A.I. Won’t Replace You, You Sexy Beast. Thoughts About Personal Image in the Age of the Robots.

I was a classical musician and I remember being depressed about something that I heard.

Someone in the music recording industry said that to market a classical album, they have to make the artist look sexy and cool.

Nobody buys based just on whether the music is good and well-performed.

At least not enough people.

The person was lamenting the fact.

I also lamented it, because I thought, “how stupid.”

Another example of the same thing:

Many people know about the famous violinist, Joshua Bell, who played in the subway and got almost no attention in his disguise (a baseball cap), though he was playing like the virtuoso he is.

Bell sells out venues. But we need to know it’s him to truly enjoy the performance.

Why?

I guess it is because it gives people a shortcut to knowing if what they are seeing is worth watching. If they know it’s a proven commodity, it’s probably good.

Also, it’s true that people want to associate with people they admire in order to make a statement about themselves. Why else would they wear band T-shirts? In Seth Godin’s language, “people like us like bands (or artists, or actors, or writers) like this.”

I’ve always felt it was sad that image had so much to do with selling art.

But now…

People’s tendency to want to know, like, and look up to the person behind the art will be what saves us in the age of A.I. art-making.

A.I. is already pretty amazing at what it can do.

But at least with writing, we can all tell when we’re reading something it wrote.

And we’d much rather read something less good by a real person.

So the short of it is:

Be yourself, and even if you’re an introvert, or shy, or just a private person, try letting people know some details about you and your life. It’s interesting to have them in mind when you’re reading what someone wrote.

I’ll share some things here, and I’ll give you a prompt for your own interesting tidbits in the comments.

1. I am a pastor.
2. I gave up singing opera to be a pastor, but now I’m singing opera again (as a semi-pro hobby).
3. I have five children and a beautiful wife who has stuck with me for 31 years of marriage.
4. I enjoy ghostwriting other people’s books; I’ve written over 130, but have only written one for myself (tell me you want it and I’ll send you a free pdf copy).
5. I’m from East Texas (Kilgore), but I have lived in the Midwest since I got out of the U.S. Air Force in 1997.
6. I grew up in a football town, but played basketball.
7. I met Mickey Mantle when I was 11.
8. I once got asked by the secret service to get down off a thing I was standing on to get a picture of Richard Nixon in Rockefeller Center with a disposable camera.

That’s pretty much all the interesting stuff.

How about you? What are 5-10 things that would be cool for your readers to know about? I’ll restack your comment.

Jeff

P.S. Later this summer I’ll teach my flagship book-writing course to my paid sub community. Upgrade if you want to come. It’s a supportive community of Christian writers who all feel called to write and share what God has given them to share.

We do lessons and feedback every week on Tuesday from 11-1 CST and will be adding an evening option in August.

P.S.S. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading this far.

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