Dilla, or J Dilla, was more than a beatmaker. He made visuals with sound. If you don’t believe me, check out his album Donuts, of which both covers are shown above. The title of this essay is taken from the second track of Donuts — Workinonit. It’s masterful. If you want to read more about this cover art, follow this link. Enjoy
When selecting words to use to convey my thoughts to you, I sometimes have trouble. I want them to be perfect and in the correct order. The fact is I won’t always do it right. But that’s okay. What I truly want to perfect is finding and strengthening my voice.
Finding my voice feels like a never ending process. You know how you hear your voice differently than others hear you? The same goes for writing, especially during the process. While I write, I hear one voice, but when it’s “played back to me” (read: when I read it back), it sounds totally different. And that may not be what you eventually hear when I hit publish. But I am so stubborn when it comes to making sure I hear it the way you do, even though this is impossible.
The solution is simple. Stop caring what it sounds like and start caring if it resonates. If you read what I write and it means something to you, or you “get it”, I’ve done my job. Writing, like good art and design, is about communication. It’s about transferring the mess of thoughts in my head to yours, so we can either work together or share a feeling.
Communication for work is important because if two people aren’t on the same page the project does not reach heights. Taken literally in terms of designing a building, or metaphorically in terms of developing a project at work, communication is at the core of expressing oneself.
To communicate feelings is to share your internal state. This is not an easy thing to do. In truth, it’s why relationships, of all kinds, have difficulties. Learning to express your feelings well is essential for a few reasons.
When someone does something to or for you that you don’t like, they may not read your external reactions the way you think you’re presenting them. For one reason or another, they may not see your grimace as a sign of dislike. Not all people are hyperattuned to every reaction. It takes time to know someone’s likes and dislikes as much as it takes time to comprehend what their reactions mean. Saying how you feel about something helps the other person learn what these facial and body expressions mean for you and helps them interpret you going forward. It’s impossible to ask for a status update all the time, so instead we interpret others, but we rarely get right 100% of the time.
Learning to express ourselves is essential to maintaining relationships. Finding how we want to express ourselves takes time. It’s about finding our voice. Finding ourselves and our voice is done in relation to others. Words are not a perfect mirror of our feelings, but they can approximate to others how we are experiencing the world.
Recommended ‘tent
Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) playing the invisible drums - exactly what you think it will be but 1000x better
Dave and Ally’s song (from Dave the TV show) - This one breaks my heart every time. Like chills. I don’t know why I keep replaying it. Maybe because heartbreak feels good in a place like this
Looking For Alice by Henrik Karlsson - Finding a partner can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Having a type is out, ways they make you feel is in