: Tapping Out

Insecurities feed on a steady diet of reassurance. The Thoughts of Others “Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.” – Doris Lessing

In Ray Davies’s Americana autobiography, he relays the story of a woman who wanted to join him on the road to see how he ‘does it’ – ‘it’ mainly relating to his writing of songs. In an attempt to discourage, he had to explain how boring that would be for her in reality. It’s likely that what we call genius is the result of those who turned up so frequently and obsessively in a specific area – and who were willing to fail so many times that outlier results eventually emerged. If that’s a fair characterisation, genius is likely pretty… Read more: Living Like a Genius

We’re in a culture that has conditioned us to steal attention. One of our fundamental responsibilities as artists is to avoid the bear trap. Easier said than done. Last weekend I shared my blog on my Instagram and Facebook accounts for the very first time since I started it a year and half ago. Of course, it didn’t translate into a single new subscriber. In a similar vein, I heard a story the other day – and it’s not an anomaly – of a person whose reel went viral, amassing 8 million views. How many followers did it translate to?… Read more: On Having Been Conditioned

On a creative front, there are few things more debilitating than the notion of a ‘perfect launch’. Resisting the idea that everything must be flawless from the get-go not only allows us to get out of heads, but it gives us permission to evolve. Here are three examples of some successful things that weren’t perfect on ‘day one’… David Bowie – www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SQdBxVjZx4 iPhone – wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_(1st_generation) The Office – youtu.be/K6RFwnujWdc?feature=shared&t=90 Perhaps the modern world has forged a stifling sense of personal omnipresence. If every action feels documented and permanent, maybe we’re less willing to iterate in public and in real time. But, creatively at least, we need… Read more: No Perfect Launch

Harry Belafonte said, “It is the artists who reveal a society to itself.” The problem is, the more we’re focused on ourselves and our own PR – whether that be in the form of social media posts or simply second guessing how our work will be received – the less likely an artist is to conduct Belafonte’s mission effectively. This also relates to the Vivienne Westwood quote I shared on the blog last year: “Art should not be popular. During the 20th century, artists and intellectuals abdicated their responsibility. Their responsibility is to the truth of things. See the world… Read more: The Popularity Seeking Complex

How many of the activities that we indulge, as well as paths we pursue, are driven by what we find ourselves nostalgic for? If we don’t guard against the seductions of nostalgia, we risk letting our decisions get directed by a desire to re-create feelings that were the product of a unique and non-repeatable experience. One doesn’t necessarily create future nostalgia by tugging at the roots of a present nostalgia. The Thoughts of Others “What we learn from the past is to maximise the qualities of our future memories, not necessarily of our future experience.” – Daniel Kahneman

Conciseness requires effort. Effort up front to filter out the extraneous. To separate signal from noise. If done well, it may become as much a service to others as it is a benefit to oneself. Every word beyond the core information increases the chances that we’ll be misunderstood. It also increases the amount of cognitive effort required by the listener to make sense of us. Rambling is often the sound of someone trying to figure something out in real time. Sometimes, we need the freedom to ramble – much like journaling or free-writing, it might help us refine our thinking.… Read more: In Pursuit of Conciseness

Pacing implies control, and it applies to more than running or racing. Perhaps not quite its opposite, but certainly an ugly relative, is rushing. Rushing implies a lack of control. Being at the mercy of the environment, so that we see the world with less clarity and expose ourselves to risk. When we’re rushing, even benevolent forces start to feel like they’re against us and adding friction to our experience. After all, unless they’re an arsehole, no one who is well-paced would feel compelled to jump a traffic light or berate an old person who is taking a while to… Read more: The Art of Pacing

The day John Lennon sat down to write Strawberry Fields Forever, there’s a very high chance he didn’t expect to write what would be considered one of the best songs of all time, even if his ambition was to be regarded as one of the best songwriters of all time. He was just writing a song, again. Whatever the domain, if we need the grand vision to manifest in the short-term, we’re simply raising the odds that we’ll end up demoralised and exit the pool. Worse, we’re depriving ourselves of a chance to evolve. After all, the bad songs that… Read more: Trudging Towards Strawberry Fields

People and systems put us in boxes. Too often it’s convenient and in their interests, making their lives easier and allowing systems to operate with less friction. After all, it’s cognitively tiring to re-evaluate people and our own biased judgements time and time again.  But people are complex, diverse, and transcend the simplistic categorisations we gravitate towards using for them.  Boxes can undoubtedly be useful, but if you notice pressures to neatly define and categorise elements of your life, at least ask who is actually being served by it before you get in and let them tape it shut.  What’s… Read more: Who’s in the Box?

It’s easy to have strong opinions and loose principles, but the aim is to achieve the opposite.  The Thoughts of Others “I don’t have to believe everything I think. I don’t have to internalise every emotion I feel. When I start to form an opinion, that’s just a hypothesis. Let me go out into the world, run some experiments, observe, talk to people and test the hypothesis. I should then be surrounding myself with people who don’t just agree with my conclusions, but actually challenge my thought process. The goal of that is to break us free of overconfident cycles, where… Read more: Aphorism 29

No contradictions. What an absurd expectation to place upon a person or oneself. The desire to show up in the world free of contradiction can be paralysing, and it shelters us from mistakes and failures that may enlighten.  It’s up to an artist to take stances, and then, if we’re open-minded enough, people and experiences will provide us with the feedback to help iron out contradictions across time. But shedding contradictions is a journey, not a state of being. The Thoughts of Others “Ask questions. Stay curious. It’s much more important to stay interested than to be interesting.” – Jane… Read more: No Contradictions

Hoarding strikes me as being related to indecisiveness. Or, the very least, it’s tied up with an unwillingness and, in some cases, a chronic inability to decide.  To avoid deciding now, I’ll take all I can and decide later. But, of course, it’s the negative side effects that make what seems like a good idea in the moment so pernicious. For one; an impingement on space, both physically and mentally – a sense that the walls are continually closing in due to an endless multiplication of assets.  In some respects, this is where our culture has landed. Content, information, and… Read more: Hoarding Culture

For a lot of artists when we start out, the gravitational pull is often getting better at the craft itself. We work to write a better class of song, draw a better painting, tell a more compelling story, and take a photograph that has emotional resonance  But as we take our work to the world and seek an audience, we suddenly come into contact with a range of systems, each of which has its own gravitational centre that attempts to drag us in and abide by its rules.  Social media, press, the gig industry; to name a few.  These are… Read more: Pulled into the Wrong Orbit

I wrote the following last year but forgot to post it at the time. Having stumbled across it the other day, I realised that it was still relevant to me – a helpful reminder, actually – and, therefore, probably worth sharing. ———— Last week, as the sun emerged and big events descended on Cardiff, I found time to get out with my Nikon F for a decent stretch of time. The usual initial resistance was there. It’s funny, every time I set out with my camera in a familiar location, for the first couple of minutes I usually find myself… Read more: Leaning into Resistance

It’s easier than ever to collect information, but at what point do we decide to stop collecting and start to apply it in a meaningful way? The stream of self-help content, for example, will never run out, but that doesn’t necessarily make it helpful. Central to this problem is the art of decisiveness, which we can easily forget is a skill in and of itself. Wisdom is largely in knowing what to take on board and what to ignore; to be able to tell the difference between signal and noise. The very best artists are often doing a similar dance.… Read more: The Art of Deciding

The people who refuse to consume culture passively are the ones who drive it forward. Culture isn’t something we should let happen to us, we should direct it. The Thoughts of Others “You have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy. The best ideas have to win.” – Steve Jobs

It’s easy to focus on the fact that many creatives can find themselves stifled by a fear of putting their ideas into the world. Things like trying to perfect projects for too long and sitting on ideas without ever taking the plunge are a few that I’ve succumbed to from time to time. But there’s a similar dynamic that affects the consumer: a hesitancy in sharing that which one enjoys or admires for fear they will be judged for their tastes. If we want our ideas to spread, we have to find a way to connect them with the people… Read more: Fearless Fans

A sense of scarcity narrows our focus and compels us to act with unusual intentionality. Take a simple example: you’re driving along and suddenly notice that you’re hitting red on your petrol gauge. In fact, you’ve been particularly lax and it’s worse; you’re right at the bottom of the lower bound of the petrol gauge. If you’re lucky, you figure you have two or three miles before the car leaves you hanging. Suddenly, you’re more conscious of what gear you’re in, how fast you’re driving, and you’re weighing up possible routes to the nearest petrol station at the same time.… Read more: Leveraging Scarcity

To deepen relationships, solve problems and engage in challenging tasks together. To weaken relationships, focus on the trivial.  The Thoughts of Others “Greatness and near-sightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one’s sights and pushing towards the horizon.” – Daniel Pink

It’s common advice to ‘just be yourself’. And yet, the fact it’s commonly peddled as advice implies that’s it’s not easy to pull off. But maybe it’s too easy to pull off… Isn’t ‘yourself’ simply the most frequent version of you that shows up in the world? More likely, we’re being ourselves all the time, and the hard part is actually becoming the version of ourselves that we imagine ourselves to be. The yourself who stands for something against the crowd. The yourself who writes every day. The yourself who hits the gym regularly. The yourself who doesn’t get arsey… Read more: On Not Being Yourself

People are more interested in your art when it makes them feel important. The Thoughts of Others “If you just try to make good things, you’ll inevitably do it in a distinctive way. Michelangelo was not trying to paint like Michelangelo. He was just trying to paint well; he couldn’t help painting like Michelangelo.” – Paul Graham

Doubt has negative connotations, but what would we be without it? At the very least, it is a sign that we are not inert. It goes hand in hand with adventure. As far as I can tell, those who try to exorcise all doubt are the ones who end up stranded.  Which made me wonder; could an AI truly doubt?  Perhaps, to embrace doubt is to be truly alive.  The Thoughts of Others “Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.” – Richard Feynman

I recently started making a running list of lessons derived from my six year and counting flirtation with photography. Lessons which I feel also translate to other domains and areas of life. After all, when one is out and about photographing, is it that different to hunter-gatherer behaviour? The Thoughts of Others “To get unusual results, work fast and work cheap, because there’s more of a chance that you’ll get somewhere that nobody else did. Nearly always, the effect of spending a lot of money is to make things more normal.” – Brian Eno

The deluge of information available in today’s world not only tempts us to seek perfection, but makes it seem achievable, to the point that one can easily end up in a limbo of seeking. But progress is rarely about being perfect. It’s got more to do with having the courage to adopt an imperfect stance, and giving that stance a reasonable amount of time to either break or evolve into something meaningful. The Thoughts of Others “He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.” Jean-Luc Godard

Largely unknown artists often forsake the benefits & leverage that come with being small. Agility. Optionality. Less accountability to power. It’s easy to waste these edges by trying to mould ourselves to the demands and standards of industry – the world of scale and other people’s rules. We dream of elephants, seduced by the notion that size and visibility is what matters most. I guess we’ve been trained by an industrialised world to look up to scale. To admire it. To desire it. To chase it. Too often, it feels like the goal. But we forget that with size comes… Read more: Dreaming of Elephants

It’s not a true bond until you’ve fallen out with the person in an unfamiliar city. The Thoughts of Others “The best leaders have a strong component of unorthodoxy in their characters. Instead of resisting innovation, they symbolise it.” – David Ogilvy

I noticed an absurdity in my behaviour. In seeking to block off a perfect three hours a day with the sole purpose of writing songs, I’d end up writing less frequently than if I just committed to a relatively easy half an hour a day. This is the fundamental problem with an ‘all or nothing approach’; it skews heavily towards the ‘nothing’. Largely by nature of the fact it requires so much time, willpower, organisational discipline, and doesn’t allow much scope for the inevitable volatilities of life (which, of course, are cruelly conspiring against all artists). Undoubtedly, it feels good… Read more: ‘All or Nothing’ is Usually ‘Nothing’

What have I missed all those times I chose not to venture out and take photographs? What once in a lifetime scene did I fail to document and freeze in time? The same goes for writing – every day I don’t write, what have I forgone? It’s obvious but easy to forget that so much of the creative process hinges on simply exposing oneself to serendipity and not getting disheartened when it doesn’t fall in our favour. Craft gives us the means to straddle it when it does. Give yourself more chances to get lucky. The Thoughts of Others “Iron… Read more: Chasing Serendipity

Complexity can save us from getting bored, but the basics can save us from getting nowhere. The Thoughts of Others “Art is in what you leave out.” – Kevin Kelly

The problem is rarely too little information. Rather, it’s having too much information and no idea what to do with it. The Thoughts of Others “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

It’s easy to forget how arbitrary many of the standards and expectations we measure ourselves against actually are. So many of them were put in place for other people’s reasons, in different contexts to our own, and for purposes that are no longer relevant or sufficient. But path dependency takes over, and before we know it, we’re measuring ourselves against standards we had no say in. Standards we inherited. Standards that aren’t our own. And, of course, it’s usually easier to keep going than to find a new way and create one’s own standards. The path of least resistance seduces… Read more: Whose Standards?

I come to you this Thursday with my first aphorism of 2025, and news that the second Red Telephone album, ‘Delay the New Day’, hits digital shelves from midnight. To violently wean you onto it, here’s a surrealist music video that we filmed for the song ‘Faithful’. Fighting, masks, religiosity, dancing. The human experience in under five minutes. A pretentious observer might call it Kafkaesque, and that’s absolutely fine by me. Aphorism 22 “Culture isn’t some abstract force that we should just let happen to us, but something we should purposefully direct through a mix of resistance and bold contributions.”… Read more: Aphorism 22 & ‘Delay the New Day’

No, I haven’t had an in-person altercation with the great boxer Mike Tyson. But I did see a video of him telling a young interviewer that he doesn’t care about legacy, because, in his view, legacy is all about ego. I don’t know why I carried this with me for any longer than the 20 seconds it took me to watch the Instagram reel, but later in the day, I found myself disagreeing with his sentiment. Being conscious of legacy doesn’t have to be all about ego. And not caring about legacy can just as easily be egotistical. It’s selfish… Read more: Disagreeing With Mike Tyson

More often than we care to acknowledge we might not be facing a tangible barrier, but an unwillingness to engage with an uncomfortable situation. And while it’s almost automatic to think of discomfort in the negative, it’s also often a natural companion of progress and growth. The Thoughts of Others Today’s ‘thoughts of others’ are from David Lynch, seeing as he just passed away and undoubtedly had a big influence on my creative attraction to the absurd and surreal. If anyone can really be called a ‘true artist’ – which for me constitutes a bold, brave, and persistent commitment to… Read more: Embracing Discomfort

Stop trying to be a genius and start being a writer. A writer writes, just as a runner runs. Just as a child builds sandcastles and Lego structures in ignorance of Gaudí. Create without pretence. Without expectation. Without lofty desires. With an indifference to results. And if you’re lucky, some genius may emerge. The Thoughts of Others

As it’s the first non-fiction post of 2025, I thought I’d begin the year with a collection of quotes and aphorisms I picked up over the course of 2024; things I intend to keep top of mind when venturing through the year ahead. As I see it, a good quote is something like a compass. Little gems that condense the vast and complex terrain of big ideas into miniature maps. After all, the biggest challenge isn’t always dealing with the relentless minutiae of the day-to-day, but making sure each decision keeps us moving in the right direction. Hopefully some of… Read more: Compasses for 2025

The very best artists don’t just entertain and bring pleasure with their work, they also embolden people. They fire up a creative spirit in others. They inspire people to speak in a less homogenised voice. They lead people by showing it’s possible to step outside their cautious selves and reach into the ether. A great artist is a risk taker. They step out from the herd so that others feel less scared doing so. The Thoughts of Others “Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.” – Haruki Murakami

It’s a rare thing that you get to meet a person who is both master of their craft and an influence on you, let alone spend three hours sitting in their kitchen having a chinwag over (excellent) coffee. The 3rd of December was one of those rare occasions, when I went to visit the legendary Welsh photographer David Hurn at his cottage. As much as I admire David’s photography, it was his manner and perspective in a few interviews I’d recently watched, as well as his micro-essays on Instagram, which left me especially interested in him as a person. My friend… Read more: Coffee With David Hurn

If you don’t want to look at the numbers, they’re probably telling you something. If you do want to look at the numbers, they’re probably misleading you.

When we find ourselves rushing out the front door and we ask someone close to us what they think of what we’re wearing, are we asking for their reassurance or their contribution? The same question applies to art and projects. The preceding hours before we’re set to release something doesn’t allow much scope for the making of improvements. So, if we suddenly start asking people around us what they think of it, perhaps what we’re really after is reassurance, rather than a genuine contribution in service of improvement. It’s worth knowing the difference, so that we can gauge if it’s… Read more: Reassurance or Contribution?

We’re so used to convenience that we mistake it for inconvenience.

In many ways, it’s choosing to take a stance in and of itself that is what matters most. That’s where the power is. Standing for something and being willing to put your neck on the line in the form of some clearly stated principles and backing them with action. After all, whatever your stance and whatever your manifesto, it’s always going to appeal to some and turn others off in varying degrees. It’s easy to talk yourself out of standing for something; worrying that what you say or do will be found to have holes in it. We can sit… Read more: Imperfect Stances

It’s difficult to be corrupted if you’re not keeping score.

Age brings many things, good and bad, but one of its worst aspects might be a decline of an experimental spirit. Biological factors aside, I suspect that one of reasons adults develop skills at a slower rate than children is because children have less resistance to experimentation and play – behaviours that deliver fast feedback and, in turn, the opportunity to iterate rapidly. Adults, on the other hand, gravitate towards thinking and introspection, which delivers limited actionable feedback from the real world. Adults get trapped in thought, and you can’t think your way into riding a bike. A child innocently… Read more: The Dying Experimenter

To predict the worst case scenario makes you a genius, to prepare for it makes you a nut.

Consistency is hard to compete with. Unless, of course, you’re consistent in the wrong direction. After all, a gambling addict is consistent, and it consistently leads them into the swamp. The same applies to discipline. Being highly disciplined can obviously be a huge competitive advantage, but only if it’s applied to the right things. As strength-trainer Pavel Tsatsouline warns, it’s dangerous to build fitness on poor form. The Thoughts of Others “No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back.” – Turkish proverb

The current project is often the safest place to be. Someone asks you, what are you up to? You point to the current project. Problem is, after a certain point, the current project lets us off the hook. It coddles us, letting us delay the risky challenge of having to venture back into the void and create something new out of nothing. Hang on to the current project for too long – chipping away at details that don’t really move the needle – and it becomes a crutch; the creative equivalent of a diet heavy on refined-sugar. That is, lots… Read more: Current Project Addiction

More weaknesses are revealed through attempts to hide them than by weakness alone.

Plan for the sake of direction, but with an indifference to destination.

We notice posture. When it’s good, we look to posture. For right or wrong, we take cues from an assured posture. Ideas don’t necessarily have a posture, but how we carry them does. Brands have a posture. Movements have posture. How we wake up has a posture. How we order a Guinness has a posture. What we do with regularity is, in and of itself, a posture. And perhaps more importantly than anything else, how far someone is willing to travel with us depends on their perception of our posture. The Thoughts of Others

Presume that success yet to be tested by volatility rests on uncertain foundations.

The basics don’t just work well because they’re closely tied to the fundamentals. They work because going back to basics means, by extension, an absence of the complex. Complexity can be a place to learn, but it can also be a place of endlessly spawning, subtle temptations. It’s treacherous, because indulging complexity feels like hard work, giving off the illusion that we’re doing something important. Sometimes it is, but a lot of the time it’s a convenient place to get lost, distracted, and delay making the big moves. Of course, the better you become in a certain area, the more… Read more: Saved by the Basics

To slowly drown your spirit, seek to please a cynic.

It’s easy to forget that rationality is often relative; defined by the times and environments we find ourselves occupying. After all, there was a world not so long ago when it would have been irrational to travel towards the horizon for fear that you’d fall off the edge of it. So, if you want to do interesting things, being rational all the time might be overrated. Indulging a decent slab of irrationality though; that may be an invaluable tool for discovering the future. The Devil’s Advocate The Thoughts of Others

A lot of the time, we’re just getting the autopilot response. It happens in most areas of life, but it’s especially prevalent in the arts. After all, it’s a domain where people really, really want to know what ‘works’. How to get an agent? How to get streams? How many singles before an album? Social media ads? No social media ads? In a complex world of emotions and incomprehensible randomness, it shouldn’t be embarrassing to admit that some questions we face don’t have catch-all answers. But, sadly, it’s these type of advice-centric questions in the arts that really seem to… Read more: Autopilot Response

Most people who appear to ignore you never noticed you in the first place, and that’s the real tragedy.

Being judged is inevitable, so better to be judged for being bold rather than mild. The Devil’s Advocate The Thoughts of Others

We generally follow the path of least resistance because it spares us feelings of uncertainty and discomfort. But before blindly following it again, stop to think of all the great ideas, successes, pleasures and discoveries that await you lining the path of most resistance. Imagine all those things that you’re forgoing by remaining where it’s comfortable. The chances are, you won’t be able to imagine them all, and that’s as good a reason as any to venture off the beaten path. The Devil’s Advocate The Thoughts of Others

Getting the blog off the ground this year has undoubtedly been a positive challenge. Having to meet the self-imposed demands of its regularity prevents me from hiding behind a tempting pursuit of perfection and, perhaps more importantly, it’s got me writing way more prose and non-fiction than I would have otherwise. That doesn’t take away from the fact that the majority of my 2024 has been spent working on the next Red Telephone album. We started chipping away at it late last year, but two weeks before our recording sessions in March, we realised that we were a fair way… Read more: Self-Imposed Demands

A problem is an opportunity masquerading as inconvenience. The Devil’s Advocate The Thoughts of Others

I did promise that, along with fiction and non-fiction pieces, I would share news of projects from time to time. I am pleased to say that today is one of those occasions, as Docu Magazine have kindly chosen to publish a collection of my photos in a special edition of their mag. The issue is available to buy here: https://docu-magazine.com/vol-1/declan-andrews/ You can also delve into my photography further at https://declanandrews.co.uk/photography/ I’ve also decided (on a sun-induced whim) to add two features to Thursday’s non-fiction posts, which will accompany the main piece going forward. Firstly, say buongiorno to ‘The Devil’s Advocate’… Read more: Docu Magazine & New Blog Features

What’s the talking-to-action ratio when we’re working on a project? It’s fun and seductive to talk about what we’re working on. Talking often leans into the drama so, raising adrenaline above its base level, it can easily be passed off as work and progress. After a point though, the talking is mainly indulgence. I’m all for a good amount of indulgence but, when seeking to move the needle, it’s worth being honest with ourselves about what we’re actually up to. Are we talking because we can’t actually take action until we’ve had the chat? Or are we talking because it’s… Read more: Too Easy to Talk

Most mistakes come from either an impatience to act or an inability to act.

It takes motion for stars to align.

As far back as 1997 an IBM computer beat chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. He went on to say that, “Today, the chess app on your phone is stronger than me.” Yet, chess is a big market. The most famous player in the world as of 2024, Magnus Carlsen, has a net worth of around $50 million. The global chess market is currently estimated to be worth around $2191.51m. I’m tempted to derive that people don’t care very much that machines can do chess better than people. Or maybe, it’s that ‘better’ is simply subjective. If we’re using efficiency as the… Read more: Losing to Machines

Few things reveal character as quickly as a sudden and unexpected violation of convenience.

Little waves of criticism might knock an artist off balance, but it’s an ocean of indifference that drowns them.

Beware those who flaunt their moral compass, for they may delight in using it to ruin you.

A quote that jumped out at me in the TV series House of Cards: “Public opinion doesn’t have a law degree.” When we think about the cascade of information that circulates about ourselves as individuals, as well as the ensuing analysis of it, it’s tempting to believe that people who encounter it will – with at least some degree of effort – seek to discern the facts and extract a reasonable conclusion from them. Instead (and what I think the above quote succinctly captures), nearly all information that travels through the public domain does so emotionally. It gets passed from… Read more: The Public Opinion of You & Me

Before you speak remember to shut your mouth.

Some people worry that AI will make artists obsolete. After all, it can already generate songs and images and poems, among other things. I have doubts (or you may call them hopes). A large part of what makes great art so alluring, I believe, is that a flawed human, just like you and me, could come up with something so special. The infallibility of the creator matters as much as the art itself. My experience of John Lennon’s music is so much richer because across his life, navigating the chaos of the world, he was: a creative genius, a dick… Read more: AI vs Flawed Artist

To bond quickly with a person, discover who it is that you are both happy to disparage.

Don’t commit to things too freely when you’re having a great time. You will most likely have to fulfil them when you aren’t.

Genuine humility as a counter to the excesses of ego and hubris is undoubtedly a positive thing. But there’s a different type. Maybe a more pernicious one. Perhaps it’s not humility at all, but just appears like it. That is, fear masquerading as humility. Just as there can be excesses of ego, there can be excesses of humility – when you end up in a state of subtly undermining everything you do and not expressing yourself with any real conviction. It’s easy to excuse ourselves when we do this. After all, we’re just being humble; being the good guy. I… Read more: Humble or Scared?

The path where there is resistance is the path where there is discovery.

If you must be serious, have a sense of humour about it. ….. Umberto Eco said: “There is nothing more difficult to define than an aphorism.” I say Umberto was overthinking things; they’re pithy antidotes to rambling. If I could, I would only speak in aphorisms, but then I’d have no friends so I’ll keep them mainly to the blog and hope you’ll find some of them useful. At the very least, I believe they’re a good way to condense ideas and organise thoughts. I’m an optimist with a soft spot for pessimism so some may be cynical, but the… Read more: Aphorism 1

The only way for an album to grow on you is to keep returning to it – to give it time. This is exactly what my experience was with MGMT’s latest album. The thing is, I already trusted MGMT to not completely waste my time, so I gave the new album more of a chance than I would some unknown. In truth, most of what I whack on the speakers never even gets given the chance to grow on me. So, realising I usually only afford such patience and effort to artists I already like (up to a point), it’s… Read more: The Chance to Grow On Me

I knew I wanted to start a blog again after years of not having one. And I knew how to set one up. And, mostly, it all seemed pretty straightforward. But then, the thought of the first post caused me to postpone and delay… What should the first post be? Surely, it has to be special because it’s the first. Inevitably, delay. Eventually I got thinking, why does the first post have to be so good? Why the tendency to feel that the first time has to be so special? The first album, the debut novel, the first kiss, the… Read more: The Tyranny of the First Time