I got a comment on my blog yesterday referencing the way I ended my last post (the joke about end-of-post blog tallies). The commenter seemed to think that I was making a personal dig at my ex-girlfriend Kristina, who uses said tallies in her blog.
Bit of a leap, no? Isn’t that like saying I’m having a go at Kristina by saying I don’t like the colour green?
(I actually DO like green, but that’s not the point.)
Point is, there are a huge amount of blogs in the world. I took a general trait of many of them and referenced it in mine. If you instantly associated it with one person, you need to read more blogs. Start with Jane Espenson’s; she’s marvellous.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because the commenter said that they were not going to watch any of my videos again and didn’t want to read any of my blogs, etc, because I’d said something they didn’t like.
And my response was, “okay”.
The issue of today is: does that make me an arrogant twatty etc person because I don’t scramble to get this person to continue enjoying my content?
I think no, and I’d like to explain why.
First of all, I obviously love having you guys around. You’re passionate, and you engage with me and it’s lovely. But I’ve never lied to you about what to expect from me. You get someone who’s quite frank about his opinions and isn’t afraid to voice them, someone who always strives to be entertaining and hopefully succeeds more often than not, and who tries to be versatile in his content so you don’t get bored. It’s an unspoken agreement that I’ve made with you and I hope to live up to it. I think I’m here to inspire discussion, and you’re here because you’re interested in listening to/participating in that discussion.
I was sparked by something Steve Jobs said on the All Things Digital stage yesterday. For those that don’t know, Steve Jobs (the co-founder and current CEO of Apple Inc.) is something of a hero of mine. He has a single-minded focus on his products, doesn’t see the point in doing something unless it’s going to be world-changing, always cares about making his creative content as good as it can be, and is at the same time able to maintain a relaxed and relatable presence during his assorted interviews and keynote speeches.
The issue in question was about Flash on the iPad, something of a buzzworthy topic of late, given that Steve (I don’t like referring to people by their surnames) published an open letter called “Thoughts On Flash” … I don’t want to get to into it for people that haven’t followed it or don’t care, but the point is that the iPad doesn’t support flash, and so Steve had some questions to answer. Questions like “don’t you feel you’re crippling your device?” and “isn’t it unfair for the consumers?” and such.
Steve responded, quite simply, with words to the effect of “well then they don’t have to buy it. I’m not forcing them to buy it.”
(Incidentally, Charlie has this same approach. He’s been very conscious of the fact that people come across as whorey sellouts on YouTube when they begin selling things – even things that they’ve put a lot of work into, like music. In Charlie’s case, he’s always wanted to design and sell a range of t-shirts. That’s a childhood dream of his. But he always makes it clear, and says explicitly in his videos: “look, if you don’t wanna buy these, then just don’t.”)
That really spoke to me, because sometimes, that unspoken agreement between consumers and creators starts to feel like a power struggle. The assumption seems to be that I can do whatever I want, until enough people start liking me, and then I have to do what THEY want, even though they only liked me because I played by my own rules.
Of course, we want to make things that you guys love. But if you don’t love it, and it makes you want to leave, I think that’s okay. I would never be stupid enough to think that I could please everyone, so when all’s said and done, what matters is that I have to love my own content, and that has to be enough. Love of the product – love of art for the sake of art, not for the sake of trying to please people – should come first.
So in the case of my blog commenter, I stand by my harmless remark and submit that if you interpreted it the wrong way, there’s nothing I can do. It’s in your head. I think, ultimately, people place more value on someone who is willing to stand by their choices and outlooks than they would on someone who will compromise him-or-her-self to please a majority. Certainly, I know I do.
x
