Sketching people with dignity—and a Thanksgiving message
Over the last few weeks, I've pivoted from writing to sketching.
Another casualty of the midlife crisis, I'm sure.
Leaning into sketching has been a rewarding journey in interpretation and expression. I love sketching objects and landscapes and I'm forgiving of my cartoonish mistakes.
But the same is not true of my sketches of people.
A sketch of who knows what
Maybe I'm worried about giving my human subjects dignity. I want to get them right and capture their true essences in my own style, which I'm still finding.
People are complicated, both internally and externally, at least as individuals. Sure, in large groups, people are often easier to predict. But I don't sketch large statistical samples. I sketch individuals.
In so many ways, we as a society have forgotten to give people dignity. Especially in business. And especially in tech, an industry devoid of good ideas which now profits by extracting every bit of data it can to resell to someone else or to use against the user in some way—maybe by making useless tech more addictive.
The old adage If you're not paying for the product, you're the product is outdated. It implies that paying for a product earns you a certain degree of dignity.
Maybe that adage had some truth to it 20 years ago. But these days, if you're paying for the product, you're still the product. Hopefully you've gotten access to a few extra features as part of the transaction.
Random sketches of boxy people
The prophets of AI certainly see people as products, as they train their large language models on our writings and our graphics with no compensation. They argue that generative AI is unprofitable without access to our creations. They care nothing about the implications for us, the creators. But they're less understanding or forgiving when individual human creators violate the copyright or trademarks of the behemoth companies.
Dignity for me but not for thee.
In the world at large, there's very little I can control. At the end of the day, I can control only how I conduct myself. And I can choose to treat people with dignity, even (especially?) in regard to my personal sketches most of the world will never see.
Perhaps it's silly to worry about something so small. Is it worth the anxiety?
Yes. Because I worry because I care. And caring is in short supply.
The concept may feel foreign to much of corporate America, where caring is a liability rather than an asset. Corporatism doesn't give people the dignity of caring. Emotion has no place in business. Just make sure number go up, however you gotta do it.
But I do care. Because I'm human, which makes me this messy mass of emotion. It's not my fault it's biology, bro.
The faces of my dozen or so readers
We're approaching Thanksgiving, which means you'll soon be bombarded with cheesy posts and Tweets and skeets about what everyone's so grateful for.
So let me get ahead of the curve.
This year I want to express my thanks for each of you who read this blog. For each of you who have emailed me over the years. For all who have linked to my posts or shared my articles on Hacker News or elsewhere.
By paying attention, you've given this idiot with a blog far more dignity than he deserves.
And for that, I thank you.
