Los Angeles, 2019 #cindyproject

Don’t Follow or Predict Trends, Start Your Own Trend!

A thought:

Many of us try to predict trends, or identify trends in order to follow them.

But what if we can create our own ‘reality distortion field’ (Steve Jobs), and create our own trend?


What is a ‘trend’?

The word “trend” comes from the notion of “turning” or “rotating” in a certain direction.

Now, I think most people think about trends from a ‘cultural’ or ‘social’ turning (in a certain direction). There seems to be a certain point where a certain trend (or ‘fad’) hits a saturation point, when we see a certain trend manifest in our everyday lives.

Why follow trends?

closeup cindy

I think a lot of people tend to follow trends because it seems “cool” to do so. Perhaps it comes from the herd-mentality that if you see a lot of people doing something, you want to fit in and also seem cool/socially accepted, and thus you partake in the same behavior, wear the same clothing items, or purchase the same consumer items.

Thus, following a trend can be:

  1. To gain social acceptance
  2. To look “cool” (social superiority)
  3. Fear of being left out (FOMO–fear of missing out)
  4. Fear of looking ‘un-cool’ (fear of loss of potential opportunity to climb social ranks)

How to create your own trend

Following a trend is boring. It takes no skill, perhaps just a little bit of money (consumerism).

I say let us go opposite (producerism). Let us strive to CREATE a new trend, or produce a new trend, based on what we deem is ‘cool’ in our own eyes.

To create your own trend:

Start by following your ideals, share your ideals with others, and if others are convinced by you, they will follow you.

Semi-consistency

It seems that if you want to start a certain trend, you must follow that trend for a while.

For example, I think I have set a trend with the RICOH GR cameras (Ricoh GR 1, Ricoh GR II, and now the RICOH GR III). The basic notion is that I kept blogging about the camera, mentioning it in my YouTube videos, etc. I mentioned it whenever I could, because I truly believed in the product.

You need to be consistent with your trend or message– at least for a while. You don’t want to stick to the same trend forever, or else you start dying.


Do you want others to follow in your example?

Now this is a tricky question:

Do you want others to imitate or follow you, as you do?

It depends on you and your personality.

I do believe that somewhere deep in our DNA, we all desire to become a tyrant over everyone else. All children are mini-tyrants. They want their parents to be their slaves.

My ambition

flowers

I cannot speak for others, but let me try to outline my thoughts to you:

I am so hungry to learn deeper truths about myself and reality, and when I discover something that works very very well for me, I desire to share this knowledge and wisdom from others!

For example, I have always had difficulty staying inspired my photography. Much of my blogging revolves around photographic motivation, inspiration, and wisdom (learning from the masters of photography). And as I discover tips, tricks, techniques, and hacks that work for me– I desire to empower other humans. I love other humans, other photographers, and want to share this love as widely as possible!


Conclusion

As a quick conclusion, here are some of my thoughts distilled:

  1. Don’t follow trends. Instead, start your own trend.
  2. Do what is best for you, and share your philosophy with others. What is best for you won’t always be best for others, but it might. The potential of helping others is worth you sharing your wisdom with others.
  3. Share out of a sense of love, altruism, and desire to help others. Perhaps this motivation does come from this desire of our inner-tyrant; but whatever– just share it!

ERIC

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