If nothing we say, create, or write is original, is there any point in doing it at all? As we delve deeper into the 21st century, it seems to be that humanity is apparently out of new ideas. We have all the information we could need, and more. You wanna wear this new, carefully curated outfit? Guess what, some influencer from LA has already worn it and done it better. Do you have a new idea for a book? It’s already been fleshed out and published five years ago. Thanks to social media, you can now see the ideas you thought made you special are actually shared with countless others.
With all our expansive and somewhat mind-boggling access to information, it is very easy to see how similar we all truly are. Yet, we are all so obsessed with being different. We desire something that makes us stand out in the crowd. Some talent, some labor of love that sets us apart from the other 8.3 billion.Â
I nearly lost myself in this pursuit. I would develop entire storylines for short stories, only to come to the realization that nothing I was writing was particularly groundbreaking. It would eat me up alive that maybe I wasn’t as original as I thought. With the introduction of AI, I was even more afraid. Passion projects can be thought up in mere seconds by a computer. Mountains of words emerge with a simple prompt. Not only did I have to compete with people, but with technology as well.Â
Truthfully, there was no grand life event that changed my thinking. Only a gradual awareness that I did not have to live so pessimistically.Â
Instead, I saw that the competition to be original was an illusion I had created. Inside my head lived a sisyphus and boulder that didn’t even need to exist. Humans share a lot in common with one another. A lot of us long for similar things. Some of our dreams overlap, and that is no threat. It would be silly to think that, for example, an idea for a novel is completely original, with no ties to work you’ve read or that already exists. But why care? Why bind ourselves to mental gymnastics instead of doing whatever excites us most?
In fact, it is a proudly beautiful and rare ability to be able to love what you do. To view others’ works as spectacular without obsessing over “who did it first?” There is so much art to get lost in. So much music to make. All that matters is that you’ve fallen in love with it.