I have a philosophy.
It's a philosophy of "rehearsal vs. performance."
The idea is that "everything is a rehearsal or a performance," and should be treated accordingly.
And that a lot of the 'problems' or friction in our society comes from people not understanding these two things.
For example:
Writing in a journal, privately? Writing rehearsal.
Writing on a social platform, publicly? Writing performance.
Rapping while reading off my phone, losing breath, and messing up lines? Rap rehearsal.
Rapping from memory, with passion, nailing all bars? Rap performance.
Now, some people don't like my philosophy. They say stuff like "I don't want some polished performance, I want 'real' authenticity."
But these same people would never sit through the 1000s of 'bad takes' required to make a movie. They want a polished film to watch. And these same people won't attend hundreds of ear-screeching jams from a band, they seek out a well-rehearsed performance. And these same people ignore the typo-filled tiny accounts of 'average people', while they eat up the polished content from their favorite guru, celeb, or personality.
And this behavior makes total sense.
Because we all have limited hours in our day. We've only so much attention to give. So investing much intention in people's sloppy rehearsals isn't worthwhile. It's better to leave them to their rehearsals in private, and then attend their performance when it's ready.
And even when we're consuming stuff that seems like a 'raw' rehearsal, it's often not. Casey Neistat got famous for 'letting people in' to his 'rehearsals.' Everything was 'raw.' But none of it really was. He had a system. It was polished. He's a film director who's done work for HBO. He's practiced so much behind the scenes to give people the raw vibe they were looking for. And he knew it was a performance. He knew he wasn't going to earn society's attention by releasing sloppy rehearsals. He knew to release great performances, with attention to detail.
And this philosophy applies to Hive too.
Hive's a fairly new platform. Plus the whole blockchain is fairly new, compared to other adopted technologies. For its current users, it probably seems "performance-ready." For me it is. I've made 6 posts in 6 days, and I'm having a blast. But that's the thing. The line between rehearsal and performance can blur. And it relies on people's perceptions. So, although we here at Hive may see Hive as performance-ready, the masses will see it as a rather awkward rehearsal.
And that's ok. Everyone's welcome to their perception. All we can do is do our best, get our material as ready as we can, and then try it as a performance. And there's always a time and a place for occasional behind-the-scenes stuff. There's room for roughness.
Let's explore my behind-the-scenes 'rehearsal' video above.
Even though @cynshineonline recorded me practicing, she also asked my permission to post it. I said yes because to me, it's actually a performance. Because there were 100+ practices I did in private before that was filmed. Some in my room. Some with a friend. Some in the mirror. And so even though it seems like you're seeing a rehearsal, I'm posting it on a public platform-- basically as a performance. I didn't fill my feed with the 100+ shitty rehearsals I did earlier, I'm carefully curating my feed and releasing a performance I felt was 'consumable,' just like Neistat does. No one bothers to film and release the half-assed rehearsals. And even if they did, others wouldn't pay attention. The point is...
Everything has the seeds of rehearsal and performance in it.
Even my Godzilla video has both rehearsal and performance in it. And things go smoother when everyone's clear about which aspect is intended. And for whom. When people are aware they're seeing a rough rehearsal, they have different expectations, and they're gentler. When people are convinced something is a polished performance ready for their consumption, they have different expectations. If they expect a performance (like people do on social) and instead, they're served up a rehearsal... they can be quite harsh.
When Uber first launched, it had some early adopters. Those people found it 'performance-ready.' (Or they realized it was a rehearsal, but were willing to patiently sit through the mistakes.) There were also a ton of people who ignored Uber. They saw it as an unpolished rehearsal with too many holes. They couldn't see it as a performance worth attending. Eventually, Uber plugged those holes, and mass adoption increased greatly. Uber was able to influence the perception of the masses, and convince them Uber was performance-ready.
So where does Hive land in all this?
Well, @LeoFinance has made it so people can easily migrate here from Twitter, which is a huge step towards performance-readiness. It's like a band abandoning garage gigs and securing a public venue where people can just walk in. I love it. But at the same time, it's a 3rd-party thing by 'the finance guys.' It's not built into Hive.
We can apply the same idea to my Godzilla cover. Is that video of me a rehearsal? A performance? Both? Is it more of one, more of the other? I can't tell you. It depends on your perception and expectations (which I do have some influence over.) I could've put out a version of me doing it from memory which would influence people to consider it more of a performance, less of a rehearsal.
And the same goes for Hive. I've been posting about marketing Hive quite a bit recently, and it ties right into this rehearsal vs. performance concept. Is Hive a performance for its users, but a rehearsal for the masses? Or is it one giant rehearsal? Or is it performance-ready for everyone? A blend of both?
Each of us can only answer that for ourselves.
In fact, "is this a sloppy rehearsal to be ignored? Or is it a performance worthy of my time?" is the subconscious judgment everyone who encounters Hive is making, whether we like it or not.
Thanks for reading, looking forward to your thoughts.