VER-XIII-0034
“The recognition I wanted finally came and I don't want it to go to my head.”
Praise is a current, and it pulls, toward performing for more of it, toward becoming the image instead of the person. The recognition is real and earned. The trap is letting the world's approval quietly take the wheel. Master the moment by staying the one who does the work.
Your Practice
- Write what the work meant to you before anyone was watching. Reread it.
- Thank the people who built it with you, by name, in private.
- Keep doing the unglamorous part of the craft this week, recognition or not.
- When the next bit of applause comes, notice the pull, then set it down and get back to work.
The Architects
“It's not enough to just live in the world as it is, to take what you're given and follow the things that adults told you to do and that society tells you to do.”
Aaron Swartz, Interview footage in the documentary The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)