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Comment by 616c | Hacker News Reader

Or rather:

I am so sick of reading about your calendar/planning startup. It is a company with similar people, using similar technology, doing similar things for the same amount of money and cultural mindshare. Sure everyone likes you as you are the new kid on the block, but can you disrupt some other thing you do not enjoy for the sake of your consumer? You are really boring me.

No one ask Van Gogh to paint another Starry Night, man. (It is this quite, oft-repeated by my parents, that makes me thinks Jodie Mitchell is a true genius).

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/489495-that-s-one-thing-tha...

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>No one ask Van Gogh to paint another Starry Night, man. (It is this quite, oft-repeated by my parents, that makes me thinks Jodie Mitchell is a true genius).

That's because he wasn't that famous when he lived anyway. If he had any success, art dealers would ask him to paint "another Starry night" all the time.

Besides, it's not like his work is composed of paintings entirely unlike each other. In that sense, he already has like 10-15 Starry nights.

(Constrast with Picasso, who had several entirely different periods of work).

Yeah, that's not a surprise. It was a flippant comment by non-plussed Joni Mitchell to frequent requests every concert she play "Big Yellow Taxi" (also known for it's chorus "Paved Paradise, Put a Parking Lot") over and over. She was not amused.

The subtext of my orginal comment, by way of her and not voicing Van Gogh: you end up doing something different, and people only want repeats of your popular previous work, or imitations of others, anyway. (Note remixes of the song, which I embarassingly like, continue to pop-up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Yellow_Taxi)

I get your point, but I think we are talking past each other.

>you end up doing something different, and people only want repeats of your popular previous work, or imitations of others, anyway.

Well, perhaps the people know something that the creator doesn't.

If you go to a Sushi place you don't expect or want them to suddenly give you a Carribean menu.

I think it's similar with artists. They tend to think that people came to them for "them" intristically, and that they should relish whatever new thing they decide to throw their way, but that's not how it works.

People came to an artist X because he/she gave them that particular flavor that they liked. Not because they just like the person or the way he thinks in general and would follow him to every and any artistic path.

I think people want three things: 1) good; 2) different; 3) similar. If your work is good, all that matters is finding the right audience for it. People want things that are different from your past work and the cultural status quo, but they also want similarity, a connection. There are many artists who substantially change their output while remaining popular, but there are many who screw it up too.

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