Acoustics and Men’s style
Earlier this year, my wife introduced me to Bailey Sarian’s Youtube channel. She produces a program called “Mystery and Makeup”, where she talks about True crime and Makeup. She is insanely popular with 3,4 million subscribers and I can understand why, even if I have only watched one episode. Her passion is apparent and shines through like a bright light. She is indeed a great storyteller. The episodes start out with Bailey completely without makeup and then she tells a story about some famous true crime while putting on a professional makeup. About 30 minutes later she finishes the story and by then the makeup is finished. Bailey Sarian is perhaps one of the strangest combinations I have come across and it works. She is the perfect example of when two seemingly unrelated ideas are synthesized and produce something new and greater than the sum of the parts. She planted a seed in me. If I were to do something similar on Youtube, what would it look like?
The key factor to succeed in any domain, be it online or offline, is passion. You cannot fake passion. Passion is what will drag you out of the cozy bed in the morning. It is the kind of work that you would do even if you would not get paid. When passion, talent and consistent hard work are combined, great things happen. Some of us are extremely passionate in one (1) specific domain and pour everything they got into it. These people can become world champions. However, hard work (passion) is not sufficient by itself. We also need a bit of luck in the genetic lottery, regarding our biological attributes. Those parameters that are required for ultimate success, I call talent. For example, if you are short, you will never join the NBA no matter how hard you practice. If you are tall and passionate enough, the possibility is there, should you put in the insane amount of work hours required.
Your personality type could also be referred to as talent. It is innate and written in stone. You cannot turn an introvert into an extrovert. An introvert can act as an extrovert – Just watch Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffanys – but it drains their energy and it is not sustainable. An extrovert on the other hand, charges their energy when they are around people, and can keep it up for much longer because they enjoy it. We all have a unique personality profile and some profiles are better suited for certain domains than others. When you find your own optimal combination, there is no going back. It will feel as if all friction goes away and instead a force is driving you forward.
About two weeks ago, I started to publish short daily micro-lectures on LinkedIn, where I explain a basic acoustic concept, like “What is a decibel?” or “What does an acoustician do for a living?”. I am planning to do a hundred of them and see what happens. Personality-wise, I am exceptionally high in Openness and thus interested in many things. I find it difficult to pour all my energy into one single domain for the rest of my life. I must constantly learn new skills or I will go crazy. I know a thing or two about acoustics and can easily produce hundreds of micro-lectures on the topic “on-the-fly”. But some days ago, I realized that I love both Acoustics and Men’s fashion, so I thought I should do a Bailey Sarian with these topics and put them together. I always dress up in business casual every day, so it requires no additional work for me. In the end of each micro-lecture about acoustics, I do a quick style tip related to what I am wearing that day. By putting it in the end, those that are not interested in style can end the video and still learn something about acoustics. This is what synthesis of ideas are about. I can easily visualize myself incorporating the fashion/style concepts as a pedagogical tool to explain certain acoustical concepts. For example, tonality is analogous to a vibrant red pocket square on a contrasting suit. Maybe I’ll throw in a bit of music in the pot as well later on (another of my passions).
When doing these Acoustics/Style videos I experience no friction. I am just having fun, while providing value to the world. In theory, that sounds like a pretty good combination! Let’s see if it works in practice too.