Google searching for life

    A Sunday or two ago, The New York Times Magazine reminded me how much Cartier Bresson affected not only the way I view the world, but my perspective on how I can communicate better. It was a short article called “Perfect and Unreahearsed” by Teju Cole that alluded to Bresson’s book, The Decisive Moment.

    It’s a simple notion: we need to closely observe life in order to capture something true and resonant. And Cartier Bresson stalked life. With his “tutored instincts” he could compose, adjust his settings and click at just the right millisecond to capture a moment that rippled with resonance. In life, at just the right instant, he could create incredible art. It’s a philosophy that can guide all “style, content and construction:” for great ideas, look at life.

    Even if it’s only in our memory, look at life. At one time, this was perhaps obvious. But right now it needs reminding because we’re not looking in the right places and discovering personally wonderful things. For that, we need to set our computers aside and look beyond the screen –– to the heart in our head.     
    When you discover things on your own, the discovery has impact and that impact makes you feel something powerful, so powerful that you want to capture it, share it and somehow convey it to others. You also want to figure it out, because it is in that figuring out, that search to explain the ineffable, that we land on originality. We can’t get that from inside the internet.

    Granted, on the Internet, we can troll for ideas more quickly than ever. At our fingertips, we have tons of research. But just because we can find zillions of facts, mash two of them together and create an idea in no time at all –– however tempting and however good it makes us feel to be so quick –– it doesn’t mean that we are at our best. Without the self-discovery, there isn’t that same impetus that comes from life. There isn’t that intensity or, ultimately, real originality. (Freelancers know this better than anyone because they have to work at super human speed and only have time for the mash ups, as opposed to the discovery.)

    So, lets distinguish between ideas and powerful ideas. It’s not about connections; it’s about strong, meaningful and important connections. To create that, we have to turn down the screen and push the laptop aside. That’s our first decisive moment.