SHOULD THE 20 SOMETHING CREATIVELY GIFTED PURSUE ONLY ONE THING

Writing is one of my strengths. I love that it is the most direct way of expressing ideas that can spark up conversations and yes fuel a change. Design is my debut in the world of creativity (do check out my artwork). I loved the idea of individual expression through exclusively designed stuff. To me it was like being Picasso and having your work mattered in the practical realm. I have also been an amateurishly (potentially) good dubstep dancer and was recommended for a national level college face off under less than 2 months of practice. I cannot stop obsessing over its sheer aesthetic beauty when performed and its chameleon like quality to take any form and express the desired swag, funk, angst, etc. through music, style and settings. Humor and wit is where this list should end (maybe I should give youtube a try, I think I am hilariously funny), I have started to sound like a narcissistic Kanye West.

The Mind (poster colors)

Early 20's is a period of becoming radical in thoughts and actions, and growing up in the real sense. It is our life's startup and like 80% of the startups, we too are supposed to fail despite of all the blueprints etched in our minds about the ideal life. We try and fail in a cycle that never seems to end. Eventually we seek for a higher purpose that is above this cycle of success and disappointment. And ultimately like every successful business venture, we grow out of it because of the constant trial and errors that our life meets just like the stone on a river bed that meets the force of flowing water and gets deepened in the process. The foundation of our life's purpose is clearer and we can make a true contribution to the world.

2ND prize in WWF "Paint the Change" (painting depicting the effect of pollution on climate)

I idolize Steve Jobs and as much as I can, I take inspiration from his life. To quote him "Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains". Now replace the word 'thinking' above with 'life' and you get the simplest explanation of the way he lived. His early years was that of being a prankster, an electronics enthusiast and obsessing over the 60's elegant Eichler homes, droppind acid, quitting college, taking up a calligraphy course which later became synonymous with macbook's typography and the focus of the famous Harvard speech "connecting the dots in life", seeking spirituality in India, designing games at Atari, following Zen Buddhism impressed by its simplicity and finally founding his greatest contribution to the world, placing the most advanced technology in the hands of laymen like us, the personal computer. He was not one of those engineering department discipline from Harvard who after graduating worked at multinational companies devoting their 20's to compete with the high tech hobbyist targeting innovations of the Japanese. He was a creatively gifted who took inspirations from Zen philosophy, applied them to technology and created a line of simplistically useful Apple products. He asserts "We don't look at a competition and say how can we do it better, we look at it and say how can we do it different". Innovation has never come through studying the same subject but rather because ideas from various other fields were combined by someone who saw the connection.

Personally I have observed two kinds of people. The first are the ones whose single mindedness in a field have brought them the best skills and knowledge, but these qualities have changed the world only when channeled toward the big picture visions of the creatively gifted. 

Often when the world acknowledges only the former kind of people and expect them to take over the revolutionism department, innovation stagnates because they disagree to look beyond possibilities. They don't believe in the modest out of the box concept and live inside the walls provided by society. They take their skills and passions, love and relationships, status, hobbies, leisure and spirituality as the composites of life that are best kept away from one another. While the creatively gifted see life in its totality, observe the world around and within them and sense the need of the moment.

Under these circumstances, should we identify the creatively gifted fresh 20 year olds starting out in life under the definitions of ADHD, ADD, etc. and counsel them to settle toward a secure life or should we see them as our possible future?

-Both artworks by me