What Shooter McGavin Taught Me About Creativity

A look at improv, collaboration, and how creative freedom makes good work great.

Hey, Friends! Paradoxically, I have less time on summer break to write than I do during the school year. With summer hours in place, I plan to write three sections each week instead of five. Let’s get into it!

Shooter McGavin

As an ‘80s baby and child of the ‘90s, Adam Sandler played an important role in the development of my sense of humor. He is perhaps the most quoted comedic actor of men my age. To say that I’m looking forward to the July 25th release of Happy Gilmore 2 would be an understatement. I have fond memories of watching the original Happy Gilmore on VHS with my golf-loving grandmother, who, may she rest in peace, uncomfortably watched the entire movie with me at my insistence.

Recently, Christopher McDonald shared a story on the Rich Eisen Show about his portrayal of the infamous Shooter McGavin. He stated that he had no idea why his character was named Shooter, and improvised his finger guns hand motion while the cameras were rolling. Watch his telling of the story below:

The now-iconic move would become the character’s signature and be emulated by elder millennials for eternity. This speaks to the power of collaboration. Neither the writers nor the director suggested McDonald clutch his hands like he was holding little pistols and go, “Pow, pow.” Instead, McDonald was given the creative freedom to bring his character to life. Adding his acting chops to a dynamic script resulted in the whole becoming greater than the sum of its parts.

When you bring talented people together to do what they each do best, a sort of magic forms that elevates a project far beyond what those individual efforts could have yielded alone.

If you typically work in solitude, you might consider seeking out a collaborator. In designing the cover for my novella, Windsor Greetings, I wrote a collaborative post with

Nathaniel Roy

in which he critiqued three design concepts I was considering. His input and contributions elevated the end product far beyond what I ever could have done alone.

When you own a project entirely, it can be difficult to disassociate the vision in your head from the reality of your creation. Collaborators are unbiased in this regard and have an easier time seeing what’s actually there. Additionally, they bring with them their unique talents, skills, and perspectives.

Takeaway: One of the best ways to elevate your own abilities is to surround yourself with more talented people. Seek out mentors to guide you, collaborators to challenge you, and creative friends to inspire you.

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Culture at the Edge

As a high school teacher of business, technology, and design, little gets me more excited than an engaging discussion around creativity and tech startups. That’s likely why I enjoy the A16Z podcast so much. In a recent episode, general partner of famed venture capital firm A16Z, Anish Acharya, said this about AI:

“Definitionally, these things are averaging machines, and culture is supposed to be at the edge… If you trained a model with all of the music up until just prior to hip-hop, would it infer hip-hop?

Watch it at 31:51 below:

While the algorithms underpinning generative AI are just a bit more complex than arithmetic averaging machines, this concept offers a useful framework for thinking about how AI actually works. They slurp up as much data as possible and use that to predict, with statistical likelihood, what character, pixel, or sound should come next in the sequence.

As such, it’s really only possible for AI tools alone to generate remixed versions of that which has already been, and not that which could be.

I think about this in two ways. On the one hand, no hammer in the history of hammers ever built a house by itself. Someone swinging it did. That being said, the master craftsman with a 24-ounce Estwing framing hammer was probably more productive than the apprentice with a 16-ounce Pittsburgh claw hammer.

The tool and the individual combined make the difference.

Hip-hop emerged in the Bronx in the 1970s, a mostly pre-digital era, combining elements of DJing, MCing, and breakdancing, and served to echo the voices and struggles of urban youth. Acharya is probably right in that AI wouldn’t have come up with hip-hop on its own, but had AI been available to the same disaffected youth, would they have more rapidly experimented and pushed their self-expression forward? I think the answer is probably yes.

Takeaway: Culture is uniquely human. We would be wise to remember that going forward.

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Strength

There are several books that have had a profound impact on my way of thinking. Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Work Week is one of them. As a school teacher, I’ve certainly not achieved the work-life balance espoused by the title, but I have internalized many of the concepts from the book around designing a more purposeful life. As a longtime listener of Ferriss’s podcast as well, I continue to pick up nuggets of wisdom from him.

Recently, in a Q&A episode, Ferriss shared a quote originally attributed to Bruce Lee, stating:

Don’t pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult life.

Listen to it at 58:15

While Ferriss was speaking more to the struggles of the everyday, I think this quote is fitting in the context of creative work as well. Certainly, there are some who are born creative prodigies, but those individuals are exceedingly rare, and you’re more than likely not one of them. What’s more common among those who’ve reached notable levels of achievement in creative pursuits is an enduring persistence to continually improve. In other words, the strength to move forward and never give up even when things get hard.

Here’s the thing about strength: it’s not a fixed quality.

Whereas being born prodigal is something you either are or aren’t, you can almost always get stronger. If you’re finding it hard to carve out time for creative pursuits, seek to improve incrementally. Like building a running habit, it might be hard at first, but doing it actually makes you stronger and initiates a positive feedback loop that, over time, makes it easier to run, which again makes you stronger still.

Creative work isn’t much different. It was hard for me to start a writing practice, but I muscled through the beginning part and got stronger with practice over time. Today, I am starting to see myself as a writer as opposed to thinking about writing just as something that I do.

Takeaway: Strength isn’t generally a quality we think of when we consider creativity, but maybe it should be.

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Two More Things

I’m publishing a novella here on Substack. It’s called Windsor Greetings, and you can check it out here. The first nine chapters are already out. I’d love it if you gave them a read and then checked back on Tuesday to see how the story wraps up.

Also, good things are better when shared. If you liked this, it would mean the world to me if you sent it to someone who might like it too.

I’ll see you in your inbox again next week.

Until then,

-Mike