[HN Gopher] The Day the Muse Died
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       The Day the Muse Died
        
       Author : herbertl
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2025-03-03 00:19 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (johnpweiss.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (johnpweiss.com)
        
       | gunian wrote:
       | they shall be resurrected by our lord and savior jesus christ
        
       | jtwoodhouse wrote:
       | Passion doesn't have to be fixed. It can and should evolve over
       | time as you grow as a person. And it's okay if it's a rabbit hole
       | that leads to other rabbit holes.
        
         | NickC25 wrote:
         | Nor does passion have to be monetized. Too often in life are
         | hobbies and passions forced into the monetization route, which
         | in a lot of people kills the joy, creativity, focus, and
         | spontaneity required to create.
        
       | readthenotes1 wrote:
       | "The painting muse in me died. "
       | 
       | The things we do to escape the burdens of our current day job
       | change when we change our day job.
       | 
       | Turning the escape into the day job is risky.
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | _> Most importantly, don't do it for money_
       | 
       | Them's fightin' words, around here...
       | 
       | I used to be a musician (a fairly good bass player[0] -Don't
       | laugh. That hair was the height of fashion, at the time).
       | 
       | I used to be an artist (a fairly good one[1]).
       | 
       | I ended up sidelining both of them for writing software. I don't
       | really regret that, but writing software for other people really
       | sucked. Sucked like a galaxy-core, supermassive black hole. I
       | worked for a company that took Quality seriously, so I didn't
       | have to deal with the internal shame of deliberately releasing
       | crap software. I probably would have gone nuts, if that had been
       | the case, and no amount of money would have fixed it.
       | 
       | I now write the software that _I_ want to write, on _my_ terms.
       | It 's a joy. I have to keep the scope pretty humble, but I have
       | been having the time of my life.
       | 
       | [0] https://cmarshall.com/MulletMan.jpg
       | 
       | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40917886
        
         | bollu wrote:
         | How'd you recommend I learnt to paint? I've not really done
         | much painting in my life at all, and I'd love a breakdown.
        
           | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
           | Well, sketching (constantly practicing, by drawing) is
           | extremely important.
           | 
           | It helps to coordinate the eye and the hand.
           | 
           | It starts with being able to accurately and dispassionately
           | render what I see, on paper.
           | 
           | From there, I am able to modify the process, so the visual
           | source, is in my head, as opposed to in front of my eyes.
           | 
           | Artists like Picasso and Pollock were actually very good
           | realist artists, but their expression came from their
           | interpretation of their own vision.
           | 
           | In my experience, there's no shortcuts. I have to be able
           | crawl, then walk, before I can run.
           | 
           | Just like software development.
           | 
           | In my case, hiring a teacher, who, right off the bat, told me
           | I was screwing up, was also necessary.
        
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