[monkeynotes]

If they are doing advertising then they are art directors, not artists. The most talented artists make art, it's not something they have a choice in. They will suffer poverty to make their art.

Talent isn't in the execution in art, it's in the ideas, and tapestry of the artist's life.

> The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads

This is also not true, because those minds aren't intelligent enough to see the folly of their attention. The best minds see past this and do the work they are driven to do, similar to artists.

[pimlottc]

Let’s not over romanticize the starving artist. There are plenty of creative people who could create good, worthy art if they had the means and support to pursue it fully. It’s not a moral failing to have a need to make a living, especially if others are relying on you.

[monkeynotes]

The article literally said "the most talented". The top talent artists are certainly making art, and it is a fact they are driven to do it more than anything else. That's the attitude that makes them "the most talented". I am not romanticising it, it's just how it is.

> It’s not a moral failing to have a need to make a living, especially if others are relying on you.

Exactly. People make choices in what they do, it has nothing to do with talent being taken out of the market, it's always been this way. There have always been more profitable things to do than making art.

[bena]

You do know you can do what you like outside of work, right?

You have a hyper-idealized version of what is and is not art.

And execution definitely forms part of the talent. We should know that just as well. We all know "the idea guy", the guy who has all the "right" ideas, but just can't seem to actually do the thing required to bring the idea to life.

And that's because most ideas are just half-formed thoughts. I'm almost on the other end of the spectrum. It's mostly about execution and the idea actually means very little. The idea of "what if you couldn't make new memories" is the central struggle in two very different movies. In Memento, it's used to tell a detective noir story where we're told who the killer is in the first scene. In 50 First Dates, it's used to give Adam Sandler a hurdle to plowing Drew Barrymore.

And you can find joy in the doing itself. You can make good commercial art. It is possible. There is craft there. And where there is craft, there is art.

[monkeynotes]

> You have a hyper-idealized version of what is and is not art.

No, I made an assertion that the most talented artists make art.

> And execution definitely forms part of the talent.

Seeing that many, many top, full time, talented artists have technicians that execute, I don't think it's the defining quality of a top artist. Execution can be offloaded, ideas cannot.

> And that's because most ideas are just half-formed thoughts.

Talented artists have fully formed thoughts. That's their talent.

> And that's because most ideas are just half-formed thoughts.

Well, I'd suggest your job is at risk. Execution can be automated, ideas not so much. Who is gonna tell the GPT what to do?

> And you can find joy in the doing itself. You can make good commercial art.

Yeah, those people failed to be the top talent in art and did something else. They are still highly talented but not in the realms of top talented artists.

[bena]

This is such pretentious bullshit.

The ability to realize an idea is way more important than "having ideas".

And I say that "most ideas are just half-formed thoughts" because they are. Most people think an idea like "the Uber of X" is worthwhile. It's not. It's hardly a thought, much less an actual idea.

Everything else you said was basically "nuh-uh, I feel differently and assert that my opinionated feelings are facts". And examples won't matter to you because you'll "no true Scotsman" your way through that saying they are "real" artists or "top talented" artists. As if your opinion on these matters were a subjective criteria.