17. How To Be Creative When We're Trained to Judge Everything
And our everyday conversations are owned by large corporations
Anytime I see an older movie, what strikes me is how different the world was.
People were genuinely less hurried, more embodied, more social.
We have decided collectively to insert AI, smartphones, and apps controlled by large corporations into our most intimate relationships.
Before making a big decision, we check in with the advice offered by some anonymous person online. This trains us to trust our judgment less. But there’s more.
Coaxed into the decision-making paradigm of savvy consumers, we lose the ability to appreciate silence and uncertainty, two elements necessary for an authentic and creative life.
Silence allows you to get in touch with how you feel. To be receptive and present.
Uncertainty gives you the possibility of discovering something new.
The Effect of Review Culture
You leave your Airbnb, take a Lyft to a restaurant, visit a few stores, and then head back.
Airbnb will ask you for a review.
So will the rideshare.
Your restaurant will need a tip, and they might ask for a review on Google, Yelp, or Tripadvisor.
Each item in the store has online reviews. The store itself has online reviews. We're soaking in a bath of questionably reliable reviews and star ratings.
We can't pretend this does not affect us.
Because it’s convenient, we learn to trust the herd:
more followers is probably better
high averages probably mean something
more reviews is better than a few
only positive reviews? don’t trust that
always read the details on any negative review
We love our reviews. They allow us to rest assured that we’ll get a hamburger or pair of socks we truly enjoy.
More and more, we trust the algorithm. Which leads to -- what?
At best, an average life: “If you liked this, you'll love this.”
The algorithm keeps you safe in a sea of numerically-rated similarity.
Yeah, But
None of this is going away anytime soon.
Reviews, apps, and AI are convenient. They “get the job done.”
So, why the warning bells? Because this new addiction is changing who we are, and it’s happening quickly.
I don’t think people need to flush their smartphones down the toilet, but we do need to be far more vigilant about how we allow ourselves to be used by technology and large corporations.
It’s making us reliable workers and effective consumers but disconnecting us from each other and ourselves. We believe that we are reducible to our collection of likes and dislikes.
Once more, this quote comes to mind:
We are kept from our goal not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal.
- Bhagavad Gita
The clear path, in this case, is an uncertainty-free life surrounded by helpful apps.
The biggest lies are those closest to the truth.
Memes hook us because they’re catchy and relatable. Influencers hook us because they portray idealized versions of a small slice of life.
None of this fosters greater self-knowing.
I value human uniqueness and creativity at all costs.
Can We Have Our Tech Utopia?
Like it or not, the new town crier is an algorithm.
Social media and the internet are how we hear about things.
That's why it's important to me to help authors and creators launch and scale their own platforms.
This way, independent creators can be discovered by people who want to buy their books and courses.
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The only palatable future is one in which independence and creativity are fostered by making independent creators more visible so that they can connect with people and share their creative gifts with the world.