Creative Paths, and Travel Illusions - To Be Continued (1)
In this post and the ones that follow, I’ll share excerpts from what I write for my weekly newsletter, Lil-Hadith Baqiya (To Be Continued).
What I publish here is usually less detailed, and there is often a delay between what appears on the website and what is sent by email. This is partly because of my schedule, but also because I try to give the newsletter priority in both timing and content.
If you would like to subscribe and receive the emails as they are published, you can find the link at the bottom of the page.
Welcome back.
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Too Many Gifts, Too Little Room
Eleven years ago, I met the renowned designer Michael Bierut at the annual What Design Can Do conference in Amsterdam. After introducing myself, I asked him for one piece of advice, something he wished he had done but never did.
"If you can do more than one thing, don’t waste your life doing just one."
That sentence stayed with me and echoed in my head for a long time. At one point, I seriously considered leaving photography behind. I also tried to limit my drawing to what was necessary for my work as a designer.
Over time, however, I became more convinced that having multiple skills is not a flaw. This does not diminish the importance of specialists, of course. Without people who dedicate themselves deeply to one field, life would be impossible.
Still, I believe that having many talents can become a trap, and only a few people manage to escape it. Around us are successful and creative people who followed clear, direct paths. At the same time, many talented people remain caught in endless webs of distraction.
Beyond work, I have noticed something else. The people we connect with more deeply, both socially and emotionally, are often those with a wide range of interests. Their curiosity is alive, their conversations are open and full of energy, and their flexible spirits allow them to engage with many kinds of people and moments.
Someone who loves music and cinema may also read philosophy, make pottery, or play an instrument. Conversation with such people rarely runs dry, and they never seem to feel the need to impress anyone.
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On Travel and Escape
Recently, I came across Seneca’s Moral Letters to Lucilius, a book filled with wisdom. It is striking that a Roman philosopher writing nearly two thousand years ago could describe our modern lives so clearly, as though human nature has hardly changed.
A few passages about travel and escape caught my attention.
In one letter, writing about travel as a cure for discontent, Seneca says:
“Do you suppose that you alone have had this experience? Are you surprised, as if it were a novelty, that after such long travel and so many changes of scene, you have not been able to shake off the gloom and heaviness of your mind? You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate. Though you may cross vast spaces of sea, and though, as our poet says, ‘Lands and cities are left astern,’ your faults will follow you whithersoever you travel.
“Socrates made the same remark to one who complained. He said: ‘Why do you wonder that globe-trotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you? The reason which set you wandering is ever at your heels.’”
Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 28
In another passage, he writes:
“What good does it do you to go overseas, to move from city to city? If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you need is not to be in a different place, but to be a different person.
“Travel will not make a better or saner person of you. For this, we must spend time studying the writings of wise people, learning the truths that emerged from their work, and continuing the search ourselves for answers that have not yet been discovered.”
