Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jacob Zuko. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jacob, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

If you went up to a child and asked them if they were happy making crayon drawings or sculptures with play-dough, I imagine you’d get a pretty straightforward answer in the positive. I don’t think this should be complicated, however, it is we the adults who complicate it. Creativity is not a safe concept in our increasingly corporate world. We’re trying to curb it even further with AI; let a robot do it for you so you can spend more time doing hard labor. I mean, this article isn’t even being conducted by a human, I’m just selecting pre-determined questions from a list and typing my answers into a little box on my phone while I lay in bed and try not to think about world war 3.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I play guitar and write songs, but you probably already knew that because you’re likely reading this via a link posted to my Instagram or Facebook by yours truly. I’ve also started writing novels because I hear it’s such a lucrative career. Stable, too.

As for how I got into this industry, well, I picked up a guitar one day and thought I’d probably like to be picking up guitars for the rest of my life. The whole personal brand thing was a conundrum that plagued my early twenties and now that I’m pushing thirty I’m quite bored with the whole conversation. Leave the branding to Bezos, I’m just a human who, for some reason, seems to insist on pursuing endeavors that the corporate powers that be would prefer to leave to a talented machine rather than an individual with thoughts and emotions. Luckily, the robots haven’t quite figured out how to encapsulate the poetry of the human experience, but they’re trying, heaven help them. I’m sure there will be a subscription service for it when they do.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

They could probably start by throwing their smartphones into the nearest body of water.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Hey, I just trained an AI to create infinite variations of the same ugly jpeg! I’ve decided they’re all worth a million dollars.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobzuko?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Other: Sometimes I play guitar at Echo Park lake. Catch me there sometime.