Daft Methods of Making Things

So this is a bit of a reaction to events currently present in life, filtered through the lens of good sport and general kind understanding that people do things for reasons and I respect the reasons that people do things, until they venture into daft absurdity – then they’re ripe for ridicule.

If you’re running a program, be it an educational thing or a creative thing or whatever, unless you’re a lazy so and so, there’s no real excuse for importing arbitrary selection numbers on to the program, unless you’re trying to game funding applications. It makes no sense on any logical plane of existence, if, and I suppose this is a big if, you are acting in the interest of those you are trying to reach. Legitimate ‘nice’ behaviour indicates that all submissions to a platform need representation in any program, because if you choose to not select something then, well, it’s not a nice feeling for the person on the other end of the decision.

The braying, bleating excuse always given will be about capacity and not having enough resources. But seriously, it is not a difficult task to offer a bit of help to anyone that’s taken the time to fill in a form on your obscure website. In fact, it’s a curiously modern affliction that nobody actually wants to help anybody. It makes things feel a little strange and sour.

The old football adage, go again, comes to mind, but it’s also not satisfactory when you know that somebody is lying to you when they say they are unable to engage with all submissions. I suppose if the thing that you’re requesting responses to is competitive, then fine, you have an excuse, but something that is marketed for the ‘social good’ and practices arbitrary judgemental exclusion is outing itself as a bad idea.

I don’t know how we got here, that people come up with arbitrary numbers and say ‘that’s it’. If somebody seeks out help using a form, then even the smallest level of engagement can help in a million ways unbeknownst to the administrator. Yet there’s this curious craven spirit floating through the hearts and minds of so many people that makes the world seem grey and miserable.

I know that I don’t want to live my life as a coward, and I don’t necessarily want to spend time around cowards as bad behaviour rubs off. And I know that by writing this blog I am setting myself up for a mountain of work in order to engage with people who send stuff to me in the theoretical future. But I also know what it’s like to be on the end of a rejection and it’s rubbish, especially when there’s nothing much else out there in terms of seeking support for acute ideas.

When you receive the words that the administrator believes that others would benefit from a program more than yourself, it’s a little perplexing, as you have to ask the question why did I send in the bloody application in the first place, you doughnut? Thanks for taking a look at my material circumstances, judging me, and relegating my theoretical benefit based on your own faulty subjective understanding of the world.

I guess this reaction I’m writing indicates that I have dodged a bullet, and I would’ve banged my head against the wall after a 20 second conversation with this administrator. The adage evolves to ‘DIY all the time’. If you want something done, you gotta do it on your own terms.