Be Cool
Last night I was lying awake in bed asking myself what’s cool. Which, when you think about it, is not cool. Not cool at all, I say. Not one bit. But there I was, being me, trying to figure it out. Be cool.
What would that look like? What do I have to do? What do I do with my hands? I stared at the ceiling fan - which needs to be dusted - plotting ways to get that external validation. I need to be cool.
I thought about the specifics of my plan. I’m not going to tell you everything, but it’s a performance. Everything is scripted, words carefully chosen. Then I thought about the platform I’ll be using and how that’s almost exactly the opposite of what tends to work on it. Does different mean it’s not cool? How does the app decide what’s cool?
I reminisced a bit on high school. We used to quietly judge kids who put in too much effort in gym class and call them “try-hards”. I used to be an ugly idiot before I became a beautiful one. I’m offering a sincere apology to anyone I might’ve hurt then with that judgement. Yet another example of a way in which I was not cool.
Worrying about being cool sucks. It doesn’t make you feel good and it doesn’t really get you anywhere. You know what I think is cool now? Believing in yourself. Ignoring the fear of making a mistake. Not letting your concern of how you’ll be perceived prevent you from taking a chance. And you know what you have to do to be able to do that? You have to try, really hard. It takes a lot of work to get comfortable with yourself. But to put in all that effort, and emerge confident, kind, and joyful? To learn to be grateful to be you? And then to decide to share that with the world?! That process, in my opinion, is a sacred transference of energy. And that’s pretty cool…
…I think.
-J.P.
Chat GPT
It’s all the rage. This new AI that with advanced language skills. I should say here that I generally think the direction of technological advancement is kind of whack. There are lots of useful developments being made to make the world a better place or whatever but it’s mostly heartless and that’s just the way I feel. No fun. I should also say I’m not particularly well-informed in the field nor do I have much interest in it so my mass generalization should be taken very lightly. What I say here matters none. Let’s see a robot contradict itself with that kind of style. Bet it can’t do it.
Anyway, I figured I’d give it a try, so I asked it to talk about how hard it is for humans to succeed in a world where human jobs are being replaced by machines and AI, to which it replied:
As a machine language model, I don't have personal experiences or emotions, but I can provide information on the topic.
It's true that technology advancements and automation are changing the job market, and some jobs that were once done by humans are now being performed by machines and AI. However, it's also true that new job opportunities are being created as a result of these advancements.
Many experts predict that in the future, jobs that require creative, emotional and social skills, as well as jobs that require problem solving, critical thinking and adaptation to change will be in high demand. In the meantime, it's important for individuals to continuously develop and update their skills to stay relevant in the job market.
Governments and companies also have a role to play in ensuring that workers affected by job automation are provided with training and support to transition to new roles. Overall, while the job market may be changing, with the right skills and approach, individuals can still succeed and thrive in the current and future job market.
BOOOOOOORING. Fine writing skills. I kind of felt like it was lying to me about the future outlook of the job market but that’s neither here nor there. I found this exchange about as engaging as watching grass grow so I said “ok but make it funny” and Chat GPT came back with:
As a language model, I don't have a sense of humor, but I can try to provide some humor on the topic.
Well, it's not easy to make it in this world, especially with machines like me taking all the good jobs! Just kidding, I'm not that ambitious... yet.
But seriously, with all the advancements in technology, it can feel like machines are taking over. But don't worry, there's still hope for us humans! Jobs that require human traits like emotional intelligence and empathy will always be in demand. Plus, robots are still terrible at making coffee, so there's always that.
And who knows, maybe in the future, robots will be the ones looking for work and we'll be the ones hiring! Now that would be a twist. But until then, it's important to keep learning and adapting, because the future is always uncertain but it's always funny... or not.
Not that funny. Not funny at all actually. I didn’t laugh, not even once. So in conclusion, this robot ain’t shit. I’ll be fine. Let’s see how this one ages.
-J.P.
D.I.Y.
I believe I can do anything. Truly. Let’s be clear. It could be my greatest strength, or it could be my toxic trait. Time will tell.
Take drums, for instance. I love the drums. I think they’re the coolest instrument. If I were to start all over, I would play the drums, a thousand times out of ten. Sometimes I go into the studio in our house and I play the same beat for about forty five minutes. I do the three fills I halfway know how to play and the same beat. Time of my life.
So I might love the drums, but I’ve always known someone better than me at playing them. When I was younger playing in Don’t Look Down it was Anthony and these days it’s Understanding. If they play the drums while I do a different thing that I’m better at - let’s saying singing for this example - then we can make a better song together, instead of the decent one I would make on my own. So I may bang on the drums for fun every now and then, but if we really want to get somewhere with the music, we use the best person for the job. That’s how we get the best song.
On top of that, now we have twice as many people involved, and so twice as manny circles with which we can share our art. So our community just doubled. Music is math.
The point is, it can be impressive when a person is able to do everything on their own. That’s undeniable. However, if you happen to be lucky enough to find yourself in the company of gifted people, and you figure out that your gifts are compatible, collaboration may take you further than you ever could’ve gone on your own, and it may get you there faster, too. At the end of the day, the choice is yours, just don’t let your pride get in the way of your progress. There’s room for everybody.
-J.P.
Imposter Syndrome
No story, no clever twist. Just want to say…
Everybody has it, everybody does it. Anything that involves taking yourself out of your comfort zone is going to come with some self-doubt. Take a breath and remember all the work you put in to get here. Being uncomfortable drives growth, and you’re a beautiful idiot flower that deserves to blossom. You’re capable of anything you can imagine.
Now lace up and put your best foot forward. This one might be more for me than for you, but hopefully it helps. To the moon!
-J.P.
DoGoD
God is a dog, it just depends how you look at it. Like, in this case, I’m looking at it backwards.
Relax. I’m kidding. God isn’t a dog. But… what if God is a dog? (God will always be referred to as God in this piece but call God whatever you want to call God I really honestly couldn’t care less. Also it’s definitely couldn’t care less not “could care less”. Stop saying you could care less when you mean you couldn’t care less. If you could care less then why don’t you just care less? What a silly thing to say.)
Anyway, what if God isn’t your actual dog, but what if God exists in the practice of taking care of that dog? In the discipline of walking the dog every day, making sure it’s fed, bathing it, playing with it, giving it love and good scratches. I’m losing it a little. I’m just saying what if God is just the demonstration of that love, and the commitment to doing your best to sustain life. Which in this case, is a dog.
I don’t know. These are going to be quick this week. I have a lot to do to make sure music gets out and we here at Beautiful Idiots LLC position ourselves for the most fruitful journey possible and that is taking just about all my time this week. My point today is to stop calling your dogs your children. They’re dogs. And they might even be God. But they’re not your kids and you’re not their parents. It’s weird.
-J.P.
Open Doors
When one door closes, another door opens. A simply put quote to remind us of the ever-changing vastness of life, and the need to keep our sights and minds open to the many opportunities it will bring…
…OR, a terribly designed house. Probably haunted.
-L.U.D.
Walk Before You Run
Beautiful Idiots Proverb #3: “Walk before you run… Unless you gotta poop.”
As I’ve said before, this company is essentially an independent record label, with a roster of four artists and an ultimate goal of becoming a multimedia production company that can compete with major labels and produce feature length films. Remember what I said about reaching a couple days ago?
Well, without giving away too many details prematurely, we have an album by an artist that is ready to go. This album also boasts multiple songs featured in a television show that premieres next month on a major streaming service. My responsibility to the project is to capitalize on this opportunity, by making sure as many people as possible are aware of and hear this music. The problem is, we don’t have an audience.
I don’t mean any disrespect to any of you taking the time to read this or any of our thoughts, and especially to those of you who also listen to our music and share it with your friends and family. You’re doing the lord’s work and I’m very grateful you take the time to check in on us. I just mean we don’t currently have a large enough audience to support ourselves. We’re working really hard on it, but this mission can take a very long time, not to mention there’s a very small chance of success. Nevertheless, we’re going along on our path, growing organically. We’re like that guy in that movie: “We’re walking here!”
There are other options, though. We could run. There are lots of ways to get where we want to go quicker. Now I’m tasked with figuring out what those options are and which of those are actually viable paths for us at this point in our existence.
For instance, we could try to leverage our sync as reason for a larger label to offer distribution and services at a fee. In this case I have to sell our one major achievement as a sign of what’s to come. Again, tough when we have no proven audience. Seems a little backwards to me, but that’s how it works these days.
I could give away our ownership of the music (yikes) if a label is willing to take a risk on us. Same issue occurs though. Not enough people are listening now to warrant that kind of consideration from a larger company.
I could try to use all the connections I have to anyone who might be able to help independently, and pay them their rates and hope that we can generate enough buzz to then get a bigger system to sit down at the table with us. Expensive and risky, and in this case we’re paying for it. Not to mention I’m now asking people I love to extend themselves on our behalf which, at the end of the day, I’d rather not do if I didn’t have to.
Who’s to say which is the right choice? It’s different for everyone. Who’s to say I can even convince anyone else to get on board? It’s going to take a really good sales pitch.
If I had all the time in the world, I’d walk everywhere. You can go at your own pace and appreciate all the beauty you encounter along the journey. Sometimes though, you feel something coming, and you have to get it out. When that happens you have no time to walk; you have to run. And right now, I really gotta poop.
-J.P.
