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Screenshot of a Tumblr (I think) post from ‘hornedchick’, which reads: Kurt Vonnegut wrote: *When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of "getting to know you" questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What's your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don't play any sports. I do theater, I'm in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes. And he went WOW. That's amazing! And I said, "Oh no, but I'm not any good at ANY of them." And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: "I don't think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you've got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them." And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn't been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could "Win" at them."

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Screenshot of a Tumblr (I think) post from ‘hornedchick’, which reads: Kurt Vonnegut wrote: *When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of "getting to know you" questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What's your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don't play any sports. I do theater, I'm in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes. And he went WOW. That's amazing! And I said, "Oh no, but I'm not any good at ANY of them." And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: "I don't think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you've got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them." And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn't been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could "Win" at them."
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Christopher Phin (chrisphin@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 30-Aug-2023 20:45:18 JST Christopher Phin

This¹ popped into my feed again, and I want to add something else: being a bit shit at stuff and doing it anyway is specifically a radical, anti-capitalist act. ✊🏻 An underlying reason you want to do things well is because you’ve internalised the lesson that stuff only has value if it literally has economic value – if you can sell it.
Post your wonky drawings. Throw an ungainly pot. Make sub-par dinners. You’re literally smashing the system. ♥️
¹ From @ITOmarHernandez, reposted by @girlonthenet

In conversation Wednesday, 30-Aug-2023 20:45:18 JST from mastodon.social permalink