I’ve forgotten which country song it was or which country singer,
but part of it goes:

“Thunder’s just the noise boys,
Lightning does the work.”

Been thinking about that one a lot lately.

Whatever you do in life, there will be those who attempt to take
credit for your efforts or achievements. Be it at work, or school, or at
your favorite hobby – someone will always attempt to be the recipient of
what rewards you may deserve. But like the song says, there are doers and
then there are talkers. The great Emperor Londo Mollari said it best when
he declared that “The quiet ones change the universe while the load ones
merely take the credit”.

You see this a lot on the Internet.

You’ve seen it too, both in life and online. The individuals
who wish to be known for being extraordinary, when the only extraordinary
thing about them is their own desire for attention. The self-styled experts
whose only expertise is the use of a search engine to find the real
knowledge, yet are more then willing to bamboozle the unwary into
believing they are experienced. The pseudointellectuals who wish to spend
time pontificating upon a subject while the expert demonstrates their own
skill at it. The ones with a pretentious automatic assumption of authority
upon a particular subject without the ability to demonstrate the knowledge
or talent they proclaim to have.

These are the loud ones, they make noise and little else. Probably
the best example of this type is the mailman from the old sitcom “Cheers”,
Cliff Clavin.

With the easy ability to self-publish on the Internet by the
access of blogs (online journals) and personal websites just about anyone
can claim that they know something to everyone. With all of that out there,
it’s easy to be duped by someone if you do not know what the reality of
the subject matter is. This is where you must engage in some critical
thinking to avoid being mislead by a loud one. Usually, if you think that
something is wrong or that someone is not making sense – then you are
most likely correct. Do not doubt your own ability to make up your mind,
those few odd pounds of meat perched upon your skull is the best weapon
against these intellectual rip-off artists.

Now, I’ll pass on my own bits of advice to help you steer clear of
con artists. First off, do they spend more time talking about what they do
or do they spend more time actually doing it? A hallmark of loud ones is
that they will say they are great at what they do without ever actually
doing it. A good example, a musician who publicly claims to be a good
guitarist who never has played her guitar or made a demo tape or gotten
a band together tried to demonstrate what they can do in public is
spending more time on daydreams and fantasy then on trying to make them
real – probably not the person you want to go to for in-depth knowledge
on how to play the guitar. Another example is the car enthusiast who
collects the hot rod magazines and can expound on Ford’s latest offering
to American pickups, but doesn’t work on his own car or can even change
a flat tire on it – not the best one to go to if you are having engine
trouble (I think they call them “shadetree mechanics” around here). Just
keep in mind that a loud one talks wbout how good they are while a real
expert demonstrates it.

Now, the above applies to art as well. A real artist has a need
to do their art, they do not usually talk about it because they are too
busy pursuing their particular passion (see if they are talking about it,
then they are not doing it). There’s an old joke floating around – “Just
because nobody understands you does not mean you’re an artist”. This is
also true in a lot of ways. See, with today’s technology, anybody can be
a writer, a musician, a graphic designer, a DJ, a videographer, a
photographer, a painter, or any other stripe of artist. The two primary
criteria for this is – “Are they doing their art for attention or because
they love it?” and “Are they good at it?” to discern who is or is not an
artist. Any gorilla can paint or use Photoshop, but it doesn’t mean that
what they are doing is good enough to cause you to believe that they are
an artist. Remember the guy who used to throw buckets of paint into the
air behind a jet engine and let it spalsh on a canvas? What he was doing
is considered painting, but it didn’t require any talent to do so. Use
that critical thinking talent, it’ll serve you well.

Oh, just so you know. I usually call myself a “Creative Scribbler”,
its even on my business cards. I won’t be saying that I am a writer until
I begin making a good portion of my income at this. Until then, I’m going
to keep on writing because I have a need to do it as much as I have a
need to breath.

Not that I’m anything more than a curmudgeon, mind you.