Legomation

I started out with a box full of legos and the simple idea of competitive friction.

I built the set in about two hours. I limited my movement to one lego "dot," one step, one third of arm movement at a time. and I repeated each guesture three times. This gave a uniformity, that I was able to make comic breaks, and also gave a nice smoothness to the overall work.

I love competition. But only healthy competition. I believe that working out with friends, playing other teams, and competing with your own goals is a healthy process. It is how I work every day. I am aware of my shortcomings and want to work toward specific achievement through enhancing my strengths. However, I find that individual success is something that has taken a perverse turn in things I observe. 

I have been struck with the idea of folks needing desperately to "keep up with the Jones." People would rather keep status quo in a lot of ways than be bothered with stepping up. That is not cool. I also think that other folks are obsessed with not being anything "less" than what someone else is or has. These lego men fight over who has the better wall. It is a petty, jealous exercise that is comically stupid. I think jealous competition is unhealthy and has a destructive energy about it. And I think that plays out rather naturally in this video. I think we improve ourselves when we use our own compass as a guide and only refer to competition as an occasionally appropriate measuring stick. (For example, before you call yourself the best _____ ever, you ought to look at what all the other (fill in the blank)'s are doing. I think individual success is something that is to be celebrated by the whole.