Make Magic

“As the first of us humans becomes aware, he looks up at the starry heavens with sublime awe.

He stretches his arms as high as he can, trying to get hold of at least just one of that myriad of marvelous sources of light. After many attempts he realizes, to devastating sorrow, that he can try to reach out as much as he wishes yet, through his body alone, he will never see himself grabbing one of the divine stars with his little human fingers.

He looks back down, frustrated, takes a rock from the ground and throws it strongly against a boulder. As the rocks clash sparks flash, quickly resembling a dim echo of the enthralling show that was taking place far above. And before a moment becomes a minute our human becomes entranced by something, dissipating any sense of dismay into nothing.

Observing the earth and the elements around him he realizes that, while his hands may never touch the heavens, they have been perfectly cast to create novelty, to bring into existence that which no other being, nor animal or human, had ever seen or imagined before. He immediately understands he is uniquely powered to be able to create that which to both others and himself, would seem like utter magic.

Fire, music, tools, and drawings.

Bliss and excitement take over fully.

Let there be light.”

The human condition is best described not merely by that of his existential conundrum but by his divine ability to will into existence that which to his contemporaries will look like magic.

That through sheer will, intellect, and craft he can build new things that transform this raw, imperfect Earth into something that slowly but surely starts to resemble his broken memories of his dreams of heaven.

He does not sit on the ground longing and waiting for a stair from the above, instead he manifests the divine from below with nothing but his heart, intellect, and hands.

He turns his existential ponders on how he is almost but never quite fully divine, not into a petrifying dread, but into the fiery flame that powers the indomitability of his spirit.

All which is truly great will inevitably feel like magic.

Instead of deconstructing what makes something magical, even divine-like, I reckon it’s better to take it as an axiom that although hard to reduce into parts,
it cannot be more natural, innate in us to just know when we encounter it.

Fire probably felt like literal Harry Potter magic when we first learned how to spark it into existence. If you’ve been camping or have a furnace at home, you know it can still feel that way if you look at the flames for long enough.

All great inventions ever since have shared that same essence, that same evocation of amazement into the people that interact with it. Written language, calculus, airplanes, the iPhone, Uber, ChatGPT.

Truly great products always feel like magic.

But it is not only technology which can be magical, far from it.

Think about the magical feeling of falling in love with someone, of bringing life into the world, of being with your family, friends, and friendly strangers.

Of discovering such a great song, or film, or piece of writing for which you have no better description than to say you feel utterly enchanted by it.

Of riding a Vespa through the Hawaiian coastline, enjoying good wine and chocolate fondue with a beautiful date, walking through the streets of your favorite city in a cloudless summer day.

All magic.

How should I dedicate the majority of my time on this short, confusing, but extraordinary life?

I think we should all strive to make magic.

To do that which not only makes you feel most alive while doing it, but that produces something which will feel like magic to at least some people, in some way.

What exactly this means is for each of us to find. And it is part of a deeply personal journey that might not need to have a singular finish line.

It doesn’t always have to be big, it doesn’t even have to be that novel. It can very well resemble those little shiny sparks that appear when we throw a rock against a boulder.

Make art, make software, make parties, make buildings, make food, make love.

But whatever you do, make magic.