this is a message to myself 2 years ago freshly graduated and surrounded by workless graduates reinventing themselves as social media gurus, food bloggers, etc.
although i’m not as hardcore as to buy clothes before food but the main mantra is the same. the main conceit of wanting to be an artist or any kind of creative professional right now is the idea that you can create wealth through doing things that our parents and most normal working people would categorize under consumption. Its not like every new app or successful company you hear about has developed some way to try and exploit or commodify that? gee
this alone doesn’t devalue art or the value of creative work in general, its just a problem in the deep entrenchment of this idea in our gen that participating in these modes of consumption are the path to affluence and success and not just the result of it.
Broke, Hungry, But On Trend, by Gayatri Jayaraman
tldr: we’re all done being jay gatsby when we’re broke or broken hearted