{
  "id": "dont-try-to-be-original",
  "number": "026",
  "edition": "Ideas",
  "title": "Don't try to be original",
  "standfirst": "Originality can emerge from attention to the work rather than attention to originality.",
  "when": "You are judging every possibility by whether anyone has done something similar before.",
  "way": "Originality is rarely a useful instruction. A point of view becomes visible through repeated choices, material knowledge and editing. Concentrate on making enough honest work to discover what is actually yours.",
  "tryThis": "Remove 'Is it original?' from your criteria for the next iteration. Replace it with three qualities the work actually needs.",
  "notice": "Does your own point of view become clearer once novelty stops being the target?",
  "person": "Rick Owens",
  "source": "The Contemporary Blueprint archive",
  "quote": "First, learn how to make clothes. Learn how to make clothes. Don’t just do sketches and collages, because anybody can do that. You have to learn how to actually make clothes. The other thing is: shut up and work. Work and work and work all the time. Produce and produce and produce. The more you produce, the more your character, talent, identity, personality, or vision will emerge — for better or worse. As long as you work enough and make enough things to choose from, you’ll be able to edit. You’ll be able to shape something that becomes who you are. It’s so simple. You don’t have to go to parties. You don’t have to meet the right people. You just have to work, get your stuff out there, and show it to people. You can’t expect people to come knocking on your door.",
  "sourceUrl": "https://youtu.be/u2zk0aiq5c4",
  "contexts": [
    "idea",
    "perspective",
    "decide"
  ],
  "free": true,
  "related": [
    "change-the-scale",
    "use-the-intelligence-of-the-group",
    "ask-what-an-outsider-sees"
  ],
  "sourceArchive": "The Contemporary Blueprint",
  "referenceKind": "quotation",
  "referenceExcerpt": "Produce and produce and produce. The more you produce, the more your character, talent, identity, personality, or vision will emerge — for better or worse. As long as you work enough and make enough things to choose from, you’ll be able to edit. You’ll be able to shape something that becomes who you are."
}