We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexej Savreux. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexej below.
Hi Alexej, thanks for joining us today. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?
I have many influences and antecedents, of course, but I suppose that’s a good distinction, say “hero” versus “influences,” for example. An influence might be Catallus, or Pythagoras, or Laing, or Duchamp. However, a “hero” is unique. There are layers and degrees to all of these sorts of discussions. My childhood hero was Jackie Robinson. Now, of course, I am not a baseball player nor much of an athlete, but I was pretty preoccupied with hockey and baseball growing up. There was one quote that stood out to me that struck me as particularly arresting attributed to Robinson I believe: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” That’s something I never forgot, even after my seemingly endless love affair with baseball wilted. I still love hockey, and Jackie will always hold a special place in my heart, but that quote (and bear in mind I’m likely not quoting it verbatim, or I might be misremembering the exact wording) hit me in all the right places and is near and dear in my soul. You’re not important enough to matter more than the person next to you. Nobody is better than anybody else, people are just different. Comparison is specious. Embracing and living a life entirely true to who you are as an individual and otherwise devoted to compassion, grace, kindness, and peace are, to me, the highest aspirations and fullest and truest measures of one’s potential and living up to said potential. I like to think some of my childhood heroes taught me that, including Jackie.
Alexej, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Well, if we reduce my personage to some economic definition, I suppose I’m a writer and critic. But of course, one can attach as many (or as few) labels as they like. I do many things that defy not just categorization but also various traditional business models. I own and operate Illogical Conceits Publishing & Multimedia, specializing in digital media, visual effects and electronic art, A/V work, sound engineering and technology, gig work, publishing, research, journalistic and art criticism, and freelancing work. My other venture is a newly opened LLC with the state of Missouri: Savreuxian Philosophy, LLC. With Savreuxian Philosophy, LLC, I’ve effectively turned my philosophy into a corporation (excellent, isn’t it?), and that business is less tied to writing and art and editing and criticism and more directly linked to education, consulting, guest lectures, speaking engagements, workshops, and things of that nature. My consulting work covers the gamut from linguistics, mathematics, and tutoring to clinical/medical and social work fields, neuropsychiatry, STEM, and, er, yes, philosophy. It would be a near-impossible task to give an overview of everything and the full range of services I provide to you personally in a brief response. Still, essentially, I work in the arts, journalism/media, literature, theory, alt-academia, criticism, and education with very brief and rudimentary headings. I kind of branch out based on need. I have a checkered story and history that has educated me, I suppose, in many different areas of both the best and worst of life. I like to bring my experiences with homelessness, poverty, psychiatric institutions, psychoses, social services, health problems, political activism, language, academia, the universe around us, curiosity er, creativity, self-study, drug use, promiscuous reading, minor criminal activity, entrepreneurship, among so many things, to the table when helping a client in the position of consultant if a given client needs a consultant I have an extraordinarily wide range of experiences and education to draw from. My philosophy is legitimate and genuine, as in “Savreuxian,” and I bring everything to the table when I work on these issues or work with clients, and I assure you, I leave nothing on the table when I leave. I encourage folks interested in breadth and depth to do a bit of digging or maybe reach out directly. I’m a chill person. There’s much we can discuss. I’ve been on the lecture circuit for ages but have just started formalizing the business. However, my art literature and journalism business has been active for quite some time. I’ve been involved in varying degrees in language and media for almost two decades, probably even longer, technically speaking, by way of different measurements.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Yeah, I wouldn’t worry so much about SEO or followers or follower count or anything involving comparison or anything like that. It’s just not a competition. More often than not, pages with the most followers are just shitpost pages or pages with pictures of paper airplanes covered in neon paint trying to pawn empty soda cans or tarantulas or something or parody pages. It’s not really a measure of quality, and quality is subjective anyway. Everyone’s tastes are at least slightly different, and that’s okay. Some of the most unique artwork I’ve ever seen or the most intelligent stuff, meanwhile, or even super-established authors have 60-200 followers. It’s no big thing. The best advice I can give anyone is to have fun in doing what they do and just continue to do it provided it embodies your values and what you want out of life, to love the process and everything involved, and just to be as authentically yourself as possible. Just be you. There is only one of you, so, therefore, you are your greatest asset. Imposter syndrome is healthy to some extent, but it also shouldn’t be paralyzing because there is no one else who is exactly like you. You bring something different to the table by definition that no one else has, so don’t get too caught up in social media. It’s a lot like a slot machine in Vegas, I feel the serotonin and dopamine just like being drained from my brain whenever I use it. As a matter of fact, I seldom use social media for that very reason, haha, so what? Just do your own thing and enjoy your life as long as the basics are met. It’s all good.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice
It’s always money with people. You know, there was a study done. I think it was one of the longest-running studies ever conducted, and I think it was done by Harvard Medical School or Harvard Business School or both or one of the two or something like that, and I think it involved measures of human happiness. And what they found wasn’t surprising, at least not to me. They found over many decades that the happiest people were the ones who had purpose and passion, irrespective of financial comfort, geographical location, job security or perceived job security, the trappings of success, or something similar. People who truly loved what they did, even if they were dirt poor, and people who just existed in steady contentment were by far the happiest. So, as far as NFTs are concerned, I mean, yeah, the risk-taker and gambler and entrepreneurial side of me needs to get more involved and definitely wants to get more involved, I dig a good hustle just for the adrenaline rush. I’d love to see what’s possible. I’ve always been fond of flipping stuff and getting super into collectibles. NFTs definitely seem like a logical outgrowth of collectibles. Still, I’m not going to make any predictions or say I’m an expert because, as I alluded to, money isn’t the only motivation in my life’s work; money is just a facilitating agent. Still, the truth is no matter how much I work, I’m actually broke most of the time, but I’m for sure pretty damn happy with a lot of peace of mind, I think. It’s a rich feeling. I wish it to all who read this.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alexejsavreux.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/alexejsavreux
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/alexejsavreux
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/ohiamalexej
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@ohiamalexej
- Other: e-mail: [email protected]
Illogical Conceits Art Crit Journal alexej.substack.com
Image Credits
Alexej Savreux & Angi Cain Hejduk