I chose visual design as it was the path with the least resistance for me during my turbulent years to earn a respectable income almost a decade ago, having graduated in Literature and having done a foundational course in the use of design applications. I could come up with a decent output expending what I would term minimal amount of intellectual energy. Doing this, I found myself making a fair bit of money. However, now I've moved to a more independent, freelance set up while doing the same as a professional.

Throughout my time at various places, I was upset at some level with not applying my talents (whatever they were) for a more meaningful cause (whatever that was). I was upset that my occupation was not labourious enough to make me feel accomplished(understandably a juvenile view of productivity) nor was it intellectual enough to make a claim of having contributed something of substance. All I did was click the mouse and sell things for others, things I wasn’t interested in selling, things I frankly wasn’t getting paid enough to sell. Surely my abilities could be put to something more than earning money, right?
Over the last couple of years, there has been a new development, Artificial Intelligence. It is an executive support that is faster, has vast reserves of knowledge, is incredibly efficient and economical. It takes no leaves, asks no raise and most of all, it commands such respect from the boss, such never seen in the history of employment before.Whether or not it will lead the economy to glory, only time can answer. One thing is certain, it is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

I’ve tried to draw analogies to, how, many of the skilled stone masons must have had to turn to smithing on the emergence of copper, tin and a few other metals in the prehistoric era. The switch to copper must have been quite a quick adoption on part of the elites of the society, having the ability to afford the newest invention sand technological advances earlier than the masses.  Building new systems around it and accruing most of its benefits at the earliest. Another analogy would be that it may not be our oil but it is our age’s steam engine that will definitely put a lot of people out of their jobs and reshape the way we work.

Just as how a stone mason does not go extinct, the designer will not, for we all know that art has the ability to integrate anything new and that there are some things stone does better than copper or bronze, such as its use in in monumental carvings and sculptures. However, for the larger section of stone masons, their work is now surplus to requirements and it is time to find other avenues. While I find ways to integrate AI in my design projects, another avenue invites, to put my education, memory and a few too many opinions to use.

I have been suggested teaching. I am good enough with the language and I can help those who would like to refine their own. I have resisted this idea. With excuses, I was running away from what I liked to do which was pursuing the innate curiosity about how things worked and my observations on them, trying to understand the underlying why of them and sharing my limited understanding and comparing it with what has been already established. The entirety of human civilization, is built on our ability and willingness to share our understandings of this world, life and all its happenings however simple or profound they might be. I have accepted that this sharing is teaching and the one who decides to share with all knows the essence of life. I have not done my professional studies to be a teacher or a professor or a lecturer by the law of the land and can’t claim to be one in that capacity, what I can though, is share my notes.

However, anyone that shares, carries everyone he comes in contact with, on a journey where the fruits of collaboration are abundant.

Language is the medium of this journey. It is the building block of what makes teaching possible, the sharing of ideas possible. Writing is us making that abstract language into something concrete. Writing carries our thoughts to a larger audience, has the ability to remotely evoke strong emotions and it is language itself trying to be timeless.  I’ve attempted writing a story or a poem in my earlier years, when I was a care free child. Apart from a couple of these writings which are lost to time, I haven’t produced anything worth of note. Hundreds of opinionated comments on social media or copy and text content on product promotions to make a sale do not count for writings.

So, while dwelling on this over the past few weeks, I read Orwell’s “Why I write”. It was relatable and raised points I had observed. It was good to know that these paths that I proverbially saw in front of me had already been walked by someone as perceptive as Orwell. As predicted by him, I am writing for the same reason any writer, as he claims, decides to write.

I believe with the most irrational belief that I must be closer to the truth for I have reached here in search of it. I have reached here voluntarily after having ignored it for years, perhaps, for the better. I have reached here having lost faith and gaining it. So, here are a few opinions of mine.