The way I hear it, when we eat stuff, there are a bunch of little life forms (more bacteria cells in us than human cells) that eat our food and help us digest it. When we eat a bunch of sugar, the ones that like sugar thrive and reproduce while the ones that don’t like sugar die. Then, we get cravings for sugar because our microbiomes are like, “More please.”
Some people call it the law of attraction. We head toward the thing we’re already doing.
- I tell entertainment folks they need more empathy.
- They ask how to get more empathy.
- I tell them try.
Seek illegit validation, get illegit inventions
If we focus on the things that are most important to the process of great entertainment, we will make great entertainment. If we focus on some sugar; like youtube comments, getting compliments after a show, trying to impress other people in our field, or making something that’s just neat… we build momentum toward creations that are fueled by junk.
If we remind ourselves of our core mission, we can seek validation that means something — fanbase growth, audience response, income, or whatever.
It’s harder to eat a salad, but we didn’t get into this for easy. The stuff that’s inside of us is going to crave whatever we feed it. We need to feed it useful validation.