The lights are low, come see these gifts that I’ve brought for you.

Seinfeld has done a few documentaries, one cartoon, a decade of network television, tons of commercials, a popular web show and forty years of standup.

And yet, reporters are always asking him why he doesn’t do more movies.

But during one interview, he famously gave an answer:

The world doesn’t need that from me right now.

Let’s unpack that statement, as it contains a wealth of insight around the process of creation.

First, the world needs. We live in an oversaturated and hypercompetitive marketplace. Anybody can do anything anywhere for nothing. Which means, they will.

Which means, whatever it is that we are trying to make, the world probably doesn’t need another one. Which means, before we add something else to the slagheap, we ought to consider whether or not it’s worthwhile to entrench ourselves in over farmed land.

Second, from me. This piece is about identity. Because in the event that world does need another one of something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are the ones who should provide it. Opportunity plus ability does not an innovation make.

There has to be a deep hunger. A need to do it, not merely a want to do it, and not a want to want to do it.

Finally, right now. This last piece implies an openness to evolution. Of the self, of the work, and of the marketplace in which the two intersect. Trusting, that although the present moment does not call for this particular thing, who knows what the future might hold? Jerry might start directing movies in his eighties as a retirement gig.

The lesson is, if you give everything, they’re just going to ask for more. And so, before the world starts pestering you with their idiotic brainwaves, create your own unique filter for evaluating opportunities.

Otherwise you might find yourself standing on the bottom of that slagheap, wondering if you really wanted it all along, or if it was simply a response to pressure.

Is this something the world needs from you right now?