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Slow Days·back No.32

Raising the Shark Inside Me While Watching TV

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Raising the shark inside me while watching TV



I don't always think of TV as a mindless box.
It can stand in for situations and questions I'd never stopped to think about.
Today, watching some ordinary drama, 
I dig back into thoughts I'd been missing, or memories buried in the routine.


The shark inside me: always live on edge

While I was climbing all the way up to this spot, what on earth were you doing?




Keep in mind: call it a proverb?

Don't run with your legs — run with your heart.

Forcing out an 'idea' doesn't make it an idea; it makes it a zit.

You made signboards while I made advertisements — that's why.

A crumpled piece of paper flies farther.

Smooth the wrinkles in your crooked mind, and the wrinkles in your life smooth out too.



Think differently: don't dismiss diversity

If you live middle-of-the-road, there's nothing to set you apart from anyone else.

If you fear failure, you'll just flounder down the obvious road like everyone else.

Dream failures no one could even imagine.

Only when you're hanging off a cliff does real strength show up in your fingertips.


With your heart more than your head, don't try to invent — try to discover.

Product > brand > story > dream, emotion > customer.


Resonance, a slogan — vs. truth, clarity, advertising. 

For people living a life that's hard day after day, 

what they need may not be advertising — it may be a slogan.


Honestly, it's a situation that makes no sense. Fair enough, that's true.

But those who only criticize and curse are just people who curse.

That frustration, that unfairness — don't let it out right away.

Hold it in your chest, melt it down, craft it well,

and then show it to people — splash — show it to the world.

That frustration is what fuels the creative in the end.





 

Source: from the drama 'Advertising Genius Lee Tae-baek'

This English version was translated by Claude.

친절한 찰쓰씨
Written by
친절한 찰쓰씨

Pleasant Charles — UI/UX researcher at AIT. Keeping notes on design, planning, and slow days here since 2010.

More on the author's page

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