The Downside of Good Taste

The first way to increase poverty in the United States follows fairly obviously from that definition [of poverty as material deprivation relative to the norm in society] – namely, to increase the standard of living. Raise the consumption level of the typical American and you create more poverty. When Ford invented the auto he created poverty. When Zworykin invented TV he created more poverty. Raise the standard decade after decade and you create more (relative) poverty even while you are wiping out the old-fashioned (starvation) kind of poverty. “Solely as a result of growing affluence, a society will elevate its notions of what constitutes poverty.” --Wesleyan University economic historian Stanley Lebergott


                         The Downside of Good Taste

An observation on the creative act that has a general application by Ira Glass:

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.

A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.

Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."