What do you feel when you hear this song?
If you've seen the movie Inception, I doubt there's anything else that pops into your mind as you listen to it.
And the movie was directed by Christopher Nolan, whose film style is as distinct as any.
His movies are these elaborate thought experiments, these carefully constructed worlds, each with a unique set of rules that allow him to play with the rules of time and space and explore the concepts of memory and identity.
Nolan's obsession, his wonkiness, is what makes his art so distinct, and his movies have grossed more than $5 billion, and he's been nominated for multiple Oscar awards, mostly in praise of his mastery of visual effects, beautiful establishing shots, and gripping action sequences.
And as creators, we can learn from his wonkiness to get better at our craft.
When I say wonky, I'm describing somebody who has an obsessive interest in the nitty gritty details of a particular subject.
Wonky people are willing to explore a niche so deeply that they become experts on detail that other people won't even bother with.
And by the time that Nolan was ready to create Inception, he had already developed the reputation of a brilliant director.
He asked his visual effects designer, Chris Corbel, and his go-to production designer to build him a colossal steel contraption, which melded together with seven steel rings, each 30 feet in diameter.
