Curry Zawa Kaoru's Creative Counseling - "When the likes are down, blame it on Elon." On overcoming the fear of irrelevance.

But of course, even after telling yourself "It's Elon's fault," the next thing you know, you're looking at someone else who ships the same pairing and suffers under Elon's digital tyranny just like you… but their numbers haven't dropped at all. And now you're back to blaming yourself through the lens of comparison. At this point, if among Japanese politician Shinjiro Koizumi's many aphorisms, he'd dropped a "Creative work is hell. Like, for real hell," no one would question it. That's how deep this hell runs. And the most hellish part? It's an endless hell.

Especially when it comes to comparison, there's no bottom. There's always someone better. And even if, by some miracle, you make it to the top, the comparisons just shift to the up-and-coming newbie prodigy nipping at your heels. Even if you manage to stop comparing yourself to others, you'll just start comparing yourself to your past self, and the cycle begins again.

The best option is to quit the comparison game entirely, but let's be real: I might as well advise you to achieve enlightenment. Not happening. So the next best thing? As soon as you catch yourself slipping into comparison, try to notice it and pull yourself out as fast as possible. Remind yourself, "This isn't helping."

Even if your next work outperforms all your past ones, you'll just start comparing everything to that new peak. And unless your like count surpasses the global population, that comparison spiral never ends. That feeling of futility has the power to shut a person down. Many people stop creating because they get consumed by it. So maybe try directing that sense of futility at the act of comparing instead of at your creative work.

Think about it: why are you even worried about not measuring up to your past self? You're probably afraid that you're becoming irrelevant, a "washed up" creator.

For professional artists, fading into irrelevance is a serious issue. After all, it can mean no more food on the table, so worrying about that makes total sense. But for hobbyist fan creators, isn't it kind of strange when you stop and think about it? I mean, what does being "irrelevant" even mean?

It's not like fan creators get booted from the fandom if their likes drop below 100, or their dominant hand explodes if their work underperforms. Even if no one's watching, even if you're the only person in the fandom left, as long as you want to draw, you can keep drawing. That's the beauty of fan creation.

Sure, getting recognition from others is part of the fun, but maybe that part has started to take up a little too much space. If the satisfaction of finishing something you poured your soul into is instantly crushed by low numbers, then maybe the joy of creating and the joy of being seen are starting to cancel each other out.

So how about this: Just once, try making something entirely for you. Draw what you want to draw, even if it means shaking off every last follower along the way.

↑ Feel free to send your troubles in languages other than Japanese, too.