Sublime

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it's like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you're making stuff, what you're making isn't so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not that good.

This is what Ira Glass shared with young aspiring artists. Ira Jeffrey Glass is an American public radio personality. He is the host and producer of the radio and television series This American Life, broadcast to more than 1.7 million listeners across 500 different radio stations. and has participated in other NPR programs, including Morning Editi... See more

The Gap Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stu ff , it ʼ s just not that good. It ʼ s trying to be good, it has potential, but it ʼ s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you're making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase. They quit.

Everybody I know who does interesting, creative work they went through years where they had really good taste and they could tell that what they were making wasn't as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. Everybody goes through that.