Our ability to create

Trying to get over my self-defeating thoughts, procastinating away time instead of making something new or adding value to the things that I do..

The only I did not stop doing after the marathon was to do some exercises and work. Well it might be that the holidays is somewhat the worst time to strategize and make things - causing decision paralysis due to the abundance of things to do. This concept is not self evident but true to form is our productivity is continuously depleted by seemingly cool distractions that bombard us almost all the time. Its funny even that even when we are asleep this thing haunts us… like smartphone notifications keeps waking the average person - kicking the dopamine hormone and the brain reward mechanism to code structural bad habits. And when it goes autopilot, unfortunately its hard to stop.

The past week I have battling some sort of this problem, not about the use of smartphone alone as I have turned off a lot of notification from all of my devices…but I’m trying to create videos again.

I used to do filming and editing before - about four years ago. Why I stopped? I lost all my gear - a Mavic drone and a Canon powershot. I broke my computer too while pouring soup into it during one of my coding sessions. I was left with a single Sony action camera. But more importantly - I got lost in the process of this video creating thing - I failed to realize that the metaphysical structure of stories in everything we do matters and more importantly in creating great videos. I guess the gear really did not matter, I failed to craft stories that matter.

For the past year and a half that I have been in Cayman Islands, I have been upgrading my video gear. I recently got a great drone - a mavic air 2. I got an olympus pen. I have bought a powerful Macbook too. This is not to brag what I have as I always try to stay out of the materialistic game in everything I do. I actually do not need to buy this stuff as I practically way better and can provide for my family back home. But there is this necessity of virtue in life that grips my soul to make compelling art pieces that can share ideas - no matter how abstract they are especially that I view that the time we have for doing such is hanging on a balance, as fragile as it has ever been ever since World war II. This video is the attempt to convey alternative viewpoints, counter arguments to what society is screaming out loud to our brains whenever we look at our smartphones. Social and conventional media is definitely frying our neurons either by stress, anxiety or addiction and this a whole discussion all on its own.

I hope that when you get to see this video, you’ll be able to see the world in a different perspective - that there is a need to think clearly and one of the processess in doing that is creating videos. Art in general is a pathway for the few select people but technology have lowered the bar for this through making videos and uploading them for free and can be shared to anyone. This was not available to us as an option twenty years ago. We are now living in abundance of opportunities - the average person has to deal with this issue - but yeah as I have raised the issue…this situation is a double edge sword. Like my case - I have all the gear and technology yet I do not create anything. I know how valuable making things is but I fail to realize on that understanding. It is so complex of a problem. Decision paralysis as a result of abundance of options. Fighting the current landscape is quite hard - I have to wake up early and despite being drunk the night before, I have to ride in the freezing morning to certain spots allowed for me to fly my drone. That process is so hard that I believe most people will get frustrated by just thinking of its complexity. This is what I am trying to share to you - there are answers to ills of society but we have to accept a somewhat heroic path and embark into the mundane world and to the abyss. The unknown can be known through critical thinking and understanding of ourselves.

TBC