Risk in Science and Art

If you aren't risking anything is it even worth it?

Two quotes today on creativity:

"The trick to being truly creative, I’ve always maintained, is to be completely unselfconscious. To resist the urge to self-censor. To not-give-a-shit what anybody thinks. That’s why children are so good at it. And why people with Volkswagens, and mortgages, Personal Equity Plans and matching Louis Vutton luggage are not." —Linds Redding

"It's not Art unless you can fail miserably."

I am not a big fan of quotes because anyone can say anything and that doesn't make it true. But maybe if they are quoted by a kind of famous chick(me) some people will believe they are true?

I'm doing an Art show on August 19th and I believe it is boundary pushing work and really risky. You should definitely come! As I contemplate the work I start to question it and wonder if people will even understand it, feel it and really be able to experience it like I do. I even begin to question my sanity and wonder if my view of the world and my art is reasonable. But that’s when my Art is at it’s best. When I’m challenging even my own reality.

I like to view myself as a creative person, which is sometimes more true than others, but I am learning it is scary, mostly because you can fail miserably. Spending a lot of time on an idea that maybe it is not as interesting to other people as it is to me? Maybe it doesn't work out? Maybe it is really stupid and I am just being really biased?

Failing is really scary. Not failing like, “your experiment didn't work type of way” but catastrophic failure. You lose something. Reputation, money, friends. You make someone puke. The truth is though, If you're not risking anything is it even worth it?

That is a deep truth in any creative endeavor. In order to really do something amazing. Something no one else has done, requires a mix of knowledge and skill with a willingness to risk something. Risk plays a huge role. I think a much bigger role than most people know or are willing to admit. I would say that doing groundbreaking work is around 50% skill and 50% risk taking with a dash of luck. Maybe even more risk taking than skill. And while being able to take risks is essential in a creative endeavor you need to know enough to understand that drinking Vibrio cholera will kill you but drinking Heliobacter pylori will win you a Nobel Prize. Still, look at the hordes of people on social media who can paint, make memes or cook (not you, I have seen your food pictures and your cooking is mediocre at best). I would argue also that many scientists leave graduate school as experts in their craft. Yet, none of these skilled people will be Van gogh or a meme lord or contribute major scientific advancements because deep work will always be more than just execution.

To be honest, I didn't really start to have good ideas until I stopped being afraid of what other people think. It was hard in the beginning because when you bring a crazy idea to people (especially academics) they often give you that look of, what the fuck are you thinking? That's because most people can't see your vision and your job isn't necessarily to convince them (unless they are funding you in some way) but more your job is just to do the thing. So forget people and do stuff. I know, it's hard to not care what people think and then risk something. It's why so few people pursue things that require that sacrifice but that's also what makes it so important. If you want to do something interesting or different or impactful or profound you need to be operating in the realm of practice that very few other people can operate in. And I know it is uncouth to say this but there are also ideas that actually are just crazy/bad and you probably shouldn’t do them. There is a thin line sometimes. Having good ideas is like riding on a fucking unicycle drunk downhill carrying molotov cocktails. People are either going to be so excited you made it or horrified at what happened. That’s the reality and it’s why most people tend to stick to things in their life that are pretty generic and normal.

I get it. Life is hard. We are all just trying to survive. But it sometimes saddens me how little risk people are actually willing to take. That people are happy with doing Art, science, businesses, that don’t challenge themselves or anyone. Just scroll Instagram/Tiktok to see all the professional artists who create things so boring and ineffable it challenges only the dunces among us. More decoration than Art. Read news headlines about the x-teenth biotech company looking to create a drug to target the same disease 10 other companies are going after while using the same technology everyone else uses. It's pervasive, even to the point that academic scientists in 2023 still use fruit flies as model organisms (pew pew, shots fired).

It’s scary to take risks, really scary. Every single time I do it still freaks me out. But that’s what it takes to do something that is deep and impactful. Be willing to challenge yourself and challenge others in whatever it is you do.