Context is King

When you trust your content is when you can forget it. At that point you’ll get that Context is King.

…to make a Leonardo you need more than his innate ability. You also need Florence in 1450. Paul Graham.

Yes I know… we are not da Vinci, we don’t have Florence in 1450 nor we have a Medici patron for our talent.

Florence in 1450 is context. The problem is that without an appropriate context talent is useless. To be fair, not useless but seriously compromised. That’s why talented people want to run away from places that are hostile to their talent and, the opposite of that problem: knowing how to build appropriated contexts will cultivate talent and open you more doors than working on the content. The good part: today is simpler and cheaper to build desirable contexts so wealth creation can find its way to be deployed in the world.

Some examples:

• A blank sheet of paper, something to write and a pleasant ambiance.
• Your laptop + WiFi in an inspiring coffehouse.
• To be able to write about high culture in a conversational tone.
• A great story for you blog or, way better, book chapter.
• When the world gives you the present of a synchronicity or a serendipity.
• Your sketching tools and your favorite music in the background.
• Finding the layout that works.
• Your design when it has your rules and honors the basic principles at the same time.
• To fit that image in the rule of thirds. And the right light and shadows!
• When you make your model feeling natural and engaged during the shots.
• Your camera and accessories in an historical moment.
• To be able to capture technically well without being distracted by technical stuff.
• When you can make your actors to inspire one to each other when filming.
• Your musical instrument and a couple of friends.
• To relax before an audition confident on your practices.
• The visual finalization details of your site.
• The usability of your application.
• The ambiance you were able to architect.
• A customer has a problem you can help with.
• The results created by your movement before asking for donations.
• To say “hello” with a sincere smile.
• To listen your interlocutor’s problem.
• To ask the right question.
• When you renew the inspiration and hope of a member of your community.
• Your intervention adding momentum to a project.

Because context is dynamic in nature, it can be very brief. When you get one that works take advantage of it putting all the momentum in the substance and commit to the truth. If you do that you can be sure you will be closer to some valuable things:

The identity of what you provide will be faithful to what you are.

Your talents will have a better chance to shine over their opposite keeping what you don’t like in you at a safe distance. When something you don't like comes up, the feedback will be more useful because is the right input on the right problem, which leads to good diagnosis and good reviews and solutions.

Ultimately this is useful because all the contexts you manage to build are the real signature of your consciusness and you can be familiar with it while, unfortunately, most people don’t even know they have one.

Originally published in July 7, 2009. Reviewed in November 17, 2017