Something to Keep
“I guarantee you I will screw this song up.”
Kurt Cobain, before playing “The Man Who Sold the World”. Nirvana’s rendition of the David Bowie song received universal acclaim.
A Second Look
In his book Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon writes about how we often worry about perfection and judgment when we’re making something in a creative field. The author argues that our job as creators isn’t to judge our own work, but to simply make it and release it, so that the world can judge. According to Kleon, we’ll probably do a bad job anyway. I’ve never seen a clearer example than when Nirvana covered “The Man Who Sold the World”.
Cobain’s reflects both humility and anxiety, but what’s most interesting about the song is how people received it.
To play the song, Cobain ran an acoustic guitar through a fuzz pedal to sound like an electric guitar. Even seasoned musicians would consider this choice somewhat odd. The guitar in question was a Martin D-18E, a rare piece from the 50s that went from being one of the least desirable Martin guitars to one of the most desirable ones after the Nirvana Unplugged concert. The guitar sold in 2020 for US$6 million, making it the most expensive guitar ever sold in an auction.
Back to the song, “The Man Who Sold the World” became so popular after Nirvana covered it, that a kid approached Bowie at some point, telling him that it was so cool he was doing a Nirvana song. Bowie told the kid, “Fuck you, you little tosser!”
Something I Liked
When I first started reading what we traditionally call “self-help books”, I was in love. I read every book in that category, and I couldn’t get enough of it. Over time, I started being more selective because I found some ideas toxic. Now, a book has to be life-changing (and scientifically-backed) for me to check it out.
I found it fascinating that not many people in the space were critical of it. In the video above, though, Matt D’Avella talks about the problems around certain self-help gurus and what that means for you if you consume their content.