User:Beadsland/Manifesto

A Maker Manifesto

Why Imposter syndrome is the belief that because you are capable of the virtue of doubt, you're somehow less prepared for the challenges of life than the many hubristic arseholes who lack the sense to recognize any consequences of their own poor judgment. The world doesn't need more overconfidence. It needs more folk comfortable with doubt, of themselves, of their practices and institutions. Questioning our ability or preparedness to do a thing is not the same as being unable to do that thing. Doubt is an invitation to play, the niggling joy in the challenge "Can I really do this?"

What Making is all about screwing up. It's about having the confidence to screw up in increasingly creative ways. It's the art of getting it wrong with such flair and panache that you can't help but be entertained by your own ineptitude. It's the ability to foil so many of your own plans that you are left with no option but to stumble into a solution that works. A solution, that when found, leaves you awestruck by what you have accomplished. And it is in pursuit of that awe that the Maker makes.

Who We come of age in a society that tells us our objective is to perform academically to gain admittance to an arbitrarily ranked institution to obtain a piece of paper that entitles us to push around other paper to, in turn, earn still other paper, which we then exchange for things that other people made. Other people, we are told, make things. Not us. Our purpose in living is to consume the makings of others. Bullshit. Own your capacity to create. Make a mess. Manifest a dream. Build something new. The culture of othering is a lie. Live your truth. Make your thing. Make community.