“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
Ernest Hemingway
There are two types of competitiveness – intrinsic and extrinsic – the latter is when you compete with other people, the former when you keep trying to better yourself. I was once paired (at his request) with my boss, the head of digital at Channel 4, on a training programme. It turned out he, mild-mannered though he was, was fiercely competitive with others. The same diagnostic test showed that I was completely opposite and competed with myself. I was happy and comfortable with that revelation. Bettering yourself is growth and growth is what we naked apes are all about.
We tend as humans to strive for certainty and definition, hard lines and comprehensible patterns, familiar routines and rituals. Life, however, is rarely certain or hard edged. We don’t know how long we have here on earth. Sometimes it’s tempting to follow a leader just to have some clear rules to obey. We may well want a rest from change. But change is the essence of growth and more often than not is complex, interdependent and not entirely predictable. What’s most interesting and inspiring in life is hard to pin down and fully define. You can’t draw in black lines the feeling of walking home after your first kiss. Uncertainty is full of promise…
The activity is the thing that I’m most interested in. Nearly everything that I’ve done was to see what would happen if I did this instead of that. [Robert Rauschenberg]
Estate (1963) Oil and silkscreen ink on canvas
It’s when you’ve found out how to do certain things, that it’s time to stop doing them, because what’s missing is that you’re not including the risk. [Robert Rauschenberg]
Robert Rauschenberg 1968
Experimenting is central to creativity. The mentality is as much science as art. What will happen if I try this? What will happen if I change this element?
By definition, sometimes in the process of being creative you must fail. In such a context, failing is always learning. Risk is essential to creativity, change and growth. If you don’t give it a try, you will never know. Now is the moment in the year to take a risk and try something new.
I had a conversation about this with my brother over the weekend. He is just about to move house after a couple of decades bringing up his family in his current place. He sees staying put in one location forever as a kind of defeat. Change, adventure, “missions” (as he put it) are all critical to living a good last third of life. Changing place is one obvious way of progressing. Changing attitude or outlook is another perfectly achievable way. Anywhere where you try this instead of that – these surroundings instead of those, this positivity instead of that grumpiness, this uprightness instead of that stooping, these clothes worn with purpose instead of those just thrown on, this fresh work trajectory instead of that familiar repetition, this risk instead of that dull comfort.
Eve Arnold was the first female photographer to join the legendary Magnum photo agency. She died on 4th January 2012 at the age of 99.
The technical quality of photographs and moving pictures on celluloid is rarely the essence of the creativity or creative insight.
This iconic photo by fellow Magnum photographer Robert Capa was fucked up in the lab but that didn’t really matter, perhaps even added to the sense of chaotic motion.
This beyond harrowing, world-changing picture could have been taken on any camera but the (long unacknowledged) photographer was the source of capturing the telling moment, little to do with his camera.
As we wrestle with the advent of AI and machine learning, it is important we are clear about the role of the human and the value of the human as an instrument of ideas, creativity, progress and growth.
I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something. [Neil Gaiman]
Frank Sinatra reminds us to “Do Be Do”
As we enter a particularly uncertain new year, it’s a good moment to commit ourselves to moving forward, making progress, trying new things in the process, learning and living our days to the full – in short, growing… Wishing you all a fruitful and satisfying 2026.
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Simple Pleasures part 4 