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What learning the guitar taught me about progress
How progress works, what's a visual vacuum, a simple substitute in a word that makes all the difference in leadership, and what keeps us from moving on from grudges.
PJ Milani
June 18, 2024
š¤ INTERESTING
Most progress is invisible until it's not.
When I first learned to play the guitarā
E-chord? No problem.
C-chord? No problem.
But then I got to the G-chord, and I was like, what the hell is this?!
I thought, "how in the world do fingers make this shape?"
Day to day, I tried to play that freaking G-chord.
But no sound. All I felt was the pain of metal strings carving into my fingers. I couldn't see progress but for some reason I trusted the process.
And eventually one day out of no where, I heard strum...
the sweet release of that G-chord! š«
That was the first time in my life I had proof that just because you can't see progress doesn't mean you're not making progress.
š DESIGN
Todayās mini-lesson: The visual vacuum.
When I first started posting online, the only goal I had was to post.
I waited so many years to begin that all I thought about was to start and keep going. Figure the rest out later.
The problem was that in the absence of a greater purpose, my measure of success became likes and followers.
In cinematography, thereās a concept called a visual vacuum. Itās when you leave a large empty space in the frame to create tension in the audience (think scary scene where the space behind the character is left emptyā¦as if a monster is going to pop out any second).
The thing is that empty space WANTS to be filled. The trick is to fill it intentionally, or else you leave space for that monster to pop in!
These days, Iāve found a deeper mission: to encourage folks to build a creative practice to live a more creative life and make the world a more creative place. Having a post go āviralā is cool, but a lesson Iāve learned these last 2 years is that thereās a big difference between whatās cool and whatās meaningful.
About a year ago, I was asked on the Good Life podcast what a more creative world looks like ā I gave a bit of a meandering answer.
But a couple weeks ago, one of my students from my Thinking in Visual Metaphors course said the following and I thoughtā¦this is what a more creative world FEELS like:
"For a long time I did not have any motivation to do anything, was burned out. Creating content became a burden rather than a joy.
This cohort is giving me a second breath, like a recharge, the hope of "maybe I can do what I envision" is slowly coming back to life.
The community and people who are attracted to PJās visual philosophy is beyond amazing. It is truly inspiring to see what everyone creates. This is what I call MAGIC!"
š¤ WHAT IāM READING NOW
Scott McCloudās āUnderstanding Comicsā has been recommended to me for years and Iām finally getting around to reading it. Itās a fun and thoughtful deep dive into the mechanics of this underrated art form.
My favorite takeaway so far is the simple definition of a comic as āsequential art.ā This is neat because I think of visual metaphors as ācomparative art.ā
Comics are defined simply as āsequential artā demonstrated on the right.
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