Self-Referential Dust

Published: Fri, 11/12/21

that, but "Be a professional" definitely gives the utterer at least the veneer of holding the higher moral ground – to coin a mashup of Napoleon and P.G. Wodehouse, it's the old iron fist in the velvet glove wheeze.

Stephen Pressfield, author of just about my favorite book on creativity, The War Of Art, talks about professionalism too, but as the essential mentality for an artist. In Pressfield's formulation, professionalism consists of a set of self-imposed behaviors: a professional artist shows up for work, puts in the time, treats it like a job and maintains a healthy distinction between her creative output and her personal self. While the professional may get paid for her creative work, in Pressfield's view it's not remuneration per se that makes one a professional, it's acting like one.

Case in point: certain financial results may ultimately trickle down from writing my weekly newsletter, but no one's literally forking over the weekly pay packet for me to do so. Nonetheless, it's a point of pride to show up each week with the goods – to write not because the muse happened to stop by that week while I was thinking about fish tacos, but because there's a deadline to meet. And to show up despite the fact that it's ultimately make believe, a deadline I created myself.

Admittedly, that makes this week's letter the oldest move in the book: a weekly letter about writing the weekly letter. Every few years, during February Album Writing Month, I yield to the temptation of writing at least one song about having a song to write, and this is no different. However, before I depart for the week in a cloud of self-referential dust, I do have a question to pose, namely:

What Youtube lesson from the Fretboard Confidential channel have you gotten the most out of so far, and why?

I would love to hear your thoughts; you can reach me at the email address below.

More soon,

David