in my this cannot continue and yet it does era

this is advice I've given friends directly before and I've probably also posted it but I really like giving it so here it is potentially again: do not create something for an imaginary bad faith reader.

there will always be someone who finds fault in your work. there will be people who read the messages on it wrong. there will be people who will take every compelling aspect about your work off of it so they can put in their own.

you cannot make art for these people.

you will never write a story that is free from criticism. you will never draw a piece that everyone finds appealing. you will never compose a song that everyone enjoys hearing. you cannot, fundamentally, set out to create something and only think of how you can avoid someone not liking it.

because, and this is key, there will be someone who sees every angle of your story and feels its intent in their heart and gushes to their friends about it. you will draw someone's favorite art and they will make it their phone wallpaper because they want to see it every day. someone will fall in love with your song and loop it on their way to work because it gets them through the day. and THOSE are the people your work is for. THOSE are the people you have to care about, because they love what you make for what it is - because it's itself.

if you set out to create something and file off every sharp edge, prune every thorn, you will be left with something fragile and weak, and it will be fragile and weak for the sake of someone who does not exist but that you were scared of anyway.

sharing art is complex and tangled and powerful, and anything you care enough to create deserves to flourish as itself. get sillay.

it's true, and I'm glad an industry veteran with a large platform is saying it

The fact that I have to agree with David Gaider pains me to my very soul, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

woo

im a proud "ive never used chat gpt" user btw

i honestly dont think I've willingly used a chatbot since..... cleverbot in 2012. i genuinely dont know why so many people care about this ai bullshit. sorry im with the boomers on this one. i need human creation, emotion, and thought to be interested, pal

I was and am completely baffled by this trend and how many people are part of it.

as a huge lover of birds, 90% of the concern against wind turbines being used for energy is literally just pro fossil fuel propaganda. birds ARE at a risk however there is a lot of strategies even as simple as painting one of the blades that reduces a lot of accidental deaths. additionally renewable energy sources will do more in favor of the environment that would positively impact birds (and all of us). one study found over one million bird deaths from wind turbines. while that is a shockingly high number and we should work to drastically shrink it, at least 1.3 billion birds die to outdoor cats on a yearly basis. it was never about caring about birds

the only bad part about going to the zoo is hearing adult men confidently tell their kids or gfs objectively incorrect information about the animals we’re looking at and having to remain silent. do u know the restraint it takes to say nothing when a grown adult man tells someone “falcons are in the same family as eagles” next to me? no babygirl. no.

fyi falcons are not closely related to other birds of prey (hawks/eagles/buzzards). falcons are actually parrots that minmaxed for a glass cannon dps build.

assault parrots, if you will

Just looked up what time I was born and I'm so relieved that I can finally clear some things up! For those who have been asking, I'm an INTJ sun and an ENFP moon.

While I profoundly dislike astrology I can recognize that the vast majority of people who are into astrology are probably just having fun.

MBPI is a different story. If you're someone who is really into your Meyers Briggs type and are, like, assigning celebrities Meyers Briggs types you are exhibiting Behaviors (tm) that tell me you are at all times five seconds away from recommending that I watch a video on body language analysis.

Being really into MBPI types is like saying you think astrology is bullshit so you rely on scrying to get a feel for new people.

"I'm an INTJ so I'm suuuuuper unbiased and rational."

I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.

I had an employer that made us do those tests. Like they paid a company real money to analyze all of us and tell us what our strengths and weaknesses were.

I purposefully picked all the "wrong" answers to avoid getting the one I always get (INFP or whatever the 'mediator' is), and I wound up with the 'executive' (I don't recall the designator). The one that's good at administration and keeping everyone around them on task no matter what.

And despite having worked with me for five years and knowing I was an absolute chaos gremlin (thanks, undiagnosed ADHD) my supervisor was like, "Oh wow, yeah, you totally are. I see it now. We should reassign you."

Like Karen (her actual name), I just took the equivalent of a Buzzfeed personality test rooted in white supremacy and eugenics. For the love of god, do not restructure the company based on this. Just ask me my star sign and project your biases onto me like a normal person.

I hate the trend of just describing books with what minorities the main characters represent and nothing else. not only does it feel weird + exploitative to me it's also such a shoddy ineffective marketing technique. "this is my book with queer polyam disabled vampires you should buy it" ok great but what is it like. about. what are the themes. why should I read it

baby me, sorting m&ms by color and then into a gradient: now this is how you have fun!