When I was in high school, I listened to a lot of obscure music. I still listen to some of it, and it's really quite good. But I must admit that aside from the quality, part of the pleasure comes from knowing that most people have never heard of Camper Van Beethoven, Big Audio Dynamite, The Lightning Seeds or the Trashcan Sinatras, for example.
Why do I enjoy that stuff? What's so great about listening to music that most people have overlooked? I already mentioned the quality, and most of it was really creative and different from standard radio pop-40. I think it also has something to do with a sense of independence and individuality. I listen to this music because I like it, not because everyone else likes it. But I think there's something even deeper going on here...
If you want to be creative and think differently from the maddening crowds all around you, I think it helps to expose yourself to unusual things (music, ideas, etc). That's one reason I tend to read old books (i.e. G.K. Chesterton), obscure books (i.e. The Hacker Ethic by Pekka Himanen) and otherwise unusual books (i.e. AnOther by ee cummings). And that's probably why I haven't read Gladwell's Blink, or Friedman's The World Is Flat or Levitt's Freakanomics. It's not that those books aren't good - I'm sure they are. Being popular does not make them bad - it just makes them common... and I'm constantly on the lookout for the uncommon...
Eclectic antics & observations on design, writing and demolishing the status quo
1 comment:
So Blink is actually good. What's weird is that I found it simply by doing a search in the library for creativity and innovation and up pops all these books. That fact alone was fanatastic because I thought "Look at all these books I get to read." By the way, I like to read, and thus my thought above. I couldn't believe there were that many books on creativity and innovation in our own library that I didn't even have to pay for. I know it's weird, but it's true. And it's cool.
-Gabe
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