Tiny Experiments in Doing
Move. Think. Create.
Today I launched a new thing. It’s called Fiercely Curious and it’s a little something about art and artists in Brooklyn.
Building something again has felt really good. I mean really good. Blood (and caffeine) raging through the veins kind of good.
But I’m also terrified. It’s been over 3 years since I last launched something. I’m scared that this launch will be like the last — frantic energy followed by a slow dwindling decay until ultimately one of your APIs stops working and you don’t have the energy to fix it (sorry book lovers!).
What makes Fiercely Curious different?
Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. But I’ll be damned if I won’t launch it anyway. You see there’s a million reasons this might not work. I count them every night like sheep to lull me to sleep. But luckily for us we didn’t call the site meekly curious, we called it Fiercely Curious. Yes there’s things that aren’t perfect but we’re launching. Right now. Today.
What is launch anyway but a tiny question. A tiny little expression of “I did something” — this tiny experiment with determination, love and passion might just go somewhere.
Some things I’ve found useful in building Fiercely Curious so far:
Build for others
I read somewhere that you should build for others. Build platforms that turn people into rockstars. Give people a stage and watch them perform. You’ll be blown away by the power of investing in others. And that’s exactly what Fiercely Curious is about. The artists are the heroes, not us. This quote from Italo Calvino sums it up best:
“Seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.” — Italo Calvino
The most rewarding thing you can do is give success to others and I will ultimately judge the success of this project on whether or not we can bring success to our artists.
Connect with people
There’s stories on every street corner. Every last person has a story to tell. No one is boring, but sometimes we can drift through life on auto-pilot. Building and making something is a sharp reminder that people everywhere are interesting and interested. Rather than relying on networking, we have focused on being simply…curious. In shooting our Van Lueewen Vinyls blog posts we encountered even more local artists hiding in plain sight. I’m excited to connect more closely with people in our neighbourhood. If there’s one takeaway:
“be curious” -me
Tell Stories
Who wants to hang a canvas on their wall? Really? What you really want to hang on your wall is 6 months of blood sweat and tears poured into a canvas. Or that misty night in Jacksonville when the photographer managed to capture a small slice of America in a still frame.
So we’re not a stark clean online gallery — we have a little personality and that’s by design. We want to ensure that people connect with our artists, we want to tell a few of their stories whether it’s about their art or not.
“hang some stories on your wall” -me
We hope you might hang a few of these stories on your walls — and remember a little something of the history of the object as well. We’re giving you as many pixels as we can but if you still want more, we’re encouraging local studio visits to meet our artists. Get in touch at hello@fiercelycurious.com
Get a partner in crime
Y-combinator always advocates a team over a solo founder and I’m beginning to get a feel for why. I launched 7books mostly in a vacuum — coding late into the night on my own surrounded by empty jars of peanut butter, but Fiercely Curious has been a joint effort between Erin and I and there’s something lovely about building something together as a team — you can bring the other up when they’re feeling down and vice versa. Someone to share your excitement, someone to brainstorm solutions to problems. Someone to complement your skills.
Start your own tiny experiment in doing
That’s really all this boils down to. You’ll feel amazing.
Do. Create. Make. Tinker.
And launch.
