# Two consecutive posts from Seth Godin got me thinking.
Firstly, Painting fakes and singing covers talks about how bands spend most of their time essentially "playing covers of their own work" or how artists paint fakes of their style until, occasionally, "a daring new work of art" appears.
Next, But what does “this” do? asserts that we too often rely on "fancy packaging" and what it contains may not have any real substance.
While his posts are usually one-offs, to be read in isolation, these two dovetailed in a way that rang true. They made me wonder if what I'm doing is repeatedly rehashing a poor facsimile, just going through the motions - painting by numbers rather than producing an original work.
I often wonder what I'm doing with the blog, wishing I had more to say, that much of it wasn't just a placebo in place of the good stuff. Is it just fancy packaging? An empty echo of what it might be?
Godin writes that "fakes and covers are an essential element of the creative cultural economy" but it often feels like a cop out. Perhaps it is just the daily workout to keep the wheels in motion that allows the daring work of art to come through.
It's a reminder to always strive for better.
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# Still, in the previous post Seth writes: "It’s foolish to wait until you’ve made something that’s perfect, because you never will."
Just keep going, keep plugging away, keep getting better. A good rule to live by.
I don’t have anything especially incisive to say about it but I was struck at the contrast between Colin Walker’s take on Seth Godin (“bands spend most of their time essentially ‘playing covers of their own work’”) and something I literally just read in Richard Sennett’s Building and Dwelling.