- Jun
- 29
- 2009
blog: plague of mediocrity
4:08PM by Brandon McCormick | Cetagories: Blogs and Thoughts
It’s a plague really.
Few things do more to disintegrate a culture and its progress than the plague of mediocrity.
Mediocrity is average, it’s unoriginal and it’s dangerously boring. In my experience, mediocrity is laziness, pure and simple. It’s worse than bad.
Often mediocre ideas are the ones that pop into your head first. It happens to everyone, a cliche thought or idea comes floating by your head. But most people stop right there.
The rule of thumb is, if it’s the first thing that came to your mind, it’s the first thing that came to your audience’s mind as well.
Hemmingway said, “The first draft of anything is sh*t.”
He couldn’t be more right.
The first draft of anything is mediocre.
But how often do we publish our first drafts and first ideas and then try to pass them as art?
I know I’m guilty of this.
The greats all have mediocre ideas, what separates them from the rest of the artists is that they seek to refine, push themselves and pursue an idea down to its most excellent end. They toil endlessly, wondering what is around the next corner, dreaming about what their idea could be. They fear their ideas aren’t good enough like the rest of us, but they endure on in the face of uncertainty.
The common theme with any artist or organization I admire is that they took the time to get it right. They didn’t rush out there to be the next big thing. They hunkered down, worked their craft and only then became an “overnight” success.
That’s not to say you won’t make bad stuff. You can work very very hard and still make bad art. I have many examples of this. But craftsmen work through their failures, they critically critique their work and grow out of the experience. But most importantly, they continue to do. They work diligently on the next idea, the next creation process.
The Japanese have a word for it. They call it Kaizen. It can be translated into “constant improvement”. With this Kaizen philosophy one is encouraged to critique his work, looking for weaknesses and inefficiency. Then cut away what is poor, and reinvent what is good. This is the only path to greatness, constant pursuit and hard work.
It’s time for us to stand up against this great plague. We must end it in ourselves and not tolerate it from those around us. Pursue your work with excellence, that is the simplest way to step around mediocrity. Put in the extra sweat, take that extra time, and think critically of your own work. Don’t measure yourself against others around you doing the same thing, but measure yourself against the greats, who took history and turned it on its head. Dare to dream to become the best.
The enemy:
Procrastination
Complacency
Laziness
Small Thinking
Plagerism
Brinksmanship
The Cure:
Perseverance
Craftsmanship
Discipline
Creativity through Limitation
Originality
To learn more detailed information about craftsmanship and it’s effect on art, I would recommend the book Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity.
esse quam videri
3 Responses to “blog: plague of mediocrity”
June 29th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Generations are plagued with mediocrity, we have accepted it in all facets of our life; relationships, work, even our idea of success. The great writers and musicians of the past worked through mediocrity in their craft, but settled for mediocrity in their relationships. I believe everyone is meant to be a renaissance man, we just lack the patience and testicular fortitude to work for it. This post needs to be discussed further at a scotch tasting party…when and where?
June 29th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Great post! I will definitely but this into practice as I create my films.