I took to math and coding - especially games - as a kid. But the art I tried to make for my games was awful. My parents would see my scrawling and nod. "You're not an artist." I accepted it, and went back to coding. Generally, coders I know peg themselves as nonartistic types, for similar reasons.
We split the world into dichotomies. Fuzzies and techies. Creative and technical people. Crossing from one side to the other is apparently hopeless.
It took me a long time to realize this was a false dichotomy. The belief that I was 'just a technical person' was so strong that I didn't realize I could step outside of that label. I didn't know it was a label. I thought it was truth.
The amount of skill that you have in a certain area is proportional to the amount of work that you put into it. There is no such thing as a 'creative' or 'technical' type. The reason I was bad at art starting out is the same reason we are bad at anything starting out. One day, I sat down and put in hours of serious work, refusing to stop until I liked the results. And, gradually, I got better at art.
This realization changed my life. We don't need to be held back by what people think we should be good or bad at. We can be skilled at anything that we dedicate ourselves to.
What restrictions have others placed on you?
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