Does everyone have a creative spirit?
Siobhan Spain, former director of Mainframe Studios, joins us to talk about the Des Moines StArtist Community and the origin stories of the largest non-profit studio building in the nation. We also discuss how to brew culture from within, First Fridays, exploring new technologies, monthly web3dsm events, artificial intelligence, artists in residencies, and the diffusing value of your brain on art.
Welcome to my new weekly podcast, inspired by stories brewed from within. To celebrate the launch of You Don’t Need This Podcast, listen as I articulate a caffeinated manifesto for this podcast, introduce our friendly co-host (BEN BOT) and invite you to join in on the fun every Wednesday morning. Cheers!
Air travel is an elevated time to shake and move above the clouds. Elevation makes us all feel successful, so hammering on some work or catching up on a good read/listen/watch feels great, but a nap is just as nice.
Think back to the last time you warped time by catching a mid-flight nap. Suddenly, a flight attendant shatters your peaceful slumber—not to share a friendly update for passengers but to rattle off a forced sales pitch for their branded credit card. Ouch.
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Attention is hard to earn.
If you have it, don’t waste it.
Now, imagine an alternate scenario. Instead of unwanted interruption followed by an impersonal script that makes us feel like prisoners instead of appreciated customers, what if the same offer felt more like a special little gift?
How might it feel to hear that you have been selected to receive a free beverage or tasty snack, paired with that same credit card application as a convenient napkin? This tasty presentation would naturally snag the attention of nearby passengers. As word of mouth amplifies interest, similar offers could be made for those willing to complete the silly credit card application. Engage or don’t, but this quiet surprise feels less forced and can become more of a complimenting gesture to show customer appreciation.
That’s just a thought exercise, but we’ve all sat in situations where we were part of a captive audience. There is a fine line and a big difference between adding or detracting from an experience after interest is sparked or sales are made.
How do we treat our existing customers? Do they get attention only when there are issues or you have more to sell? How might we inspire more lasting joy by slowing down, setting efficiency aside, even letting go in a way? Instead of being careless with earned attention, consider unexpected ways to delight customers, which will remind them why they chose you in the first place. Giveaways, handwritten notes, or any gesture that shows you care will retain better customers.
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“Once you wow an audience, the same trick may not work anymore.” -Seth Godin, Free Prize Inside
How we treat existing customers sets the scene and determines the realities of attention retention. When customers feel thoughtfulness, they will stick around because they care as much as you do. This translates into customer retention because true fans take pride in staying connected. They have more patience when issues arise and get excited to share your charming work with others.
By connecting the global datasphere with computer vision, machine learning, and language modeling, computer science has paved the way for artificial intelligence.
Machines have long used human logic to automate routine and AI is not new, so why has this form of knowledge engineering earned so much attention lately? It’s because AI has learned to speak our language.
Language modeling has taught our digital counterparts how to articulate what it already knows. Not in some robotic, 8-bit voice. AI is now conversational. For example, chatbots are informative, engaging, and entertaining humanoids, while generative AI uses neural networking to transform simple prompts into impressive visuals.
When innovation threatens the status quo, a common response is fear followed by complacency. This is evident in the argument that AI will take all our jobs. Yes, advancing technology will continue to reduce the need for humans to turn knobs and here’s a 2023 Cornell University study on how large language models may impact labor markets. Gone are the days of clocking in on time and keeping your head down just long enough to climb a ladder built to resist change. The willingness to play it safe may extend a sense of temporary security, but this is a choice that makes you easy to replace with cheaper labor and faster tools. To remain indispensable, let AI dine on the dull, devour inefficiencies, and support our own ingenuity.
Start a journey before you see the end. Knowledge is required, but for students, intrapreneurs, and entrepreneurs who stay creative, it’s impossible to compete with being you! As AI munches on mediocre, more of us are invited to build without a map. To make a ruckus with no permission required. To do something for the love of doing it and to care enough to fail.
AI won’t take your job. People who use AI will. It’s a lousy time to be complacent and the perfect time to be creative.
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BEN BOT goes online April 1st.
Storytelling, enhanced with trapped time, defines our civilization.
Voices were first translated into writings to stretch the impact. Humanity continued to bring the past to life with audio, photos, and then video. We’re now adding telepathic communication and other weird ingredients to the technology soup that’s made to trap time. Leaders who leverage these tools are time trappers who wield an ability to more actively appreciate life experiences.
To test your time trapping skills, grab a device and look through your own creative content. Whether it’s writings, audio, photos, video, or other types of art, go back to see what was captured this week. Now, rewind further. Revisit this day last year, two years ago, five years ago, and ten years ago. Embrace nostalgia, then consider the quantity, quality, and different types of content you’ve created.
Avoid distractions and stay in the moment, but if you’d like to enhance your time trapping capability, think of fun ways to create more organized content. This may be journalling, recording a podcast series, finding a day dedicated to taking an exorbitant amount of photos, or editing a video from individual clips. As content comes together, organize it and push past fear by shipping the art. Creation, organization, and sharing will avoid everything going numb within a device. The value in doing this can be seen as we write into physical notebooks or treasure a healthy bookshelf; when music lovers choose vinyl over endless streaming or that live theater performance compared to any TV show. Exertion from those generous enough to create, organize, and ship their art makes thoughtful time trapping more demanding, but more fulfilling as we extend time beyond the moment.
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We are already cyborgs and biotech will further augment the way we seamlessly capture, organize, and share our realities. Until we autonomously enhance our bandwidth, telling a story, writing, recording audio, taking photos, or shooting video will still take manual effort. Let’s mitigate the risk of AI and optimized efficiency, but might the elbow grease required to set each time trap make our personal creations more memorable? Yes, and even as future tools add ease, ingenuity and creativity will remain an essential currency that adds heartfelt context to trapped time.
Without a thesis, care enough to habitually go beyond what’s expected. When premium human time and ambitious initiative becomes a fundamental part of your creative practice, you’ll be an active time trapper who stays in-tune, organized, and inspired with timeless purpose.