Pedro Bonatto

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Criticize by creation

After weeks working on proposals and grants for a new music and dance project I got a chance to get back to some photography work yesterday, creating sets and transforming my home studio into different imagined worlds. 

Both projects in music and photography are a bit above my level of expertise, and I have been a bit apprehensive about really pushing them. That was when Neil Gaiman, again, came to the rescue. On a recent interview with Tim Ferriss, he said something really profound. He was speaking in the context of writing, but I think it applies to any creative project: “Anything you do can be fixed. The only thing you can’t fix is the perfection of that blank page.

On the same vein, I found the most amazing quote by Marcus Tullius Cicero, which applies to both inner and outer dragons: “I criticize by creation, not by finding fault.” 

I am always impressed and humbled when I find solutions and keys for action in ideas worked out two thousand years ago, when you realize even the great ones stumbled on the same dilemmas you happen to be in. 

Many dums and clicks coming from yours truly very soon.