Reliable Young Creatives: A Rare Kind of Talent in Any Era
Creative self-motivation and perfectionism both support and pull against entrepreneurship. Some thoughts on the beauty of engineering and science, and two pursuits worth respecting.
Young creatives (文艺青年, people with literary and artistic interests) have one great strength: self-motivation.
The drive, persistence, and patience to refine a piece of work.
Their greatest weakness probably comes from the same place—perfectionism.
It is somewhat at odds with entrepreneurship.
But I really agree with that saying: what goes beyond business must be art.
The relationship between the two is fascinating.
They are symbiotic, yet at odds.
They help each other flourish, yet also pull against each other.
If I hadn’t gone away back then, I probably wouldn’t have studied engineering.
But I would still have discovered the beauty of engineering later on.
When you take all sorts of differently shaped mechanical parts
and put them together into an efficient, precise, functioning system,
that is a kind of art too. It is beautiful.
Later, I came to think:
alongside engineering, the world of technology also pursues “beauty.” It is called science.
Continually opening up and expanding the boundaries of human understanding is science.
Optimizing a system within finite boundaries is engineering.
One leads progress; the other brings it into the real world.
Both matter, and both kinds of people deserve respect.
That’s all.
Some thoughts after seeing a good piece of content. (Video source: 徐沪生, founder of 一条, a Chinese media company.)
