What makes a maker
Why does it seem like just a small number people CAN create and most of us just consume? If you’re pondering that question you’re much closer to being a creator than you think. The thing is… this question is loaded with a false assumption: that creativity and the act of creation is limited to a few people and off bounds to everybody else.
A lot of the stories we’re told, especially the success stories, assume a brilliant, genius creator. What they fail to recognize is that we’re all born creators. We just grow out of it. As we grow older, we practice is less and less just as school feeds the ideas of others. And that has some benefits, granted. There’s a revolutionary and evolutionary aspect to consuming knowhow - or art: this is how we can stand on the shoulders of giants, how we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. How knowledge and experience are not lost. And it’s evolutionary because it shows us where the edges of what is known, what is explored are. Where the conventions are.
Now, before writing was invented, everyone was a storyteller. What people might not have realized was that they weren’t only storytellers, they were storymakers as well: as they were passing on their story to their children, grandchildren, they forgot some parts, changed others, choose to say things in a different way, take the story to another place. They were not afraid to create. They we not paralyzed by the fact they didn’t have a perfect story, or have not studied the principles of storytelling. They would just do it. Because creating is… natural. The same is true for us as kids: we take a rock, a bunch of LEGO pieces, a doll, a car and we play with them, make up stories about them, create situations and universes where they live, we make them into more than they are.
Usually, when we first learn how to make something, we copy something we’ve experienced before. Then, as we get more comfortable, as we get more practice, we start seeing nuance and space to be explored. We try to expand. Remake. Remix. Interpret in a different way. Perhaps, our own way. It’s so natural we might not even realize or see it as it happens, just like the storymakers of yesteryear, building on the stories for grandparents.
Then maybe the question we should be asking ourselves is not what makes a maker. Everybody CAN be a maker. Intuitively, we know it takes practice. It takes turning lack of time into making time. That’s not easy so maybe we can look at… why do we make things in the first place? To solve problems? To survive? To show off who we are? To express emotions? To help someone? To build something we’re proud of? To leave a mark? To play? To connect? To impress? To explore? These motivations seem rather universal, not bound to creators, right?
But maybe the difference then between creators and those that only consume is that… they do this… to share something with others. But my assertion is that it does not stop at sharing with others just to share: makers, people like us, create… to make a change within and beyond ourselves. Think about it: from cave paintings, pyramids, mathematics, the theater, sculpture, books, movies, videos, it’s all made up and all created to touch people and make change. The best of these things tingle, tickle and sometimes shock hearts and minds, explore the boundaries of what was possible before and take them further. And you might not realize it but now, more than ever in history, the barrier to creating is lower than ever, whether it is about the knowhow, the communities to help you out, the technical means and tools… All of these things are literally a tap or two away. All of these things, combined with your human experience are the what you can play with to make… something.
With that in mind, knowing we can all create, not just consume, think about this: What is the change you want to make in the world? And go, be a maker. The world needs you to grow.