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> "Real artists ship." —SPJ Many of the most prolific artists of all time are now forgotten by the masses. The choice of "artist" is particularly perplexing he
by schmidt_fifty 2y ago
> "Real artists ship." —SPJ
Many of the most prolific artists of all time are now forgotten by the masses. The choice of "artist" is particularly perplexing here because the implied sentiment seems to apply primarily to industry and not to artists.
- brazzy 2y agoBut all the artists that never completed a work because they always thought "it's not perfect yet" are forgotten, by everyone.
- llm_trw 2y agoYet there are plenty of one hit wonders that are remembered. Tolkien being an example.
- KineticLensman 2y agoThat’s two hits: the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Also several academic pieces in his professional field. Not including the material subsequently published by his son and estate.
- antupis 2y agoAnd The Lord of Rings was first published as separated books.
- 082349872349872 2y agoBack in the day, it only took one hit, and after that one could drive off of Skyline Blvd in a sports car, or retire to a horse farm, or run a SF nightclub, etc. see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34566920 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34566920
- schmidt_fifty 2y ago[dead]
- tokai 2y agoThats not true. Several artist never shipped or published any works, but are still well known today. Vivian Maier and Henry Darger comes to mind.
- fch42 2y agoAgree. In addition, there are also plenty of artists who either shipped yet died poor (van Gogh, for example) or who were prolific proposers/thinkers/sketchers with "low actual ship rate" (Leonardo never built his helicopter, yet "dreamed in drawing" about it a lot). Measuring the "influence" of an artist my "number of artworks created and sold" is a bit like measuring academics by "number of papers published". It's at best a very coarse approximation of "the real thing". At worst, total bull.
- fch42 2y agoA clear counter example would be someone like Franz Kafka. He hid much of his works in his lifetime, and willed for them to be destroyed posthumously whether published or unpublished. That anything came down from him was the executors of his will ignoring his stated intent. And yet he's considered a literary Great of the 20st century. Sometimes, legacy is that what others did.