Tenets explores the intersection of philosophy and the creative life. Drawing from traditions and thinkers across time, each post considers an enduring idea through the experience of making, seeing, and creating. These are not lessons or answers, but thoughts to consider and carry into the work.
Source: Sun Tzu
Principle: Know Yourself
Creative Meditation: Knowing Your Creative Self
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
— Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter III
Know what you create well.
Know where your abilities fall short, but do not mistake every weakness for something that needs to be corrected.
Know what you create because it matters to you and what you create because you hope it will matter to others.
Know the difference between challenging yourself and forcing yourself to become a creator you are not.
Learn from the work of others without allowing their strengths to define your weaknesses.
Experiment freely, but recognize when experimentation becomes imitation.
Know when criticism can make the work better and when it merely asks you to make someone else's work.
Your tools can expand what you are capable of creating. They cannot tell you what is worth creating.
You do not need to master every medium, follow every trend, or pursue every opportunity.
The better you understand the creator you are, the less time you spend trying to become the creator you think you should be.