VOICES 05


“THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US, LATE AND SOON; GETTING AND SPENDING, WE


LAY WASTE OUR POWERS,” WROTE WILLIAM WORDSWORTH IN ONE OF HIS MOST FAMOUS SONNETS IN 1807. TODAY, MORE THAN TWO CENTURIES LATER, NOTHING’S CHANGED


THE POWER OF MASTERY


Kojo is a writer, storyteller, content architect, radio talk show host at Kaya FM, editor of Afropolitan magazine and co-founder of Project Fable.


S


pecialisation and mastery of a single skill still has a place in this modern, perpetually evolving world. While we operate as slashies, it’s important that there are one or two skills in which we


absolutely excel. In David Gelb’s 2011 documentary, Jiro Dreams


of Sushi, about now 92-year-old Jiro Ono, the owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro – a three-Michelin-star-rated sushi restaurant in the Tokyo railway station – we get a glimpse of the intensity of what an apprentice goes through to become a sushi master. Apprentices train for 10 years and, in Jiro’s restaurant, are only allowed to prepare the rice after five years of working in the space. Chef Jiro has said: “You must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the secret of success.”


BETTER, FASTER, MORE! However, we’ve created a world in which time is a


commodity that’s in even shorter supply than ever before. Where once our pursuits required hours, our lives are now a flurry of the disposable as we try to cram more and more into each moment, each space, each interaction and each experience. We’re perpetually busy, never really delving into the heart of whatever we’re doing, operating within the boundaries, as opposed to constantly challenging ourselves to push further and deeper. As technology increases accessibility and makes


production easier, we churn out more, pushing it out to the world as quickly as possible, rarely taking a moment to craft anything. We constantly create platforms and spaces that are geared towards speed. Take Twitter, for example. I always found that the beauty of its traditional 140-character


limit was that it forced me to be succinct and clear in thought. The typing, the deleting and the search for shorter synonyms were all part of the challenge – and the joy. Now Twitter has doubled its character limit to 280, which means I can be lazier, rather than searching for the perfect word. German composer Johannes Brahms once said:


“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.”


A “GIFT” DOESN’T PROMISE FAME Talent alone never guarantees success, in whatever


form you define it. Painters, writers and athletes all steadily chip away at their perceived deficiencies and imperfections by working on technique. A rock becomes a sculpture with craftsmanship. I remember how, at university, learning to code


in Cobol, we’d have to go through hundreds of lines of code, over and over again, each time eliminating what didn’t work, until the code did what it was intended to do. Perhaps I’m not being entirely fair when I say that much of what we create is disposable and instant. Perhaps this is more a call to action or a feeble rallying cry in support of craftsmanship. There’s something unbelievably engaging about an object that’s been beautifully crafted. We’re surrounded by these objects, but we’ve forgotten how to give ourselves the breathing room to continue creating them. And we’ve forgotten that out of discomfort come growth and evolution – and mastery, of sorts. To carve away at something, to stumble, fall,


get up, start again and then finally complete it, brings a depth of satisfaction that’s incomparable. This deserves to be acknowledged, celebrated – and remembered.


WORDS: KOJO BAFFOE. IMAGE: SHAUN MALLETT


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