Only a Sith Deals in Absolutes
And why black and white thinking is killing your creative business
In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi tells a fallen Anakin Skywalker: "Only a Sith deals in absolutes."
It's one of the most quoted lines in the franchise. But most people treat it as a meme. I think it's one of the most useful things you can say to a young person trying to figure out how the world works.
Black and white thinking is lazy. It feels good because it's simple. You pick a side, you defend it, you never have to sit with uncertainty. But the moment you attach yourself to an absolute, you close off an entire world of nuance, growth, and discovery.
I've seen it everywhere. In business. In the media industry. In myself.
The Hive Mind Problem
A few years ago I was heavily influenced by a particular type of content creator. The kind that speaks in absolutes. Every opinion delivered with total certainty. No room for grey. At the time it felt like clarity. Looking back, it was just noise dressed up as confidence.
The algorithm loves this. Controversy keeps people scrolling. Outrage gets shared. Extreme opinions get engagement. So your feed becomes a machine that feeds you the most polarising version of every topic, every day, until that becomes how you see the world.
Most people don't realise it's happening. They think they formed their own opinions. But they read the title and held the idea. They never read the book.
What This Has to Do With Your Camera
The media industry is full of absolutes.
"You have to niche down or you'll never make money."
"Generalists always lose."
"Cinematic is dead, vertical short form is everything."
"Quality doesn't matter, volume does."
Every one of these statements contains some truth. None of them is the whole truth. The problem is that when you're starting out, you're looking for certainty. You want someone to just tell you the answer. So you latch onto whatever confident voice you find first and build your whole approach around it.
I've done this. I've pivoted my entire offer based on one YouTube video. I've second guessed months of work because someone online said the opposite of what I was doing. It costs you time, momentum, and clarity.
The photographers and videographers I admire most hold their craft with nuance. They know when to go cinematic and when to go raw. They know when volume serves the client and when one perfect asset does more. They've done enough reps to stop needing an absolute.
The Practice
Black and white thinking is the default. Nuance takes effort. It means sitting with a question longer than is comfortable. It means entertaining an idea you disagree with long enough to understand it properly before you reject it.
It means accepting that your current approach might be partly right and partly wrong at the same time. That's not weakness. That's how you actually get better.
Your feed is not neutral. It is designed to show you extremes because extremes keep you watching. Be deliberate about what you let in. Read the book, not just the title. Talk to people who do things differently to you. Stay curious longer than feels necessary.
Only a Sith deals in absolutes. The rest of us are still figuring it out.
Alexander Hay is a Sydney based media professional specialising in combat sports content. He writes about business, creativity, and the stuff nobody tells you when you're starting out.
