Closeing the gap between good taste and good work (is just doing the work)

For any creative, our next thing is often the best thing. For particularly prolific or disciplined creatives, our past body of work can be quickly forgotten in the life of just getting on with new and interesting ideas. But that doesn’t diminish the absolute necessity of it. Or the often painful necessity of earning the muscle memory of creating in the first place. In other words, the long tail.

The long journey from good taste to good work

This long tail is one of the greatest assets for a creative to invest in. If you haven’t seen it, and even if you have, this beautiful video interpretation by Daniel Sax of an Ira Glass recording is essential to visit and revisit often.

The long tail of most of our creative work isn’t always accessible. It’s more the tail that swishes out of sight in the undergrowth of inspired expression. But we know it’s there. It’s holding us up as we stretch towards whatever it is that comes next.