me_irl

My baby niece started bobbing up and down when a song came on, happily waving her little fists and shaking her little diaper butt.

I was like "that's terrible, you'll never be a star, keep your day job you untalented hack!"

My partner made up a word - Dysfunctionlust: the pleasure you get from doing something that you feel no pressure to be good at.

She's quite a good writer but super hard on herself about it, whereas drawing is a dysfunctionlust for her and so quite relaxing.

It's based on the German word funktionslust: the joy of an organism doing what it's meant to do, like a dog running.

Be the change you want to see, no one will stop you. I certainly won't.

Capitalism causes us to commodotize everything. I saw this switch as well during the 2000s in Internet culture. It went from people making websites about their cats and stuff to people chirping out "but how will that be profitable?!" in response to most ideas.

....

She does realize birds are literally in a clmpetition trying to find a mate, right? Right?

This only applies if you give a shit what other people think of you doing innocuous things.

Paint a terrible picture and have fun doing it. Dance your way down the sidewalk when the mood strikes you. Sing whenever you want. Sometimes I'm in the grocery store and they start playing a banger on the speakers, damn right I'm gonna sing along to it while I'm evaluating the pros and cons of competing spaghetti packages.

I've been playing music for over 14~ years and I personally love that it is difficult and I always have something to work on

I want to be good at it. I will be good at it. I don't feel bad because I'm not a gifted musician. I play for myself and improvement is an amazing feeling as a musician.

And if you show any ability above terrible, everyone starts telling you about how much money you can make.

Fuck off. I do this for me.

I think these things still exist on the full spectrum of “feels human, so do it!” to “you’re so great, it’s a skill you can use to earn a living.” There are tons of things like this. Cooking, massage, comedy, playing an instrument…nearly any service or entertainment skill. Believe me, ain’t nobody gonna pay to hear me sing (maybe to stop…), but I still sing along at the top of my lungs (when it won’t torture anyone) because it makes me feel happy!

ETA: This is nothing new. See “bards.”

I mean... Those things are all skills. They are skills anyone can develop barring some kind of disability (you're probably not gonna be singing if you don't have a larynx, for example).

As long as it's not your sole source of income why would you give a shit about being good at it as long as you enjoy it?

Real I'm 14 and this is deep vibes.

Nobody's gonna stop you from doing any of that. Well, maybe from singing in public but that's less about skill and more about not disturbing others by being loud and obnoxious.

Only if you let them. I do all these things without regard to skill. Maybe surround yourself with more laid back people?

It's even worse when the point isn't even to get good at them, but rather to make money off of them.

Sometimes I imagine how human life could be like if we weren't trained to live within such narrow uncomfortable lines and it's kind of sad

I think I get the point they're making, but eeehhh? I don't think "art is something inherently human" and "you can (and maybe even should!) be improving your abilities in art" are in conflict with each other. Humans have been able to make art for as long as we've been human, but we've also had an implicit understanding of seeing two pieces of art and picking which ones we preferred in the moment. Capitalism didn't really change that, we've had masters and apprentices since antiquity.

Couldn't we say that the desire to make better art and the anxiety that comes with examining your own progress just as easily be called a behaviour unique to humans?

(Edit: writing that last part made me come up with the image of bees that have imposter syndrome about how they build their hives and I don't know how to feel about that)

Counterpoint, modern art has desperately tried to move into the territory of "things people just do" and its terrible.

Fine arts and the old arts are pretty goddamn spectacular in comparison.

Skill and effort should be celebrated, and people should also be able to just do.

I don't get it. Do all of it if it makes you happy, but get paid if you can and love doing what you do...

i write because i hate myself and writing is pain.

....if you want to just make art or sing, no one is stopping you. You don't need to treat it like a mountain you're required to summit. You know what? This post is pretty shitty, too.

Birds sing and make hives literally with purpose, what a stupid example to use.

I’m terribly bad at all three by societal standards but I enjoy all three when no one is around.

(Or atleast I did, before I got a chronic illness that prevents me from doing them)

Sounds like a job for AI! That way we'll have more time for washing dishes and folding clothes.

Wait until smiling is commercialized! Then if you smile and you're not a professional smiler you'll be mocked (but with a straight face).

As someone who loves to sing and make music, as someone who loves to dance and to be crafty, and as someone who inherently sucks at it - especially the music part, I can't tell or hold a rhythm, let alone a note - this post really got me. I often feel like I am not allowed to sing or join or like I have to hide that I used to play guitar and write songs for hours when I was a teen and young adult. Because I was never good at it. Because the chords were just strummed. The chords didn't fit the melody in my head and I could not sing the melody as it was in my head. And I just suck at it. And still, it brought me so much joy. It was such a big part of my life. I loved it.

I now sing songs to my daughter when we are in public. I pretend it is because she wants to hear them. It's a great alibi. (She often doesn't like my singing.) Sometimes she joins in. This is the best. There is no better sound in the world.

I'm ok at writing. But even this - I am a biomedic, not a writer. I didn't study linguistics or literature or politics or journalism, I am absolutely not in the writing world. I can't write professionally, so why should I even write. There are tons of more talented people who actually learned how to write out there. I leaned out of the window and got a side gig while I was on mat leave and wrote for a blog 2-4 times a month for a year. It was the best. I was paid peanuts but these were the tastiest lil' peanuts I've ever devoured.