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if you say you're ambitious, but you don't have a body of work you can point at, you should STFU and build the body of work first. even if it's a bunch of notes and drafts and crappy prototypes or whatever. code your apps, write your plays and poems. I will die on this hill.
I try my best to be friendly, kind, nurturing, nourishing, supportive, blah blah blah, but I cannot in good conscience endorse or encourage the PRETENSE of ambition, because that is a disservice to yourself, to everyone else, I will say it's a disservice to God
it is completely okay if you just enjoy painting for fun or dabbling in a little music. it is okay to be a hobbyist. lovely even. just don't try to steal valor by pretending to be doing something you're not. this pollutes the commons and cheapens all utterances
part of how we get to a golden age is we have to be rigorous with ourselves and each other about what we really mean it's cruel to say you love your partner and then treat them with indifference. it would be kinder to admit you don't love them. same is true of your ambitions
if, in a scene of 1,000, 950 admitted they're not that serious, they can then double down on supporting the 50 who are hell-bent on going the distance. this actually allows everyone to win bigger as a collective, than if we all indulged each other's polite fiction bullshit
if this makes you mad, "hey, fuck you guy, I'm not one of the 950, I'm one of the 50," fucking great!! excellent! build the body of work and share it if you feel relief "huh, I don't need to be one of the 50, I can be one of the 950 and that's fine", ur welcome, i love you too
if none of this makes sense, that's fine too, i'm just another madman on the timeline, keep scrollin' https://t.co/FvuvP0JHQ8
20 years of practice, over 1,000,000 words written, I am not fucking around: @1000wordvomits https://t.co/NOKKWWClqk
ah this is getting RTs, I will have to clarify again that when I say "ambitious" I do NOT mean "I want to make a lot of money and get awards" https://t.co/3Fol6d7qKQ
oh yea also I always have to repeat that I make a distinction between ambition and prestige-seeking ambition to me is about the drive to do what you want, to unfurl the flag of your being to the fullest possible extent prestige-seeking is wanting trinkets and accolades
(not that money & awards are *bad*, but that IMO they should be secondary to Real Ambition, which is to earn your spot in Valhalla by taking risks and doing what is truly great. again, this isn't for everyone, but we all benefit from this promethean fire) https://t.co/acYvDOUWzm
here's a "minor" example of what I'm talking about one of my schoolmates insisted he was going to conduct orchestras he now conducts orchestras and in so doing, he continues to inspire me, peripherally, that you can do what you sets out to do https://t.co/qZ6FZaKZq1
one of the guys from my secondary school was a classical music nerd. everyone else was getting into pop-punk and emo then, but he was like "fuck ya'll, orchestra 4eva". was scrolling through facebook once and found that he's conducting orchestras now *whispers* do your thing https://t.co/cED2Mv6oT8
"every door they walk through, every room they walk into, they're like Wow, there's another person that followed their dreams." Show Up. Don't Die. Don't Quit. https://t.co/cXwL7uzk3c
@mechanical_monk of course https://t.co/owLqahe2Rs
here's a "minor" example of what I'm talking about one of my schoolmates insisted he was going to conduct orchestras he now conducts orchestras and in so doing, he continues to inspire me, peripherally, that you can do what you sets out to do https://t.co/qZ6FZaKZq1