File: Art, Life, Work

Just as I was leaving work today, Diane, a co-worker of mine, posed this question to me: If I won the billion dollar lottery, what would I do with myself? (An aside: I love that it's a billion dollar lottery, as inflation has finally won and a simple million won't cut it.)

I sort of whiffed on the question. I told her I'd keep working part time, just to keep myself on a schedule, as I'm at my best when I'm working on deadlines for others rather than myself. She countered with a follow up, "Yeah, but doing what? What industry?" My first answer was reading and books. But that quickly followed with my other loves: video, technology, theatre, writing. I'd definitely write that book.

I was thinking about it on the drive home. It's not really about medium for me. I love content. It's such a stale word, but it can describe so much, and that's why I'm using it. I love producing content, absorbing content, and almost most of all, sharing content. I'm just as happy to send a link to a cool website that's helped me, as I am to send a photograph I've taken, talk about a book I love, or recount a scene that made me laugh so hard I hyperventilated.

I like to help others.

Information sharing, especially through writing, is the method I'm best at; perhaps the only method of helping others that I really trust for myself. That said, there are so many other methods of information sharing that intrigue me. I think I would feel that I was missing something if I had to give up any one of those mediums.

Maybe it's the art school background. Communication arts, my area, exposed me to so many different playgrounds that I didn't want to choose just the slide or the swings. I just want to explore them all.

I should have said that as long as I have my hand in content creation, I'll be happy. I think a billion dollars would enable me to work smarter towards that, but I think it would also give me the opportunity to find new ways of content creation (maybe even ones that haven't been invented yet; it would be cool to invent something). I think what I'd really like from the lottery fairy is to split my winnings: some money (say, 8-12 million) and the rest in time. That's the biggest problem: I don't have the time to explore (and get really, really good at) all of the areas of content creation that pique my curiosity.

But, at least I can narrow it down. Cheesy business card here I come: Content Creator, Medium Flexible.