Gimme

Pretty much everyone like me (and probably like you) has wondered what it would be like to get woken up early in the morning by a call from the MacArthur Foundation. "You are teh genius," the voice on the other end might say, though it would more likely call you "a recipient of this year's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship" or something. They're called "genius grants" colloquially, but the foundation seems to play that down.

Enabling these idle fantasies, Jim Collins wrote about his own phone call in 2005:

I received a call. The person on the other end of the line asked if I was Jim Collins and if I was alone. For a moment, I thought I was receiving an obscene phone call.

The caller then told me I had been selected as a MacArthur fellow. I laughed, convinced this was another well-orchestrated prank by one of my former college roommates. The caller tried to reassure me, and eventually gave me a number to call to confirm the award. The number had a Chicago area code, the home of the MacArthur Foundation. Maybe this was legit.

I called the number and was assured by the folks on the other end that I really had been selected for the award. They then told me I couldn't tell anyone, except my immediate family, until the announcement in a few days.

That night, my wife and I told our young children about the award. Our daughter quickly chimed in that she too was a genius, but her brother was not, because he didn't know all of his colors and he could count only to 10.

Every year, the MacArthur Fellowship unconditionally awards 20-40 Americans $500,000 each for "exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work." Examples: Alex Ross won one in 2008, Terence Tao did in 2006, Johnathan Lethem did in 2005, museum of Jurassic Technology creator David Wilson did in 2001, and David Foster Wallace did in 1997. It's difficult enough to figure out the rhyme or reason of Fellowship assignments — the board decides in secret — that it's a total mystery how to position oneself in its way.

One thing you seem to have to be is over 30, or maybe more like over 40-ish. Ben Casnocha, a man full of ideas, thus proposes a sort of Junior MacArthur Fellowship:

There needs to be a MacArthur Foundation that focuses on emerging talents. It should give no-strings-attached grants to emerging talents in the same way MacArthur does for established talents. The grants would be given regardless of type of talent, though it would emphasize those demonstrating extraordinary creative potential yet who do not have much money.

His case study? A certain Colin J. Marshall. Flattering, certainly, though it also raises a whole suite of issues I find interesting to think about. Many of these are brought up by the post's commenters. Here's a selection:

I am extremely disturbed by the lack of awareness that he even exists. This fact, more than any other, has persuaded me that “if you build it they will come” is completely, utterly false.

Maybe Colin wouldn't be so intimidated by the dark, occult art of making money if he made a sea-change in his thinking. Here are the phrases in his comments that jump off the page: "the impossible dream, "I have... disdain for myself," "I've got enough self-loathing as it is," "how I picture my tombstone," "I live in awe and fear," "I am gripped by a mortal terror," "I have long lived in terror," "I whine endlessly." This is not the kind of thinking that will get him where he wants to be, unless it's an early grave.

Isolating a guy like Marshall from the grubbier things could have some downsides.

Maybe he should apply for a feature journalist in some leading dailies or magazines, for a limited stint, as a career-experiment. Maybe there's a future Malcolm Gladwell into making; the New Yorker awaiting him. Maybe he should run for a job in reputed Ad agencies. We are in dearth of sensible marketers in this world, who don't just sell products, but also beautiful ideas to live by. Maybe he should write a book and get it published. A book is a tradable token of collective, cohesive, extended human thought, with an overwhelming, timeless physical presence and that sells well.

Your friend sounds like an extremely talented guy with a promising future, but I can't help thinking his disdain for the McJob could harm him not only financially but also creatively.

As an artist, isn't it dangerous to become too far removed from the concerns of Everyman?

You know what I call uber-intellectual, non-sell-out, can't fathom working a McJob/fallback career people? Bums. Pretentious bums at that.

All have sound points. Even if I weren't among the recipients, I like do Ben's idea. I've often pondered what the results might be from a Y Combinator-type organization that, rather than funding young groups of tech startup founders, funded young individual creators. That's not exactly "no-strings-attached," but it's in broadly similar territory of enterprise. Then again, funds granted with only a "Do what thou wilt" might prove more effective in the long run.

Yet, as several commenters pointed out, there is a danger in patronage. When you're not sustained by the (loaded phrase ahead) "real world," you run the risk of isolating yourself from it. When I make things, I make them not for my own amusement but to be received by the rest of actual humanity. I want what I make to not only be for the world, but of the world and in the world as well. Ivory towers, both the well-known ones and those that spring asymptomatically up around you, are the bane of my existence. This explains why I take pains to avoid professional academia when it comes calling — or, why I would take pains to avoid professional academia if it ever were to come calling.

I do, at this point, have some confidence that I could make good things with the kind of resources a Junior MacArthur-style grant could provide. But is it wise to pile a lot of time into projects your next meal isn't coming from? The world may never know.

Comments

[Maria]

Collin, what about Kickstarter? I've seen some cool projects come up through that site. A friend of a friend raised $100k to start a chocolate business, and one woman raised money for a trip to photograph the oldest living things in the world. Next time you have a particular project, I would recommend that site.

[Tiffany sale]

Next time you have a particular project, I would recommend that site.