Originality
What does originality mean to you?
Where does originality come from?
Where does your originality come from?
What has been your most original work?
Do you believe that true originality exists?
How do you cultivate originality within yourself as an individual?
How do we cultivate originality as a society?
How might embracing our originality / uniqueness as individuals help us be more creative?
How might embracing our originality / uniqueness as individuals help us live more happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives?
How might leaders better cultivate and utilize the originality of those they lead?
What's something you want to take from this conversation into this weekend?
Things that come to mind with thinking about originality in the modern age might be how originality relates to AI, how original creativity is often substituted for copy or templates, the expensive price tags given to original things, and originality among individual humans.
When looking at something like AI, we know that its capabilities are based on algorithms, patterns, and reference materials, therefore, it is hard to argue that AI can be original at all. An example might be Midjourney, an AI program that produces new images from a prompt. One could argue that the image produces is ana original piece but at the same time another could argue that the prompt and AI were based on previous references and therefore it is more of a "remix" as in mixing different ideas together rather than an original piece.
When talking about original creativity versus using a copied template, it takes work to be original in creativity. It is sad to say but many people in the field and in education are reporting that young people in the modern age are demanding more of these copied templates. Growing up in an age where Google, calculators, and many other technologies have been designed to make our lives easier, it is often common to think that templates, something easy, would be acceptable to pass as us doing the work. Original creativity takes time, effort, and thought - things that many of the younger people of society have found ways to expend less and less each day. Instead of us all doing the work again and again, let's expend this energy once to create AI that will do the work for us in the future. Sounds like a good solution, right? But originality had to come from somewhere. Even AI had an original design that came from its designers.
What about stories? They had to come from somewhere, right? Stories are often written by the winners and stolen from the losers. We can attribute some of the limited views of diversity to the people who write history. But who gets the credit where credit is due? Stories come from our lived experiences, beliefs, ideas, dreams, and views. Stories might arguably be one of the few things that is truly original. But stories have been re-written time and time again. Take Cinderella. A quick Google search suggests that a similar story was written during Greek times about a young Greek courtesan whose sandal was stolen by an eagle and dropped in the lap of the Pharaoh who sought out the owner of this sandal. Sound familiar? There have been many remixes and remakes of stories especially in the modern day to highlight diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Let's take a look at original individuals. When was the last time you honestly said how you felt to someone who asked? It is tough, right? Most of us are afraid that we might create conflict or distance if we really spoke our minds. We are afraid of each other. This causes us to be less original beings. We fear our original ideas and thoughts might be wrong or outlandish. We fear the judgment of others and the possible repercussions of self-judgment if we fall victim to believing in our peers' feedback to these original comments. As a result, we have a society where few people are honest. We focus more on punishing those who do not fall into line like the rest of us. I think we can all give ourselves a break and be more honest and judge a little less.
You know what else is original? This experience you are having right now. You will never be reading this again for the first time, with your own previous ideas, conceptions, and experiences. You will never have this experience again. That statement is both freeing and disheartening at the same time. It's freeing because it means you have the ability to make this experience whatever you would like it to be. And it is disheartening because you could be enjoying it and feel that it is not possible to ever experience this same joy again. But that is why we have memories, right? We can look back on these original moments in our minds. How amazing!
If you were to take one thing away from this, I believe it to be this: the most original things in this world are our individual lives and stories. So live your life authentically the way you choose to because there's eight billion other people living another life. Make yours your own. And share your stories, your ideas, your feelings, your thoughts - I promise someone will be grateful you shared.
How can you make your day more original?
