“Ideas, like living creatures, may arise and flourish, going in all directions, or abort and become extinct, in completely unpredictable ways.”
- Oliver Sacks from (The River of Consciousness)
This quote above wonderfully summarizes the reason for which it is due time I write on what being an IDEAJ entails. To avoid this idea going extinct, it is time for me to dive into the conceptualization of what exactly an IDEAJ is.
Say the term IDEAJ out loud. What does this sound like?
To me it sounds like if the two terms DJ (disc jockey) and idea had a child, it would create this term: IDEAJ.
What makes a good DJ?
We live in a world where we have an abundance of music, which is a truly extravagant thing. However, one question I have for you is how do you decipher the really good songs from the not so-great songs?
GREAT CURATION. Plain and simple.
It is by listening to a lot of music and deciphering the good from not-so-good.
To use the needle in a haystack analogy: think of the haystack as the ever-expanding library of music in existence, whereas the needles are the songs you actually enjoy and would like to save.
So for example, when I assemble one of my bartydarty mixes… I go through the act of curation in hand-picking the songs I choose to include in a roughly hour-long mix. Ideally, the songs I choose to include in a mix, are to follow the vibe that has already been laid out in relation to the other tunes I have chosen to include thus far.
I am not going to mix Elton John’s “Bennie and The Jets” together with Cardi B’s “WAP” for example. Mixing these two songs together would simply be ridiculous, as the BPM (beats-per-minute) would most certainly clash, as well as not match the mood that I am going for. A fix like this would create too sudden of a change within a mix, losing track of a progression of a story being told within the mix.
Thus, when creating a mix, DJ’s typically seek to create a certain mood/feeling, atmosphere for their listeners, just as one does with creating a piece of writing.
Wonderful things come to those who write
Writing is how you draw attention not only to yourself, but more importantly to your ideas. Attention is our most valuable resource, as it is an application of our most powerful currency, our time.
The magic of writing comes not from individual ideas… but instead from how these ideas interact with one another through a web of interconnections, forming a coherent whole. It has a puzzle-completing effect in the sense of inserting those last pieces, to have a fully-fledged belief (completed puzzle) as a result of your thought process.
I am also going to argue that writing is another form of what ? ? ?
You guessed it: CURATION.
Curation in writing is the act of taking the time to write, and developing articulate thoughts on the ideas that have the most meaning to you.
What is a good IDEAJ?
Put simply, we can say that being an IDEAJ fits into the ongoing story of committing to being a self-educated CURATOR.
It’s the process of listening to a playlist of 100 songs, only to find 3 songs that we really enjoy. Then it is the act of sharing those 3 songs with others. One could say, deciding to be an IDEAJ is an act of generosity.
In an age of informational overload, it is the act of deciphering the signal from the noise.
It is the act of distinguishing the important things from the unneccesary things in our lives, and diving deeper into that world of vast importance.
It is the creative possibilities that emerge from these explorations.
It is the lengths traveled to discover and invent something entirely new from these creative possibilities.
It is the application of our self-education to building something.
To building something that has never been done before.
It is transforming our self-educated curation process into a creative process.
It is the commitment to create publicly. Learn publicly. As well as sharing our journey to the world.
Being an IDEAJ: is the crafting of our story aided by the technologies we have at our disposal, to create meaning in our lives by thoughtful curation.
BECOME AN IDEAJ.
Cheers and Happy Learning,
Adam Bartley
BARTYDARTY VOLUME 05
Yes. You read that right.
This time next week! On Thursday April 22nd, 2021 by 10AM I will be releasing my setlist for my newest iteration of the monthly “bartydarty” mix.
bartydarty vol. 5 will be out exclusively on my SoundCloud channel, which you can follow directly by clicking here.
Parting Note
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