⌛ How Consistent Practice Transforms Talent · The Bunker #91
In this week's post, we will talk about talent and creativity WORKED. I want to show you the true power of simply knowing new definitions of what you have understood all your life.
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The Bunker #00 · Welcome
This week we're going to do things a bit differently. This week I wanted to talk about a topic that has bothered me a lot on a personal level over the past few years until I learned how to cope with it.
Today we'll talk about:
Impostor syndrome
Work vs. talent. Experience vs. talent.
Cultivated creativity
Once understood, how to create unique and new things.
Before we start with this week's article, I wanted to make a small call to action.
If you are an active consumer of The Bunker, and you are reading this right now, I would be thrilled if you left a comment on this post saying “👋🏻” so I can see how many people actively consume this newsletter, despite what I can already see in Substack's stats.
As designers, we are undeniably immersed in the world of creativity, interpretation, creation, and innovation. A field that is not like being a bus driver, where you just sit in a car and go from stop to stop (without undervaluing these people, as I know they have a lot of patience, experience, and skill in driving—without them, Barcelona and many cities would be chaos, so a thousand thanks!).
But deep down, you understand what I mean. We find ourselves in the field of creation, and this undeniably brings us to the point of:
How cool what others do.
How crappy what I do.
Or:
What an amazing design and details this creator is capable of.
I always get the same result or the level is never the same.
(Obviously, this is an exaggerated and dramatic scenario, but this post is heading in that direction because every designer will go through this, regardless of how you handle it).
The other day I was listening to one of my favorite content creators (in Spanish), Elias Lozano—a pixel art artist, a technique that requires a lot of attention to detail and especially a lot of practice.
The other day, while listening to him, he read a comment from a follower saying, “How do you have the ability to get to these details, you are very talented.” To which he replied: “Actually, I don't think I'm a very talented person, I've just practiced a lot and have a lot of experience.”
A very interesting response, and something I wanted to bring to the table.
In reality, we have always perceived creativity as something you are born with, especially this is accentuated when you are 6 years old (i.e., no life experience) and you put 3 children to draw a plane, one makes a potato and the other makes a super detailed plane. That's when it's said “this child has talent.”
And it's true, there is a part of talent and a capacity for photographic memory in that boy, who, upon seeing a plane, was able to remember the details.
But as Cristiano Ronaldo once said: Talent without work is nothing.
And what I want you to think about this week, in case you feel a bit like this, is: Really, I can be as good as I want to be.
Because now you know that:
Innate creativity, innate talent.
Can be overcome by:
Cultivated creativity.
Obviously, the second is what can cost the most, because some things only depend on experience, and when something depends on experience and practice, people don't have the patience to wait to be good enough.
What I'm getting at is that a person with talent, if they don't end up working on it, will not be able to take advantage of that talent.
And a super hardworking person who "doesn't have talent," can reach the same level (or more), just by how much they have worked.
And this response from Elias Lozano surprised me because I myself was talking to my partner: “What an amazing guy, the ability he has to get to these details.” When really (obviously there is talent), but this guy is the reflection of pure work, practicing and practicing until being what he considers good enough, and surely, being enough is never enough, you will never stop practicing.
Like those who go to the gym, where the hard part is starting, then it's hard to stop because you keep evolving, seeing yourself well, and wanting more and more.
And all this story can be very well linked with web design and everything we do: That's why they keep telling you, practice as much as you can, work as much as you can. It's important to get your hands dirty.
It was just a matter of redefining what creativity is, and making you discover that creativity and the result of your design is the fruit of the work you have practiced in the last 1-5-10 years.
And this is not advice for fools, but I hope it has lifted some weight off your shoulders.
Until next time,
Jordi Espinosa.
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