Obvious to you, Amazing to Others

Hey friends,

It's fairly late and I'm struggling to come up with ideas so this might not be a great one but I hope you don't mind. Today I want to talk to you about a Derek Sivers blog post where he talks about that when you teach or put something out on to the internet (like this) or even in person you think uh this is so obvious he/she isn't interested. But here's what Derek Sivers says in his blog post.

Any creator of anything knows this feeling:
You experience someone else’s innovative work. It’s beautiful, brilliant, breath-taking. You’re stunned. Their ideas are unexpected and surprising, but perfect.
You think, “I never would have thought of that. How do they even come up with that? It’s genius!”
Afterwards, you think, “My ideas are so obvious. I’ll never be as inventive as that.”
I get this feeling often. Amazing books, music, movies, or even amazing conversations. I’m in awe at how the creator thinks like that. I’m humbled.
But I continue to do my work. I tell my little tales. I share my point of view. Nothing spectacular. Just my ordinary thoughts.
One day someone emailed me and said, “I never would have thought of that. How did you even come up with that? It’s genius!”
Of course I disagreed and explained why it was nothing special.
But afterwards, I realized something surprisingly profound:
Everybody’s ideas seem obvious to them.
I’ll bet even John Coltrane or Richard Feynman felt that everything they were playing or saying was pretty obvious.
So maybe what’s obvious to me is amazing to someone else?
Hit songwriters often admit that their most successful hit song was one they thought was just stupid, even not worth recording.
We’re clearly bad judges of our own creations. We should just put them out there and let the world decide.
Are you holding back something that seems too obvious to share?

This is a post that I return to several times a year, and every time I read it it resonates on a deeper level than it did before. As more people actually listen to me, the fear of this is too obvious increases.

Have a great week!

Conor

PS: If you liked that post, definitely check out Derek Sivers' other stuff. Here's a good place to start.


My Favourite Things This Week

Hike - Went on hike a few days ago. Was good craic.

Quote of The Week

The Rich man is he who is content with what he has.