Back to writing after months this is the mandatory birthday post I’ve been writing every year since last year. It doesn’t matter if I haven’t written anything else for the entire year; I feel it’s necessary to write on this day not for the audience (which is almost nonexistent at this point) but for myself, to reevaluate and reflect on my creative journey.

I’m officially 23 years old now, carrying the burden and guilt of not “making it.” Yes, I still haven’t “made it.” I still have to work for someone else to earn a living. Last year, I wrote that I would start making art every day to ensure I was doing at least a little something for my creative growth. But, honestly, nothing much has changed. My audience is still the same size, and anything I publish or release goes unnoticed. I’m not blaming anyone but myself.

I didn’t publish any of my big ideas last year because of procrastination. I did manage to make art every day, but looking back, I think it was more about maintaining the streak than truly creating art. There were days when I just posted old art with minor changes like altering colors or relied on AI to generate something for me.

Yes, you read that right I used AI. I’ve been making generative art for a year, and since I’m not great at coding, AI became my CTO. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using AI as a tool it’s the direction we’re headed, where judgment and taste are more important than technical execution. But I realize now that I often failed to provide even basic judgment or direction to my prompts. Instead, I would just type commands like “Make a P5 Art” or “Surprise me.” I believe that true art, even when aided by AI, should carry your judgement and taste. Without that, it lacks authenticity.

But was the past year entirely unproductive? Not at all. A lot happened emotionally. In my last birthday post, I talked about how I was depressed for half of 2023 due to the guilt of failure. Making art every day in 2024 gave me a sense of fulfillment, a feeling that I was at least trying. And honestly, that’s one of the best feelings knowing you’re putting in the effort, even if progress is slow.

So, what’s next? Will I continue making art? Absolutely. But this time, it won’t just be Gen-Art e/very day it will be e/very day. I want to ensure that whatever I create is in its purest form, not just lazy generative art produced without my authenticity. I’ll also focus more on finishing and publishing my project ideas. There is this new amazing platform Rodeo by Foundation on base L2 which lets you publish NFTs for free, I’m thinking of creating on-chain art every day there.

Thank you!

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Back after months with an opinion that may not sit well with many creatives or artists. Let’s start with the question that’s the title of this piece: WTF is an Art Course? I often wonder about this, so I thought, let’s write about it. What came to your mind when you read ‘WTF is an Art Course?’ maybe you went “An art course is an art course dumbo”. What I want to understand is what they teach in an art course, I never went to one but what I found by hearing from those who did is you get to know about the history of art, types of art and also you get to learn the tools and more. Learning all those is good but is that enough to make you an artist? I don’t think so, art at its core is unique, abstract, and deeply intuitive. We can call intuition the parent of art, don’t take my words take a look at the work of any great artist in history. Any great artist is incomplete without intuition, no institution can gift you intuition only God can. No true artist goes to art school to learn art because mechanical stuff can be taught but what about originality and style? That comes from the complex and genius mind of the artist. Artists are geniuses and complicated minds not just someone who can draw. Now don’t go “SO YOU THINK YOU ARE A GENIUS” because I don’t consider myself an artist in the first place, you can call me any of these three: Designer, tinkerer, and craftsman.

Thank you!

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Back at writing after 3 months, in this, I’ll be sharing a bit of personal story, the next chapter, and the importance of sharing your craft every day.

Story:

January 20 2024 the day I’m publishing this writing I turn 22 and It’s been 5 years since I started my creative journey. And if you ask me am I successful or did I make it? My answer would be a big no, while I’m aware of how important it is to enjoy the journey and the process, the human in me can't help but feel frustrated by the stagnation in my creative growth.

In 2019 I started my creative journey with the aspiration to be a successful content creator and entrepreneur realizing it would take time to get stable or make money I also started freelance graphic designing, and I dropped out of school around the same time. A year or two in I thought it would be better to focus completely on freelance graphic designing because I was seeing graphic designers making an audience by posting the freelance work as content, time went by but nothing changed I struggled to get clients even if I got any most of the projects were never completed, I realized I wasn’t cut for it.

Around mid-2020 I discovered Naval Ravikant and Jack Butcher both of their writings changed my mindset completely, they made me realize what true wealth is and how you can leverage the internet and build once but sell twice. I slowly realized no matter how much money you make by being employed or a freelancer, it can never be as fulfilling as having an audience who is willing to pay you for the craft produced by your intuition. Many people believe that freelancing is also a way of owning your time but I don’t think that’s true I believe an employee has one boss but a freelancer has 10 bosses.

At the end of 2020, something happened that truly blew my mind Apple announced custom icons for iPhones, and Traf a designer who created an icon pack got a shout-out from MKBHD and the sales of the icon pack just skyrocketed and made almost $100k, this was the moment that made me realize how badly I need to build a digital product, I started wondering what can I build with the graphic design skillset that I have and fixed my mind that I will create and launch a font. I started working on my font Aextract but realized it would take time so meanwhile I also released some freebies to gain some audience after this I made up my mind to stop freelancing and started looking for jobs and thought I would quit the job once the product sales are stable but that didn’t happen.

It took me more than a year to launch Aextract and around this time I got employed too and had almost quit freelancing, at the start of 2021 I got to know about NFTs which had my complete curiosity, Aextract didn’t work so I launched some more fonts but they had an NFT attached with them but again nothing much I spend the end of 2021 to the start of 2023 with font NFT projects.

2023 got very tough I got a bit depressed I’m not sure if that was depression but never in my life I had experienced that level of sadness before, I used to be frustrated with the fact that all of my projects were font-related and why I was attached to the type design niche in some way or the other, I created Aextract because I wanted to build my first digital product but knowingly or unknowingly my every other project became that only, type design is very specific niche but I wanted to design or create stuff with more liberty maybe that’s why I wasn’t very happy during that time thanks to Eli Heuer a great type designer and OG of font NFTs who advised me to shift my focus completely towards NFTs as I haven’t completely become a type designer yet.

Fonts + NFTs is a rare niche, I thought it would work but I was wrong or maybe I’m wrong in saying this.

Next chapter and e/very days.

Okay, so as mentioned above from 2023 I shifted my focus completely towards digital art projects and NFTs. After that decision, I started working on a generative art project and a couple of Opepen sets which are still WIP, and that’s the problem with projects they take time, while to sustain and build an audience you need to share something on a routine and I was doing that by designing and posting stuff randomly whenever I had an idea but from today I want to change that I want to be more consistent.

So this is what I’m going to do next, I will make art or design stuff and post it every day. Yes, you read that I have realized one thing that I rant a lot about my failure to build an audience but at the same time I feel like I haven’t done much work too, and I want to change that. To talk about an example of how powerful everydays can be what better example there can be than the legend Beeple himself? My everydays will be called e/very days not much meaning behind the name just to make it sound memetic like e/acc.

The way e/acc can change the world e/very days can change your creative life. I’m still employed and have stopped freelancing but my dream of owning my time is still on, now with e/very days I want to take a chance every day. Shoot more to get lucky and what can be better than shooting everyday. If you are creative too I just want to say one thing let’s create every day.

Follow Aex Designs on X and IG to join my e/very days journey.

Thank you!

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Stealing Audience? What are we talking about here? Let me explain, any beginner artist or craftsman struggles to get recognized, and establish an audience, I share the same struggle although I’m not a beginner it’s been years yet I have failed to build my audience so think of this as an insight which my failures taught me and not as a how-to.

You can steal an existing audience by remixing or creating derivatives. What is a remix or derivative? A remix or a derivative would be a fusion of your craft and an existing craft with an audience, this can be a win-win for both, a win for you as you are getting noticed and a win for the one with an audience as their craft is getting proliferated. But this strategy doesn’t work every time or with everyone for example imagine a huge corporate brand that is very aggressive with its IP and strikes everyone who infringes on it, so if you remix with its IP and create stuff they might get you in legal trouble, but whereas remixing with a brand that is CC0 or Public IP will be a win-win.

An original audience remains just that, and you can't constantly rely on remixing. Nevertheless, it serves as a viable strategy for those struggling to establish their audience, helping them gain visibility and momentum.

Thank you!

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People really admire tough hustlers who are always working and for whom life is all about hardworking and there’s clearly nothing wrong with hardworking. Productivity, grind, and hustle are very glorified nowadays, but do they really make you successful? The answer may vary but in creative domains, the answer is no, in creative domains what makes you successful is what you create(output), not how much time it took you to create, or what tools you used(input).

Naval Ravikant talks about this input-output hypothesis which basically says that the output is not same for everyone even if the input is same, for example, a construction worker’s reward for working 2 hours will not be the same as an engineer working for 2 hours. You won’t get rich renting out your time, to become wealthy seek work that is tracked by outputs and is judgement-driven.

Even if you are in a creative domain but are employed or freelancing you might yet again be trapped in the input trap because most of the creative industry pay for hours or productivity and not for what you are creating, no matter what domain you belong to you can rarely escape the input trap by being employed or freelancing, to escape the input trap you need to build your own craft and audience to whom the only thing that matters is your output. One other way to put it would be if you are a creative you should be judged by your creativity, not by productivity.

Thank you!

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Recently I started working on my first generative art project which is going well, it had been delayed for a very long time because of my not-so-good relationship with coding. So how did I get it started and running now? I’m taking a lot of help and guidance from ChatGPT, and this got me thinking right now we live in the information age which is the age of skill and information, we learn tools and techniques to create or complete jobs and gigs. But with the drastic development in AI, we are moving towards an age where skills wouldn’t matter, what would really matter will be judgement, direction, and taste. With AI being able to do the execution all that is left for humans would be ideas, direction, and taste. Right now AI can do complex stuff with just a prompt or two, but still, it’s not at that stage where it can build our original ideas or understand our intuitive direction with that ease we need to do some trial and error, explain and reexplain, and even do some manual work. But it’s not very far that the AI will be doing all the execution itself no matter how nuanced or layered our prompt is, the tools we use that require skills and expertise to operate will become AI integrated all we need to do would be command and direct and AI will take care of the execution. The information age is all about abundance, the AI age will be all about scarcity. That sounds amazing and scary at the same time, people with creative gifts and taste will be the kings and those who aren’t in the creative domains will suffer, but I’m sure we will come up with something and adapt to it humans had the same fear during the transition from Industrial to information age but here we are. Life is nothing but constant change to which humans have always evolved and adapted.

Thank you!

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A huge part of the NFT Art world is filled with PFP(Profile Picture) Projects, people love to collect art that they can use as their identity. In this essay, we’ll be exploring PFP projects, not Profile Picture Projects but Proliferation Prime Projects. We’ll be talking about two of my favorite Projects Nouns and Opepen, and if you are familiar with them you might know that they are Profile Picture Projects but why Am I calling them Proliferation Prime Projects? because they aren’t just Profile Picture Projects they are more than that, they are unconventional experiments of the new internet art. Let’s define both of them in simple terms:

Nouns: An experimental project that innovates in the domain of on-chain governance, community, and identity. There’s a new Noun PFP generated every 24 hours which is then auctioned, Nouns don’t just give you the PFP but also the authority to vote, yes all the money that comes from PFPs gets into a treasury, and the community members can use that treasury to build amazing stuff, they need to submit a proposal and the Nouns holders can vote and decide which proposal should get funded and which should not. Nouns is a no-copyright CC0 project which has made it very huge the number of Nounish derivative products and communities will blow your mind. It’s been more than 2 years for Nouns and yet every PFP gets sold at an average of 25-30 ETH proving how strong of a community it is.

Opepen: An experimental project that innovates in the domain of community, contribution, and uniqueness. It all started when Jack Butcher tweeted about an Open Edition NFT named Opepen inspired by the Batzdu’s art style, it was free and the mint time was 1 hour, the number of people that minted in an hour was really mind-blowing 16000 people minted in an hour. As time passed Jack Butcher with the legendary developer Jalil turned the NFT into one of the best Internet art communities. So what’s the mechanism, how does it work? As the total number of NFTs is now 16000 Jack and team came up with a really unique concept they divided the NFTs into 200 sets with each set consisting of 80 NFTs as 1, 4, 5, 10, 20 & 40 editions. The 200 sets will be revealed over time, a set can be a collaboration or a mark of an event. The community decides which set should be released by opting in if the opt-in doesn’t reach the threshold the set gets replaced by another. Opepen allows anyone to submit a set giving new artists or craftsmen a chance to get recognised and build their audience.

Now you might have an idea why I call them Proliferation Prime Projects, these projects have proved that being public and not holding any rights doesn’t just benefit the audience but also the artist/craftsmen they have shown us what is true proliferation. If copyright allows prohibition, CC0 allows proliferation.

Thank you!

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You might be familiar with the term creator economy, but have you heard about the term curator economy? You may have heard or may not have, but that’s not the point. While the term creator economy is mainstream and popular, curator economy is not a very popular term. Before proceeding let’s define what a creator vs curator is:

Creator: Someone who creates stuff on the internet.

Curator: Someone who curates stuff on the internet.

Now let’s talk about why don’t we hear the term curator economy as frequently as creator economy. The rationale is straightforward: we often categorize curators as creators, grouping them within the creator economy. This parallel can be drawn from my earlier essay Influencer where we differentiated between creators and influencers and how we consider influencers as creators counting them in the creator economy only. But I believe the curator economy is an economy in itself just like the creator economy, curators aren’t and shouldn’t be just limited to the creator economy or content creation because right now we live in an era where there’s a digital abundance of everything on the internet thus requiring the need of people with good judgment and taste to curate in any part of the internet. If you possess excellent judgment and taste in a particular niche, the internet can reward you as generously as it does a creator.

Thank you!

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Recently Rolling Stone published an article about how NFTs are dead sparking a debate, so I thought this might be the right time to write about a topic that I wanted to talk about for some time which is how the majority of the people who aren’t from the NFT space have this perception about NFT which is not very much true. To be literal an NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token and the definition is: A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain, and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided.

The general perception about NFT:

“NFT is an art scam.”

“NFT is a trade market.”

“NFT is for making money.”

“NFT is a Ponzi Scheme.”

“NFT is how people make money by selling profile pictures.”

Most people think of NFT as an art market that was worth millions once and now is worthless, perception is mainly around trade and money-making, it’s all about economics. And if there’s perception there’s existence it’s not the people’s fault, it’s because they saw the hype and all the crazy greed trade. But just like cryptocurrency, this was never the vision it’s the greed of the people that we came this way, and if we are looking at NFT with this lens. Then yes, it will eventually die but if we are looking at it for what it really is: A tech that innovates in the domain of ownership and authenticity. It will stay, we will see a day when the current market won’t be there, but NFT as a tech will be there assisting people in verifying ownership and authenticity across various domains, not limited to digital images. Genuine art communities will also continue to thrive. What would die would be the trade, not the tech.

Thank you!

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The Internet is now so huge that many people are making a living on it without depending on any other source. The native economy of the internet is the creator economy where we can find influencers and creators. One might wonder whether these two are interchangeable, but I think that while they share common ground, they are not the same. The people we call creators or influencers are the ones who create something on the internet that can be videos, music, or assets. They make money by selling their creations right? No, not true for many let’s take YouTubers as an example they mainly make money by letting ads run on their videos or sponsorships, because they can’t directly sell their content I mean there’s the community and their support but still, they aren’t directly selling their content. Now for comparison let’s take IndieMakers as an example they make money by directly selling their creations to their audience, but a YouTuber can’t sell their content so they sell their influence which is endorsements of their sponsorships, you may now have an idea of who are creators vs influencers for me. You can be on either side, and if you are being ethical whether you are influencing or creating you are amazing. I think most creators are worry-free because they aren’t selling someone else’s creations, while influencers need to be very cautious as they completely don’t know the product they are selling by endorsing. If you ask me to choose a side I would prefer the creator side because I love creating stuff and what would be better if it helps you make a living, and a huge portion of the influencer industry seems unethical and dishonest, they sell products they don’t use and sometimes lie about it too. And not always it’s the influencer that lies sometimes they get tricked and aren’t completely aware of what they are selling. There are so many great influencers who are very well aware of the consequences their influence can have, so they only endorse stuff that is genuine and related to their niche that can make their audience’s life better. To avoid this endorsement trap there are so many influencers who have also turned into creators they endorse and sell their own stuff. At last, let’s end this essay with a very popular quote “With great power comes great responsibility”.

Thank you!

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This visual above might give you an idea of what I’m trying to say, yet allow me to delve deeper into the explanation. Whatever your original creation is, it is a remix of existing ideas or concepts, whether you are consciously aware of this or not. But when people say something is an innovation and completely new it means that craft is an unconventional remix or the craftsman has added an intuitive touch.

Intuition plays a huge role in innovation, But what precisely is intuition? This concept varies among individuals; for some, it resides within the depths of the subconscious mind, while for others, it is a guiding godly inner voice.

Intuition is not statistical and objective it is emotional and subjective but the thing is it knows you, it can be wrong but not dishonest. You shouldn’t make objective decisions solely on intuition, Daniel Kahneman shares some great insights on making decisions with intuition in the book Thinking, Fast and Slow which I highly recommend reading.

Let’s return to the core theme of this essay, as I said your intuition knows you and won’t be dishonest with you listening to the intuition is how you add your innate gift to the craft, so when you are creating or tinkering and you find yourself where your intuition is saying to break a rule or not to be conventional try doing it who knows you might end up with an unconventional remix or innovation. This was my perspective on innovation coming from intuition.

Thank you!

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When you're on a journey and there are no predefined paths, just an open expanse, reaching your destination can be challenging. A clear path makes the journey easy, but an open area offers countless routes, making it more demanding. Constraints serve as the guiding pathway to creativity, akin to how a blank canvas can initially overwhelm. Being overwhelmed can stifle creativity and idea generation. Constraints act as a remedy, helping to dispel the feeling of being overwhelmed and facilitating the emergence of ideas and concepts. In the realm of creative pursuits, consider embracing constraints as a committed approach. Constraints assist in focusing on essential elements, leading to the generation of effective ideas and concepts. When creativity feels stifled, it's crucial to work within tight constraints to foster innovative thinking. While this approach may not apply universally, it particularly resonates with craftsmen, who often excel within strict boundaries, crafting remarkable creations within their specialized niche. I think many artists won’t agree with this approach because nothing is more subjective and emotional than art, as an art piece even this typographic visual looks dope I think:

But as a carefully crafted niche dedicated craft, this typographic visual works better:

So next time when you are working on a craft or creative masterpiece try setting up some rules, don’t break them, and see the magic.

Thank you!

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We exist in the age of the internet, a time when the creator economy thrives. In this digital realm, creators leverage the vast power of the internet's connectivity and replication capabilities to earn a livelihood by crafting and selling their creations. It's a space where you can find a wide array of items crafted by these creators. However, what predominates among their offering are courses.

I don't have an issue with courses, in fact, I believe that courses aimed at teaching mechanical and technical expertise are essential. But what raises concerns are those courses that attempt to replicate one's success or personal journey. Sharing one's experiences and insights for inspiration is great but I'm skeptical about the idea of mimicking someone else's journey as a surefire path to success.

Kapil Gupta MD’s take on how-to’s or methods which he calls prescriptions is the OG and a must-read, and I'd like to quote him from Naval's podcast:

“Take the person who “made it” and become world-class in whatever he did. If he went back and retraced his steps and did everything again the same way, but this time he did it by mimicking himself, he would fail. What has to be understood is that where greatness comes from is a very murky affair. It is nonlinear. It is unpredictable. Perhaps nature and the universe set it up this way that you have to jump in. And once you jump in the soup and you’re being bombarded from all sides and you live in confusion and you have no idea which way is up, if the obsession is there, then what happens is through messy process you find a way. You see light at the end of the tunnel. You forge a path through the jungle. That was not done according to a “how.” You were flailing the entire time. There was no “how” to flail. When you come out of the tunnel and someone asks you how you did it, you have no idea. The thing that’s almost laughable is when you ask a great athlete, “Can you show me how you did that?” They won’t go on and say, “I have no idea.” They will provide you with some semblance of an answer, which is a non-answer.”

It just makes no sense to follow someone else’s footsteps when we are all distinct individuals leading unique lives. Educate yourself enough and go on your quest and find your way, this journey may require learning, unlearning, or relearning. I’m a nobody to talk about prescriptions please read Kapil Gupta’s original writings on it. I want to talk about this more in the context of the creator economy, how selling one’s journey has become a very profitable business. It seems very problematic when a craftsman is more focused on selling his course of how he made his craft successful than selling the craft itself. If you are a craftsman, your primary focus should be on selling your craft, not monetizing your advice. A true craftsman shares their expertise and insights generously but refrains from turning them into commodities. Let's foster a culture where we create more tangible products and artistic creations than an abundance of courses. Let's all strive to be craftsmen rather than mere coaches.

Thank you!

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A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact. ―Daniel Kahneman

The quote above from Daniel Kahneman sheds light on how powerful repetition can be. But rather than talking about making lies seem true by repetition, I would like to talk about how a craftsman or an artist needs repetition to succeed or make an impact.

Repetition plays a huge role in developing a distinctive style or pattern, so if you are a craftsman or an artist, you need to keep repeating elements, constraints, or principles in your craft or in your art to develop a distinctive style.

This vague visualization above might give you an idea of what I mean by repeating elements, constraints, or principles in your craft/art. The ease of recognizing a pattern or style by the human mind depends on how familiar the mind is with that pattern or style. You can also notice this repetition practice by many huge brands, they repeat colors, fonts, and elements to be as familiar as possible to the human mind. Maybe this can also be the reason why people who have been in the game for a long time are more influential than the ones who haven’t been for too long. If you are in the game, be in the game, keep going, keep repeating.

Thank you!

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Let's begin by clarifying the concepts of commercial and contributory craft:

Commercial craft refers to a craft that necessitates payment for its use, examination, or remixing. Its licensing can involve bureaucratic complexities determined by the craftsman or organization. Commercial craft may sometimes deviate from its core principles due to market pressures and profit motives, typically favoring the interests of the craftsman or organization.

On the other hand, the contributory craft is freely accessible to anyone for use, examination, or remixing. It typically features simpler licensing arrangements compared to commercial craft. Contributory craft consistently adheres to its core values as it places emphasis on contribution and impact over financial gain. It tends to be more user and consumer-friendly.

Now, the question arises: which one is superior? This is largely subjective, as both approaches have their merits and drawbacks. Your preference depends on your personal inclinations. Personally, I hold a deep respect for individuals who create and share their work without expecting financial incentives, viewing it as a pure expression of passion. However, both commercial and contributory crafts hold significance in their respective domains: the former in economics and the latter in education.

Engaging in creative endeavors solely for the sake of contribution is truly admirable. Nevertheless, there's no fault in seeking rewards for your creative efforts. It's entirely valid to choose your stance. An alternative approach, which I find ethically compelling, is the intersection of both: You keep stuff paid but with a simple licensing, you keep stuff free and paid at the same time leaving it to the user/consumer and so on. Although not widely adopted, this approach aligns with a more ethical perspective in my view.

Thank you!

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The concept of identity can vary among individuals—while some associate it with their career, others link it to their primary passion. However, an identity encompasses more than merely one's profession or passion. Each person's identity is unique, and this uniqueness resides in the convergence of their passions. Your essence intertwined with your curiosities constitutes your true identity. Your identity can’t just simply be a label; you're a fusion, a blend, a complexity beyond those labels.

Much like everything else, your identity is a blend, a remix of the elements that hold the utmost significance for you. Your identity is a concoction of what truly matters.

Thank you!

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Every creative's journey embarks with the aspiration of building their audience, their 1000 true fans, who support and invest in the creations and concepts born from the creative’s intuition. This support enables the artist to pursue their craft full-time without concerns about other means of income. However, building an audience can be a difficult endeavor, and the path to doing so varies depending on one's niche. The journey to finding your audience often involves trial and error, a process of discovery and learning.

Let’s first focus on some major differences between an audience and a community:

For aspiring creatives or creatives who are struggling to establish an audience, a community can be really helpful. Communities are formed with people that share the same passion, communities bring together individuals who share the same madness for their craft. Finding a community that perfectly aligns with your uniqueness might seem unreal, but that doesn’t mean a community for you doesn’t exist. Your style and craft might be unique but there’s something that can still help you find your community and that’s your niche, try to find communities within the same niche. Another way would be to form your own community but finding people for your community would also be as tough as finding an audience for your craft.

So if you are planning to start or have started but struggling to build your audience, try joining an existing community that falls under your niche.

Thank you!

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There are two distinct forms of excellence: Technical and Creative.

Most tend to excel in either one, but only a few shine in both. Technical excellence plays a vital role in executing brilliant ideas, whereas creative excellence is essential in conceiving these ideas. The two forms of excellence are interdependent, with technical excellence supporting the realization of great concepts born from creative excellence. While technical excellence can be acquired through learning and practice, creative excellence is often an innate gift.

Thank you!

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After finishing your craft and before releasing it on the internet, you make a set of rules for how people should use it on the internet. The rules broadly fall under two categories private domain or copyright and public domain or CC0, which stands for Creative Commons Zero.

Private Domain/Copyright: You make a set of rules for how your craft should be used.

Public Domain/CC0: There are no rules and rights for your craft; anyone can use it however they like.

I’m not considering copyleft in the public domain because it still has some rules that must be taken care of, while CC0 doesn’t reserve any rights.

Going with copyright the only person that would win is just you, but going with CC0 not only you would win but also the people associated with it. Some excellent internet art projects that take advantage of proliferation with CC0:

Nouns, Checks, and Opepen.

Choose proliferation over prohibition.

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The quote above from Peter Thiel is in the context of tech start-ups, while I’ll be expanding on it more generally.

Here a craftsman is anyone who creates value out of nowhere, like engineers, artists, designers, etc., while a businessman is anyone who does business with the value created by the craftsman.

No matter which side you are on, capturing value at least some of it is very important. Most of the time, the craftsman ends up poor capturing the least value, while the businessman ends up rich capturing the most. A craftsman who is also a great businessman is a rare combo and vice versa.

Thank you!

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