

Turn Your Career into a Work of Art - wallflower
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/turn_your_career_into_a_work_o.html

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sporkologist
New-age pablum. _Everything_ is art now?

> First, you need a foundation of knowledge and skills. You can't be Picasso
> if you can't handle brushes. Second, you need to use those skills to express
> something that is both deeply personal and that resonates with an audience.

This applies to all skill sets, not just art.

> Making art is not an artist's job. It is an artist's life. This is why it is
> exciting. But it also creates anxiety, and second-guessing. Putting your
> passion on display can be scary. How do you know what is your true passion?
> What if your work is ignored, derided or misunderstood?

OMG Fred from Accounting isn't expressing his inner angst the right way.

Puhleeze.

edit: I've been a professional artist, musician, and engineer for 30 years.
IMO the author is mixing up a career with artistic expression.

~~~
wallflower
As someone who has dabbled in art (taking art classes with people who are much
better than me), what I get from the article is more an exhortation for people
to act more like artists.

The best definition of an artist I've personally heard is that the job of the
artist is to make people feel something.

To do something that causes people to feel something. To take risks. To be
part of something larger than themselves. Good or bad. Good art challenges
you. Bad art bores you. But you can't affect everyone.

As we all know - being a professional artist is very difficult since it is
very competitive (and sometimes more about self-marketing than most self-
professed artists care to admit). And, for an adult who wants to be an artist
later in life - the stakes are so so much higher - peer approval (and
rejection) come into play. What would get you on the refrigerator at single-
digit ages is irrelevant. Adults have a higher snob level - of what truly is
art - usually it has to be good. So many friends of mine - I can't draw etc.
(but it really is more that they don't want to struggle)

Maybe, they can be an "artist" in their career. What the author was hinting
at. To take more risks, more challenging projects.

Sometimes the "career" they are in is not the right outlet. I've worked with
or known many programmers at companies that just do it for a day job (e.g.
litmus test - do they program for fun?) - and that is ok - their main focus is
their family. But almost always - there is a project/a hobby of varying scope.
For example, building your own house, a non-profit to promote ethnic dance, or
running a Toastmasters chapter. Or even a hedge funder playing clarinet in the
band pit for a friend's little off-off-off-off-off Broadway production (who
got more out of that little musical play than earning money ever would).

It comes down to looking at your life as not just what you do - but what you
really like to do. And trying to get the two tracks to converge.

Thank you for your response. Being an artist isn't black and white. I wish I
could be a better artist or even singer - but really - I am happy with just
getting better - without external expectations.

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dbpokorny
> Whose life am I living? I'm sure you ask yourself that kind of question from
> time to time. What am I really good at? What is the purpose of my work?
> These are not new questions. Sooner or later, we all seek answers to them.

This reminds me very much of the recording "Here we all are" by Ram Dass. It's
2 hours long, top result on YouTube with that query.

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molsongolden
Dbpokorny your comments are all dead for some reason. Not sure when it
happened but just wanted to let you know.

