To Whom it May Inspire

[Randall Ahren]

Austin Madison of Pixar wrote by hand an open letter to aspiring creators to help them through bleak periods of creative drought. Austin writes that he constantly shifts between two states. The first is a white-hot, "in the zone" state. He estimates this happens about 3% of the time. The other 97% he is in a frustrated, struggling state. 

What if he could increase his time in the white-hot state by a mere 1%? His productivity would jump by 33%. The letter can be found here. My favorite part:

PERSIST on telling your story. PERSIST on reaching your audience. PERSIST on staying true to your vision. Remember what Peter Jackson said, "Pain is temporary. Scripts are forever."

ps: Pixar has an extraordinary company culture. There are four way cool letters at that site by different Pixar employees.

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

Randall, Pixar does indeed have an extraordinary company culture. I've had the great pleasure of visiting the studio, it's a vibrant place. You mentioned Steve Jobs in another thread recently. He's left his imprint on Pixar to be sure.

All around the studio, you'll see hand drawn characters on the walls near the floor. They're inconspicuous, unless you're a little one or are crawling around on your hands and knees. And that's who Pixar exists for, the young and the young at heart.

I enjoy SL best when I see it in the hands of the young at heart. 

 

[Storm Clarence]

There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.  Mark Twain

 

[Celestiall Nightfire]

Yea!  Two Three, of my favorite people...and a positive thread!   Randall...your slight change to Peter Jackson's quote was inspired.   hehe

 

By the Power of Greyskull!  Hmm...no that's not right.   Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Universita Committeeatum E Pluribus Unum, I hereby confer upon you...errr...um..drat.  That's not right either.  *Idea*  I'm drawing a Circle around this thread...kind of a G+ kind of circle...and it will be infused with positive posters and good humor for all.  

 

*Note to self:  If the thread goes downhill like a drunken teen on a snowboard..Disavow all knowledge and responsibility.  But, if it stays positive...well, then...TaDa!  ; )  *

 

Edited to add:  Damit-all Storm I had my post all typed and there were two! ..count them two people.  *sigh*.    But, I mean yea!  *channeling postive..ness*  *laughing*

[Randall Ahren]

I feel so special now. Apologies to the film makers. I've never produced a film, but I've done some scripting. Chicks that code are way cool and sexier too.

@Storm, I have not seen that quote by Mark Twain before. I like it. He was a funny man, but his life was marred by tragedy. In the time that he had, he created something that lived far outlived him.

@Madelaine, those people at Pixar work like LL coders. Pixar doesn't finish films, they just get released. LL coders don't finish the code, they just stop working on it when the deadline rolls around and release it. Come to think it, I don't finish a lot of projects either. I just stop working on them (I tend to post that way too).

[Storm Clarence]

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Randall Ahren wrote:

@Storm, I have not seen that quote by Mark Twain before. I like it. He was a funny man, but his life was marred by tragedy. In the time that he had, he created something that lived far outlived him.

 

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I am not an expert on Twain but imo he left behind a way to think, a way to look at oneself from outside where one is standing.  

I was recently re-introduced to Twain. His writings are brutally humorous, and inspiring.    

[Storm Clarence]

What/where/who do you find inspiration?  Any takers?

[Perrie Juran]

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Storm Clarence wrote:

There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.  Mark Twain

 

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"If you nail together two things that no one has ever nailed together before some schmuck will buy it."     George Carlin

[Randall Ahren]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

"If you nail together two things that no one has ever nailed together before some schmuck will buy it."    

George Carlin

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Works in SL too. Just link a couple of prims together and drop a buggy script in it, and at least one copy of it will sell.

@Storm, I don't really look for inspiration. My goal is simply to change my state level. There is one state that Austin Madison did not mention, but I think Twain was well aware of it (he suffered from depression). I figure I must spend about 3% of my time in the depressed state. I have my favorite authors that I read and try to kick my electrons into a higher energy orbital, but sometimes nothing works. I feel like Olivia Dunham in Fringe trying to remember how to get into the other universe.

There is one thing that I heard works very reliably, a puppy. Nobody can stay depressed for long in the presence of a puppy, 

[Celestiall Nightfire]

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Randall Ahren wrote:

I figure I must spend about 3% of my time in the depressed state. I have my favorite authors that I read and try to kick my electrons into a higher energy orbital, but sometimes nothing works.

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Randall, here is a book that you might find interesting and/or helpful:   "The Van Gogh Blues" by Eric Maisel

(Other Maisel books that I recommended:  The Atheist’s Way and BrainStorm.) 

Oh, I like the puppy idea though... : )

[Deltango Vale]

[Charolotte Caxton]

Up is perhaps one of my most favorite movies ever. The backstory at the beginning of love found, life shared and the sadness of loss is possibly one of the most touching I have ever witnessed. Like Storm's quote of Twain, it is not a new story at all, in fact it has been told countless times throughout the ages, but watching that particular rearrangement of the pieces, stirred up the pieces inside me and I would imagine in a great many others as well. 

Thank you for the encouragement to PERSIST.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Charolotte Caxton wrote:

Up

is perhaps one of my most favorite movies ever. The backstory at the beginning of love found, life shared and the sadness of loss is possibly one of the most touching I have ever witnessed. 

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I'll agree. That is, I think, the most powerful five minutes of silent film I've ever seen.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Deltango Vale wrote:

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Del, do we want the pill, or simply to remember Henry Ford who said...

Whether you think you can or whether think you can't, you are absolutely right.

?

If I had a bottle of those pills, maybe I'd pour them in the ocean and hope there's something to homeopathy after all.

[Randall Ahren]

If I had the pills, I think I would have to take them. I saw Limitless and I thought it was great. The pills must operate to keep the person in the inspired state 97% of the time, instead of just 3%.

I'm confused about Up. That's the animation produced by Pixar correct? I don't recall the five minutes of silent film, it must have been a scene at the beginning where the protagonist was recalling his younger life with his wife?

@Celestial, I have not heard of that author previously. I'll have to check some of his work out. In my younger days I was quite an outspoken athesist and used to argue with everyone about it. I was a teenager then and knew so much that just wasn't so. 

@Charolotte: This is what the depressed state looks like contrasted with the cure:

[Void Singer]

I find most of my inspiration in problems.... when something goes wrong, I immediately question why and how,and look for ways of preventing/correcting it, no matter how backwards they may seem. sometimes there's a long obvious linear solution, and in those cases I often try to look sideways at anything related to the problem, and connect shorter solutions or effects found in those.

I find my secondary inspirations in simplifying every to it's most basic process, which I find makes it easier to draw comparisons to other things based on their common elements... this makes the primaray inspirations go faster when working on them.

my motto could be*: while others say when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail, I say, when everything is a hammer, you don't need nails.

*but it isn't

[Randall Ahren]

BTW, Mark Twain was an inventor and had three patents issue in his real name (Samuel Clemens). He was also acquainted with Thomas Edison, perhaps the most prolific inventor of all time, which is a roundabout way of getting to my favorite Edison quote (and there are a lot):

Hell, there are no rules here — we're trying to accomplish something.

 

[Pamela Galli]

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Void Singer wrote:

I find most of my inspiration in problems....

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I find that nothing forces you to think out side the box like a problem or a mistake. You are following your usual plan then run into a brick wall and are forced to diverge from your plan.

But also I have to give credit for "my" inspiration to my customers -- I have gotten a lot of good ideas from them that I never would have thought of by myself.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Randall Ahren wrote:

If I had the pills, I think I would have to take them. I saw Limitless and I thought it was great. The pills must operate to keep the person in the inspired state 97% of the time, instead of just 3%.

I'm confused about Up. That's the animation produced by Pixar correct? I don't recall the five minutes of silent film, it must have been a scene at the beginning where the protagonist was recalling his younger life with his wife?

 

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Would you want to be the only one with the pills? Would you want to live in a world where everyone had the pills? I haven't seen the movie, but those questions pop to mind right away.

Yes, I'm referring to Carl's recollection of his entire life with Ellie, packed into five beautlful, silent minutes. I look forward to Andrew Stanton's next work, "John Carter". I met him briefly a few years ago. I'm glad it was briefly too. I have this fear of meeting the creators of works I love, only to discover they're not superhuman. Were that to happen, I'd have a harder time explaining to myself why I haven't done better ;-)

[Randall Ahren]

No, I would want everyone to have the pills. Otherwise I would be super smart and surrounded by stupid people (relatively speaking) and have no one to talk to and be really bored. You should see the movie. It's pretty entertaining.

I understand your fear about meeting the creators of work you admire. I met one of my favorite authors. He turned out to be a complete jerk, I hate him now, and will never read another one of his books. The art is always greater than the artist.

[Void Singer]

it is unfortunate when you meet the creator of something you love and they turn out to be less than stellar in other areas...

I've met several because of the area I lived in the work I did at the time... many don't live up to the hype. All you can do is focus on what they do well, appreciate that, and remember that we're all human.

[Randall Ahren]

Bukowski explains why it is not a good idea to ever meet one of your favorite authors:

 A writer owes nothing except to his writing. He owes nothing to the reader except the availability of the printed page. And worse, many of the  doorknockers are not even readers. They´ve just heard something. The reader and the best human is the one who rewards me with his or her absence.

 

It's from his last novel, the Captain is Out to Lunch, written in his 70's, shortly before he died of leukemia. 

[Ann Otoole]

You will know you made it when the big movie companies like Disney rip your works right out of SL. You don't have a chance in hades of going after them because they can run you out of money in legal fees. But it is damn cool to see your work on the silver screen.

[Randall Ahren]

Are you sure Ann? If the case is good, lawyers will take it on contingency. There was a case involving a tattoo on Mike Tyson. He had a tattoo on his face that was duplicated on the actor portraying Tyson in a film produced by Warner Bros. See this analysis of the case. It's a pretty good discussion.