Why I've Stopped Trying to Be a Perfectionist (Patreon)

So a couple of weeks back, I was draped over the back seat of a taxi in Tokyo, when I quietly snapped this photo.

Even though I liked the photo, my initial delight quickly turned to dismay as I counted the things wrong with it.

The composition was off.

The driver should have been about a third of the way into the frame to make the image visually pleasing. Because it was poorly lit the image was rather grainy and noisy.

Additionally the driver wasn't entirely in focus and there was no clear subject.

Worse still, as I started to look at it from an Instagram perspective, I realised the photo was nothing short of a heinous crime.

The photo would never perform well as the composition was horizontal, and to get strong audience engagement the composition needs to be vertical. In fact, that's a general rule for most social media, as when people are swiping downwards you need to grab their attention for an additional few milli-seconds in order to get them to stop and look - and hopefully like and comment.

Because without mass audience engagement, your creative endeavours are of no artistic value and everything you are and everything you believe in is worthless.

WRITE THAT ON AN A3 SHEET OF PAPER AND STICK IT OVER YOUR DESK.

- Except don't.

So that was that.

The photo would reside on my laptop and disappear into a black hole of disregarded content that didn't quite hit the mark, like last year's Japanese Mascot video that bombed spectacularly on the Abroad in Japan channel.

And yet tonight - on this fateful evening - something extraordinary happened. While sitting at my desk buried in an endless sea of post-it notes and munching on a tube of Pringles, I did something truly shocking.

I took another look at this poorly composed atrocity that wasn't worthy of Instagram and I realised that I still rather liked it.

The wide angle perspective gave the impression the viewer was in the passenger seat. I loved the vibrant colours and the bright lights up ahead in the windscreen. I even came to realise that, there was a clear subject after all; the taxi itself.

Hell, the only thing I didn't like was it appeared one of the billboards seemed to be showing a horrific image of ET. (Top left corner. Once you see it, that sh*t can't be unseen).

So I did something unspeakable. I stuck it up on Twitter and Instagram.

And while predictably, on Instagram the photo received around 30% less (engagement) likes and comments compared to other photos, I was quietly pleased with myself that I'd let it go.

Because there's quality control and then there's being a perfectionist.

And as someone who spends a lot of time creating things, then shoving it online into a public space, you become hyper aware of the performance of everything you do or create. Photos, videos, comments, you name it. Audience engagement overrules artistic integrity and originality.

I don't believe I'm alone in this. When you focus on impressing the audience and getting the engagement rather than following your heart, often something unique is lost.

And instead we get another photo of someone gazing pretentiously at a waterfall in Bali or posing awkwardly by a swimming pool in Santorini like everyone else.

Rest assured, going forward, I'm going to smother the voice in my head so this doesn't happen again.

(I mean, not literally. That'd be mental).

And as a symbol of this, admittedly, rather underwhelming metamorphosis, I've also made the aforementioned Japanese Mascot video publicly viewable again, because this video was a casualty of this way of thinking.

Japanese Mascots are Terrifying

► Watch: https://youtu.be/c6QtxVR8NdA

Give it a watch if you haven't already!

- At least check it out before I wake up and backtrack on everything I just said after the Pringles wear off; before I unlist the video, remove this post and delete the photo.

Seriously though, why are there so many post-it notes on my desk?

Where have my Pringles gone?!

What even is this!?

Who am I?