I am better than you

When I was very young, my parents owned a gallery in a small town, a gallery that was the only private gallery that could display works from the National Gallery if I remember correctly - I was very young. But, my home was much like a gallery too but almost exclusively of one artist, my father. He was a brilliant painter. Brilliant.

While I am not much of a painter myself, I do have a little bit of artistic talent and when viewing art, I always judge it on my own abilities using the, "I could do that if I wanted to" method. What I consider worthy art (not that I would necessarily buy or hang it) is if technically it is beyond my capabilities and much more importantly, whether the concept behind it is something I wouldn't have thought of myself.

Technical capabilities are less important than the conceptualization of thought into some kind of transmittable information. Art isn't the painting, it is the conversation between the painting and the viewer and where the discussion leads thoughts. Each viewer leaves thinking something unique to their mind. Art is quite an incredible process.

I am better than you

I am better than you at least at something. I don't know what that something might be for you as an individual, but line us up across a series of tasks and I am going to beat you. And, you are going to beat me, because you are probably better than me at some things too. I don't know what those things are either.

When it comes to Steem and the however many active accounts there are currently posting, it is likely that I am better than the average writer, but definitely not the best. However, I don't just leave because I am not the best at something because again, there is technique and delivery of concepts.

My process is wordy for most but it likely helps many who are able to labor through it to develop a better understanding of the things that are important to them, namely Steem. I write about other things too occasionally, but Steem is something we all have in common here and it is something I know relatively well, enjoy and like to observe.

Do I know the most about Steem? No, that is likely @gtg, but I am able to present some of it in a way that people similar to me and a little wider can understand to some degree without having to know how to code, something I cannot do at all other than the little bits of markdown I learned for Steem. I can justify my own text. I also rarely bitch about Steem itself and prefer to take a positive look at the platform because, I am not much of an internet whiner. If I wasn't on Steem, you could probably find me... sitting on my couch or at the gym.

But, me likely being better than you at writing or even potentially knowing more than you about Steem, doesn't mean others shouldn't speak about Steem because, that is the way we learn. Imagine if everyone stopped doing something because someone else is better than them; there'd be one painter, one race car driver, one husband? - poor guy.

And then, just like artwork hanging in a gallery, while my "better" writing might suit some, it might be completely out of touch with others and someone who is technically inferior, could bring a lot of color and attraction to the audience - like @meesterboom for example - some people like great writing, some people like his. Who am I to judge...

But, this is the thing with it for at least me, I like art that makes me feel like the person cared about what they were doing while they did it, that it was important to them in the moment and they put effort into expressing themselves. The calculating type that is trying too hard to appeal to the audience has never sat well with me with the obvious scream of attention seeking behavior asking to be looked at - but when that is done artfully and especially with humor and wit - we get an artist like no other, @nonameslefttouse. Who in two of his many former lives was once an exotic eastern princess and Wayne Gretsky. Yes, Wayne is still alive - but Nonames has left the body.

What I wonder though is how many people actually explore how good they can be at something and whether they could actually be a fair bit better than most other people. And then, how many believe they are better but never really put it to the test.

I am pretty sure that someone could easily out-write my abilities - for a short period of time - but I have been doing this consistently for years now. Ups, Downs, HardForks, ClusterForks, flags, downvotes, bidbots, circlejerks and all the drama a small town can muster, I have continued on. That might be my skill - resilience. Or perhaps it is a driver of my art and while some people are inspired by a sunset, I am inspired by a bunch of crazy people who believe in magical tokens.

I dunno, but I do think that with the growing use cases on Steem, more people will be able to experiment and play and perhaps one day, find an art form that suits them and can be used to leverage a little Steem or some other token from the system - perhaps even enough to say when someone asks - "I am an artist"

Or a blogger, a streamer, a gamer, a podcaster, a writer, musician or the least artistic of all - a developer

If you had the option to spend your life performing your art, what would it be and, why aren't you working toward spending more time doing that?

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

As brilliant artist as my dad was, I am better at drawing faces than he ever could.