We are quickly moving towards an era in which it will take longer to figure out what you want to do with a tool than it does to execute your idea.
Think about how easy it is to do something like publish a blog post today. Between drag and drop web site builders and CMS platforms like WordPress, we can produce content at almost no cost to the creator in a fraction of the time it used to take a decade ago.
Consider something like design. The bulk of design decisions are data inputs — colors, fonts, positioning, etc. As machines collect more data, they will become MUCH better at prediction, which will allow us to move at a much faster pace than we are moving today. The progress made in the last year has been nothing short of remarkable.
You can develop apps without knowing how to write a line of code.
You can build a personal brand logo within a matter of minutes.
I made the following trailer for our upcoming event in minutes while I was chatting with a friend on Facebook.
What is happening here is a massive shift in which the individual creators have power in their hands that was previously only accessible to industry giants. The costs of production will decrease while ease of use increases. The value of technical proficiency will decline while the value of creativity and imagination will rise, resulting in a creative revolution.
In the not-so-distant future knowing how to use a tool won't matter as much as imagining what is possible with it. It will be the most significant technological paradigm shift we've experienced in the last 50 years. As Julien Smith once said to me on the Unmistakable Creative, the question we should be asking is "what's possible now that wasn't before."
The answer is a lot. The video I shared above is just text-based, but I downloaded some stock preview footage and created a trailer with a beautiful video in a matter of minutes.
It's up to us whether we're going to use this opportunity to make cat videos, make Instagram memes, write status updates, accumulate vanity metrics or use it to do something that's deep, meaningful and truly matters. This is the greatest time in history for creatives. What you choose to do with that time is a simple choice with profound implications for your life.
