Image: D3OL in 3D Inflated Text (D3OL 2023)

Before I begin, I want to wish all the readers a happy April! Over the weekend, I came back from Plano for a tech competition. I registered to participate in 3 sections, but was only able to complete 2. The reason for that was I overslept. All the preparation I had done to feel ready for the competition, all went down the drain because of my carelessness. So whilst everyone was participating in their competition or doing their own thing, I went to their local park and began to sulk.

I was tempted to tell myself, “Well at least you are here. Many people don’t even take the steps to challenge themselves.” I understand that this way of thinking is meant to help one feel better but I think that it could become counterproductive. I say this because it implies one’s value is inherently tied to their ranking within society. Furthermore, it could allow for one to become complacent with their life. Whether complacency is good or not can be a topic for another day. 

What I do believe is that one should rather compare their current self to their past self when trying to gauge the improvement they have made. At the same time, I can acknowledge how one comparing themselves to the previous version of themselves could be negative as well. 

One thing I always think about is what I would do when sponsors begin to send proposals for advertisement. I am aware that a common goal for online creators is to make passive income from their endeavors. When they reach the level they strive for, I feel as though the “soul” of the work or the very thing that resonated with the audience in the first place gets lost. The creator’s works begin to go sterile, in an attempt to look more appealing to advertisers. However, I do not want the takeaway to be that I am against online creators making money…online. I am just curious how one can go about monetizing their works in a way that keeps passion in their work and allows them to sustain themselves in the long term.

You may have noticed that the cover art for this essay is in 3D. I was able to make it using Blender and the tutorial above. It was fairly straightforward but of course, when it is your first time doing something new, you won’t be the best at it. I see the potential of the software so I am fairly optimistic with what I can do with it. Maybe do some type of VFX animation? Who knows.

I know I have touched on this topic before but I recently relistened to Naval Ravikant’s podcast episode called “How to Get Rich,” and one of the quotes that really stuck out to me was when he said that “…there’s diminishing returns. So, it’s much easier to be in the top 5 percentile at three or four things than it is to be literally the number one at something.” (Naval 2019) To add onto that, I think the things that one works to be proficient in should be skills that can be applied in multiple different sectors.

So for example, rather than looking to be good at painting, one should instead look into learning color theory and proportions. They are able to apply that knowledge to not only painting, but photography, fashion, etc. In the long run, learning skills that can be applied broadly compared to learning a specific practice/software can allow one to “future proof” themselves for years to come.

The way I am applying this idea is by learning the skills that can be applied to different sectors, then tying the ideas together and executing them using whatever technology of my choice. This way, I can continue to participate in many of the mediums that interest me without having to feel guilty for jumping from one thing to another.

The song recommendation for this essay is “The Flowers Called Nowhere” by Stereolab. Everytime I listen to it, it makes me feel like it’s springtime (IDK if that makes sense) but thank you for reading!

Daniel