I find myself staring in the distance as I hear the sound of a new email coming in. It’s another one of Kyle McDougall’s ‘Field Notes’ emails.
I manage to bring myself back to the present and open the email. The e-mail contains a list of DOs and DON’Ts for 2021. Interesting. I quickly scan the email as I notice my eyes linger over point number three in the list of DOs
Make something for a group of people, not everyone.
Funny. I was just thinking about that. I continue reading the email but find myself stopping again at point number five in the list of DON’Ts.
Don’t try to please everyone
There’s even a parentheses that reads “this one is especially important!”.
The timing couldn’t be better as I was just doing some soul searching regarding my own work. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if I’m being too friendly with my work. Too safe. Too scared to receive some bad comments.
It’s not like I haven’t had them before. Though in the past, a bad comment has lead me to trying even harder to make better work. Now I think that’s a bad strategy. Or at least I try to think that as often as I can. When somebody does not like your work, it might not be for them. It might be for somebody else.
I figured I should write a more articulate point on the matter of producing work for yourself, or a core audience, but I haven’t structured my thoughts well enough. Let this first blog post be the first step in formulating a coherent opinion. Hopefully I can write down a better story in the future.
Let’s just leave it at that for now.