📅 Monday, 10-11-25

This is email offers a practical approach to improve your content diet, specifically for creative people who want to operate at a higher level

☝️ I didn't know this before learning to draw.

A painter knows the craft well enough to "deconstruct" how the painting was made.

By doing so, they experience the act of putting it back together in their minds, as if they were painting it.

As a result, a painter can experience other artists’ art with greater pleasure than everyone else.

But it cuts both ways.

A painter will “feel the pain" of mediocre art unlike everyone else who would be indifferent to it.

But I think that’s a good thing.

Because it means that they will only look for paintings of higher standards of quality to avoid that "pain".

Now imagine applying the same principle to what we consume most:

Audio-visual entertainment.

Imagine how cool it would be to literally “feel the pain" of mediocre movies, mindless content and Ai slop.

And on the other hand, being able to feel pleasure to a higher degree when watching higher quality productions.

Whether that’s a Wes Anderson movie or a Gawx Art youtube video.

The result would be that you will not need discipline to stop watching junk entertainment and cut doomscrolling.

You will actively seek to be exposed to higher and higher quality entertainment.

Because that’s what your mind craves.

But how do we do this in practice?

Well, just like a painter is able to deconstruct another artist’s painting because of its knowledge of the craft, we need to learn the craft of content creation and film-making enough to be able to “know” how it’s made.

With “know” being practical, not theoretical. So, through lived experience.

That’s the biggest untold benefit of becoming a creator in my opinion.

Because you don’t need to become good at the craft in order to unlock the practical knowledge required for this.

It works as a beginner too.

In fact, you will start to see this phenomenon immediately. Since your very first attempt at making a video.

Of course the more you try, the more aspects of the craft you discover, the more you will be able to spot and appreciate the higher quality stuff (as well as spot and be repelled by the lower quality junk you used to watch).

So it becomes easier and easier to reduce doomscrolling the more you create.

It’s a positive reinforcement loop.

As a creative person, regardless what your 9-5 is, you can't find happiness being a passive consumer.

You need to start seeing the world through the eyes of a craftsperson.

I hope you found value in this email

See you next week

🫶

Filippo Massarelli
​(or just "Massa" for friends ;)

P.s.

The contents of this email came from one of my entries to my personal Knowledge Vault.

For those of you who have bought access to my Knowledge Vault earlier this year you can checkout these new entries:

​🟢 Watch movies like a painter sees a painting​

​🟢 Top 3 tips to nurture a creative habit alongside a 9-5​

​🟢 Skills are relative, lessons are not​

P.p.s.

For those who do not have access but would want to, I am planning to make the Vault available permanently from Black Friday onwards. There will be a discount during the Black Friday period only and then full price.

Get on the Black Friday waitlist here → ​https://massa-art.kit.com/vault-waitlist​​

Depending on availability there might also be the opportunity of a 1-1 session with me to review your weekly/daily routine and give you advice. I will prioritise people from the waitlist so make sure you're on it!