dont follow your aesthetics in order to reach something aesthetic—follow your process

lets say your goal is to find something pretty

you have to have a method for doing this

it might be your willy-nilly method

it might be that you look out the window as you drive

it might be that you feel whats pretty and intuitively move toward prettier things

one thing that happens with aesthetic-heavy methods for finding aesthetically pleasing things—is that you can get stuck in wells of uselessness where your method cant find the unexpected things you want to find

this is when its useful to follow a process that has nothing to do with aesthetics

like turning your camera over because your hand was uncomfortable

or always taking both a landscape and a portrait mode photo

your process might include looking under the table at every diner you eat at

or taking a picture of every toilet you see

(not just the good-looking ones)

if you follow a process like that—youre inviting creative input from somewhere you dont control and it can surprise you

which is good !! you want to be surprised

because if youre not surprised—that means you only found good-looking things that look good like you like them to look good

when you go out looking for something pretty—dont do it by looking for something pretty

do it with a mix of opinions—yours—and those presented to you by the process you follow

you might discover something by process that you wouldnt by aesthetics alone