The builders of the future will all share this one trait.
It's actually quite obvious.
The future is dependent on people who think differently.
People who challenge what’s “normal” set the right stepping-stones. They’re not afraid to do whatever they need to do to achieve what makes them happy—and what changes the world. They’re not held back by worrying about what others think. They’re always minding their own business. They’re always pursuing what challenges them, even when the world judges with a microscopic eye.
As a generalist, I’m always questioning the path I’m pursuing.
I’m always wondering if my many overlapping interests will forever conflict with each other, or if there’s a silver thread connecting each one for the greater good of myself, and the greater benefit of humanity.
That sounds egotistical. Maybe it is. My point isn’t to glorify myself, but to offer another perspective around how we pursue creating for the future.
For me, I don’t want to waste my years building for others. I want to create meaningful things. Tell stories with real emotion threaded throughout.
To do that, I have to lean into my obsessions—of which I have many.
When you think of the greatest artists, inventors, and philosophers—from the ancient to the modern world—you don’t think of the people who stayed still. You don’t just think of the new ideas they brought into their respective fields.
You think of how obsessed they were with their craft.
You think of the thousands of hours it took for Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. You think of the hundreds to thousands of illustrations, concepts, and inventions da Vinci cycled through in order to craft his masterpieces—from unfinished ideas to brilliant finalities. You think of Vincent van Gogh and his beautifully unhinged exploration of the same subjects through multiple, timeless paintings. You think of Ernest Hemingway’s unbreakable commitment to writing, rewriting, and redefining his stories every single morning. You think of Sylvia Path, as addicted to her words as any true writer, taking her typewriter outside so she would never miss a beat.
They were obsessed. They were dedicated. They were chaotic. They were beautiful.
Obsession is the secret to work that means something. To work that forces you to feel, to confront the darkness and light within yourself.
Right now, we’re in a crisis.
A crisis where the builders, creators, and artists of the future are giving up before they can begin.
I’m watching people lose their ability to think by outsourcing their thoughts to artificial intelligence. I’m observing painters put down the brush after only their second or third painting, simply because the first two didn’t catch viral attention on Instagram. I’m catching people pretending to be writers by plagiarizing through Claude or ChatGPT—pretending to be someone else. Illusions of brilliance.
The only way to combat this crisis is to embrace original thinking. Original ideas, original art, original creations.
To create original work, we can’t sacrifice what makes us who we are. Outsourcing our ideas, creative concepts, and internal stories to AI—to the potential dominator of the future, if we’re not careful—will destroy any worth of building anything.
And with that destruction, we will lose our ability to obsess.
Obsession is what separates the greats from the average. I have no interest in pretending to be politically correct—there are the bests, the worsts, and the never-do-anythings. There are masterpieces, and there are shit work.
The people who are obsessed with their craft must keep fighting. They must pass on their approach to keep the love of creating with your mind, your hands, and your emotions alive and well.
Otherwise, we’re in a very, very bleak future.
If you’re new here, welcome. I’m Taylor, a writer dedicated to unraveling the art, purpose, and philosophy of personal branding for individuals in an AI-dominated world.
Very relatable Taylor. The world has been a cruel place to generalists. I think that's finally changing, or maybe there's just enough generalists claiming their validity. Making a safer space for other generalists, in a world that's been obsessed with speciality.
Part of the power of being a generalist in my experience comes from honouring and cultivating curiosity. It really is the most sustainable path because there's no dissonance between obsession and occupation (in the broadest sense of the word).
Perhaps one of the most relatable things that you said, was the pursuit of what's good for the individual, and offering it as service to the collective. That can feel like an egotistical pursuit.
Your post makes me question again, whether we have been shamed by a system that wants us to obsess over the reinforcement of said system, at the neglect of our true nature. Importantly, also at neglect of a principle ever present in nature. Where members of an ecological community naturally and consistency contribute the fruits of their own lives to the benefit of the ecosystem.
Love this Taylor, I've been following you on LinkedIn and really like what you stand for. I'm in the same boat, kind of feel like me being a generalist is pulling me in 200 different directions at once and worried whether it's going to hold me back from achieving certain things.
It's why I keep starting and stopping with LinkedIn, thinking I want to stay on Substack, but knowing LinkedIn is where I can probably attract clients, constant push and pull does my head in haha.
Your stuff on LinkedIn really stands out, so keep going and keep pushing, you are one of the few people who is doing things differently over there!