Avatar

Shortly after James Cameron submitted a cut of "Avatar” to 20th Century Fox, he met with the studio execs.

(At one point, there's a 3-minute flying scene).

"Why is the flying scene so long?" one exec asked. "It doesn't advance the narrative or the character."

Cameron replied,

"You're right on every count. You've ticked every box, like a good studio executive"But guess what? I want to see it...And if I want to see it, my cognitive leap is there are going to be other people that want to see it."

"Well," Cameron said in a later interview, "it turn[ed] out that [the flying] is what the audience loved the most, in terms of our exit polling and data gathering."

Takeaway 1:

Many of my favorite artists all say some version of what Cameron likes to say:

“The way I write is I work backwards from the shit I want to see."

This tends to work because great creators tend to also be great consumers—great filmmakers love watching movies, great writers love reading, great musicians love listening to music, great chefs love eating food, etc. 

Consuming great work calibrates your internal gauge for great work. So then when you make something—if you think it is great, you can make the cognitive leap that others will think so too.

Takeaway 2:

Of course, the cognitive leap—that other people will like what you like—doesn't always work out.

Still, best to default to making things that you yourself like. As the legendary designer Paula Scher likes to say: above all else, “Make the things that you want to make...Because what you make is who you become.” Or if it’s a job, Scher says,“Take a job for what the place produces because that’s what you’re going to making.

And what you make is who you become…If you don’t think the work is good, don’t work there."✋