For art's sake

Written May 23, 2011

Ahhhh yoga... I always walk out feeling like it was exactly what I needed and tonight was no exception. The instructor shared a great metaphor at the beginning of class about the Cave of Forgotten Dreams and how people have an innate desire to create and leave their mark on the world. In the deepest darkest parts of these caves lies unmistakably human artwork that has survived more than 30,000 years.

The focus for tonight's class was on our inner being - what lies within our metaphorical cave that we long to share with the world - and the belief that the true cultured expression of this is our art. I'm butchering the instructor's eloquent words with this description, but something about what she said really resonated with me.

Often we hear entrepreneurs say that they want to "change the world," and for some reason that phrase is inherently tied to making a positive impact on humanity. But the truth is that people like Hitler, Sadaam Hussein, and Osama Bin Ladin set out to change the world and succeeded. There is something about the ability to affect the lives, choices, and behaviors of other people that we find intrinsically motivating, regardless of whether it's for good or evil.

Work and art do not have to fit neatly into these binary categories. Technology companies are undoubtedly changing the world, but they're not fighting famine and disease, nor are they committing genocide. Think about electricity, the printing press, the fax machine, the cell phone, Twitter... It's tough to argue that these inventions are either inherently good or evil, but they have all certainly impacted the world to varying degrees.

When you hear someone say that they want to create the next Google or Facebook (or whatever is hot at the moment), what they're really saying is that they want to be hugely disruptive to society. I bet if you asked Mark Zuckerberg if he would have rather earned his fortune from a lottery ticket or in a Vegas casino he'd think you were crazy for even asking. It's not about money or fame.

We all want to create work and art that survives long after we leave this world. I simply want to create something that doesn't yet exist and I want it to impact the world, not necessarily for better and certainly not for worse, but simply because that's what gives it (and by definition me) meaning. It's a creative and artistic expression of myself - art for art's sake.