In a culture heavily focused on consumerism, how do you find yourself being a creator in both physical and digital spaces?
God’s first command to man was to be creative:
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” -Genesis 1:28
God wants us to participate in His creation (beyond just reproducing).
I find myself often consuming digital content (SN, X, YouTube, Nostr) but rarely creating it. I have reduced physical consumption in my life (staying humble, stacking sats), but I still feel like a net consumer in the physical space as well.
How do you participate in the creativity of God?
What habits have you established to become a net creator rather than a net consumer?
How does V4V increase our ability for productive creativity?
~NOV (Forwarding sats to @jimmysong for this territory and his creative output that continues to make bitcoin and the world more Christ-like)
Among other things, I'm a writer who publishes novels. This naturally keeps a finger on the scales between consumption and creation.
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I feel this tension especially as I watch my children falling to the need to consume- already trying to outpace their friends for new things that won't last except as plastic in a dump or ocean. Their interest in artistic and musical production (i.e. banging on the piano and smearing paint on everything) has too often been overshadowed by temporarily distracting Things. Asking "what habits have you established" is so important, because it is habits that will cultivate a creative lifestyle, become second nature, and end up being the model for our children. My children can be taught repeatedly that they are made in God's image, therefore should cultivate their creativity, but much more affective would be for these habits to be caught from my example. The two venues in which we try to cultivate a thirst for creativity in our family include:
  1. Getting out into God's creation as much as possible- from planned hiking excursions to simply enjoying a beautiful day in the yard.
  2. Encouraging/facilitating any and every creative spark any of the kids voice (inventing a new board game based on a favorite story; creating a princess dress from old sheets and letting them decorate it with markers; using Midjourney to create themed coloring books; etc.) While Proverbs 22:6 is not a promise, but a principal, if we "start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." I would suggest that an affective way to start convincing my children that they are creative beings, made in the image of the most Creative Being is to model a joyful appreciation of God's creation and to celebrate every creative instinct that they bring my way- every messy, loud and sometimes disruptive instinct. What a privilege to know God and see His hand both around and in each of us.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @NOV OP 19 Feb
Thank you so much for your insight here - another reminder to live by example and cultivate habits that we want to see in our children.
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140 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 28 Jan
What habits have you established to become a net creator rather than a net consumer?
It's less of a habit and more of a disposition for me at least. At some point I learned/tricked myself to being disgusted by consumption. I wouldn't say I'm anywhere near having a perfect creation to consumption ratio, but I tend to judge myself (and others tbh) based on how much I'm generating vs destroying/taking and couple my self-esteem to how well I think I'm accomplishing a good ratio. (I don't recommend this as my self-esteem is terrible, but the reward is a bias toward creating.)
How does V4V increase our ability for productive creativity?
Mostly by increasing the signal velocity, fidelity, and divisibility of value creation. V4V is a marketing term that doesn't mean much more than "an economy where one wasn't formerly present on the internet." So the question amounts to "how does an economy increase our productivity?" So the answer is kind of obvious I think.
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980 sats \ 0 replies \ @NOV OP 29 Jan
Thanks, @k00b! Getting sats back in realtime definitely helps inspire me to create rather than simply consume here on Stacker News - please know of my gratitude!
-NOV
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I've been producing content for over 2-decades, and I admit, especially with the busy-ness of all the noise today, it can be very hard to focus on producing as a Creator rather than just consuming! there is also the factor that as a Creator it can be highly emotionally and mentally demanding, and you can easily get sucked into the trap of wanting to just TAKE IT ALL IN BINGING WITH NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT haha :D Anyway, I've learned it takes discipline! It's really a matter of STRONG DISCIPLINE. You must just make yourself shut out all the noise ... and get to work
:D :D :D
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