field notes for a generous troublemaker

14 Jun, 2025

So, while I was stumbling around finding posts to read, I came across this post from Kami that spoke about the 'meta' of blogging about blogging, but that post also took me to a website manifesto from Emily and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy a good manifesto.

Now, you'll notice the title of my blog post doesn't mention either blogging or a manifesto and that's because I don't want to talk about either (directly, at least).

Want I do want to talk about is how that's influenced this post to become a bit of a field notes for a generous troublemaker.

How the generous troublemaker came about

To give you a bit of history for my thoughts on the generous troublemaker, I essentially took my inspiration from a Bukowski poem and the teachings of James Victore.

Victore who believes that creativity is dangerous ¹ and Bukowski who had a disdain for the derivative ².

This led to thinking about how I want to be a generous troublemaker, but to do that, I needed a bit of a guide, so with that said...

The tenets of the troublemaker

This is likely going to change over time, but these are five tenets that I hope I will always stick to and champion.

1. to have some f'in fun
2. to challenge the f'in norm
3. to disrupt the f'in boring
4. to be unapologetically f'in me
5. to create from f'in curiosity.

Now, initially I was going to swear my little heart out, but then being the generous troublemaker I am, thought I'll leave the swearing implied for those who want it and (slightly) sensor it for those who don't.

In short, I want to continue pushing towards the edge of what I believe to be possible with my creativity. I want to be unflinching in my opinions but to act as a guide towards others who struggle with being vulnerable with their creativity and taking risks.

Now, to be honest - I have no idea how I'm going to do that as yet, I made the first step by starting this blog and to stop being concerned about all the things that stop creativity in it's tracks.

I'm excited for the next steps and finding ways that I can live up to these tenets and start having some real fun with my creative work.

Now, how are you going to cause a little trouble?