Waiting for the yeast to do its work
I recall my friend Frank telling me of the discomfort he felt the first time he had an employer suggesting that he was expected to just sit, doodle and let his mind wander much of the time at work. While he was certainly expected to produce, his employers knew that creative ideas were not to be forced. Ideas arise as we allow the chemical to visit various synapses, first playing with one and then another in no apparent logical order. I think of experimenting on the piano with various notes and chords or exploring the sounds with using a stick or the rubber hammer on pots, cans, counter tops, floors and other small and large surfaces in the kitchen or the workroom. One cannot know when one will stumble on “the note” which is going to connect those negative spaces in the music score which will become a new Bach-like cantata or a passage in a John Cage creation. Who knew, for example, that the amplification of a pencil moving across a piece of paper would bring to life exactly the right note to complete the birth of a new musical score. Although there may be arguments about whether “this is music” there will be those who will recognize and acclaim the genius of the John Cages of the world.
Adam Grant’s most recent book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World and his Ted talk on “The surprising habits of original thinker,” talks about the process of allowing creative ideas to ferment and rise to the surface. He seems to delight in using such terms as procrastinate to describe the time it takes to allow this fermentation. Although Merriam Webster might define procrastinate as “to be slow or late about doing something that should be done: to delay doing something until a later time because you do not want to do it, because you are lazy, etc.,” Professor Grant is delighting in using it to refer to that time when it may appear that someone is not working as hard as they might to bring a project to fruition. He is using the word to describe those who are quick to start a project but then are slow to finish.
I was, not surprisingly, delighted to hear that the process which Professor Grant is describing is very close to that which I follow. In undergraduate school and graduate school, I was quick to start research and would soon fill up many 3 x 5 cards with notes which I could organize, reorganize and then organize again. Then they would sit until shortly before the paper or project was due. I knew that I would be typing all night on the manual typewriter (later the electric and then the memory electric) and end up, if lucky, with smudgy corrections on the original and unreadable one on the copies. If the Gods were smiling, I would notice at 4:00 a.m. on the day it was due, discover that I had left out a paragraph or an important sentence on an early page thus forcing me to retype the entire document. I can only imagine, what long erudite, amazingly creative works would have emerged from my “pen” had I had access to a computer on which I could have made corrections without retyping the entire document.
The process has not changed much over the years. The idea for this blog began germinating while I was at the gym this morning between 6:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. When I got to Panera, I got coffee and a breakfast sandwich which I enjoyed while reading the papers, responding to emails, talking to my coffee buddy, Penny, looking around and saying good morning to a few other people, and looking up some random information via google until I had “wasted” over 2 ½ hours. I had not in that time written one word of this blog. Often I began thinking about a particular blog days or even weeks prior to writing a word. I may write some note cards (actually typing notes in my note app) which I may or may not look at prior to writing. Sometimes I say that I am waiting for the muse which, for me, and apparently for many if Professor Grant is correct, is a matter of waiting for the little bits of ideas to visit, try on different costumes and either get discarded or allowed to visit other ideas until the proverbial light bulb goes off and my brain is ready to send my fingers into high gear.
The end result may yet need many editorial corrections but the essence is down on paper. To the casual non-writer observer, the words flow from my “pen” and imprint themselves on the screen.
My understanding is that many creative people in all areas of life follow essentially the same process. Obviously, there are some projects whose completion and submission are dictated by a deadline. For some of us, a self-imposed deadline is important. In the case of the blogs I have a commitment to myself to finish and publish one daily. Other projects sit with notes and ideas or as unedited and, thus, unfinished creations which have been moved from house to house to house to house! Perhaps they will be birthed and perhaps they will not. Unless I set a deadline which I then make sacred, many will never be born. The term procrastinator may actually be accurate to describe my approach in this case.
I suspect that, as educators and parents, we need to foster the seemingly natural tendency for children to spend time day dreaming. At the same time, we probably need to teach them the discipline of both making notes and setting deadlines. We will want to be careful about attempting to force children to be organized in this process. I may keep notes on post its on my desk or on a small notepad. I may keep additional ones on my computer or phone. A good friend of mine relies entirely on post its which she puts on her checkbook or wallet in her purse. Sometimes they fall off. For both of us, the mere act of writing down the note may be enough even if we never look at it again.
As a father, sometimes I would attempt to get my son to organize his room or the area of the house which was for his “stuff.” From an early age he reminded me that it was his space and he should not have to follow my rules. Sadly, even when he became an adult I might offer to clean, do dishes or impose my organizational rules or system on his space! 99% of the time he would remind me that it was his space and he would take care of it when he was ready. I hope I listened most of the time, but if I was now parenting a young child I would, hopefully, be a lot more respectful of respecting his space and their process. While at various developmental stages they might need some “guidance” in setting deadlines or honoring deadlines set by the school, I would want to be more respectful of supporting a creative process which worked for them. I do realize that in a traditional classroom it may be more difficult to accommodate the styles and systems of each of the children. There are some wonderful models for making this work. Teachers may need a lot of support for being creative in setting up and managing the classroom but the more we understand that kids may be busiest when they seem to be playing the more we will nurture the creative process in all of them and ourselves!
Written April 2, 2016
I recall my friend Frank telling me of the discomfort he felt the first time he had an employer suggesting that he was expected to just sit, doodle and let his mind wander much of the time at work. While he was certainly expected to produce, his employers knew that creative ideas were not to be forced. Ideas arise as we allow the chemical to visit various synapses, first playing with one and then another in no apparent logical order. I think of experimenting on the piano with various notes and chords or exploring the sounds with using a stick or the rubber hammer on pots, cans, counter tops, floors and other small and large surfaces in the kitchen or the workroom. One cannot know when one will stumble on “the note” which is going to connect those negative spaces in the music score which will become a new Bach-like cantata or a passage in a John Cage creation. Who knew, for example, that the amplification of a pencil moving across a piece of paper would bring to life exactly the right note to complete the birth of a new musical score. Although there may be arguments about whether “this is music” there will be those who will recognize and acclaim the genius of the John Cages of the world.
Adam Grant’s most recent book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World and his Ted talk on “The surprising habits of original thinker,” talks about the process of allowing creative ideas to ferment and rise to the surface. He seems to delight in using such terms as procrastinate to describe the time it takes to allow this fermentation. Although Merriam Webster might define procrastinate as “to be slow or late about doing something that should be done: to delay doing something until a later time because you do not want to do it, because you are lazy, etc.,” Professor Grant is delighting in using it to refer to that time when it may appear that someone is not working as hard as they might to bring a project to fruition. He is using the word to describe those who are quick to start a project but then are slow to finish.
I was, not surprisingly, delighted to hear that the process which Professor Grant is describing is very close to that which I follow. In undergraduate school and graduate school, I was quick to start research and would soon fill up many 3 x 5 cards with notes which I could organize, reorganize and then organize again. Then they would sit until shortly before the paper or project was due. I knew that I would be typing all night on the manual typewriter (later the electric and then the memory electric) and end up, if lucky, with smudgy corrections on the original and unreadable one on the copies. If the Gods were smiling, I would notice at 4:00 a.m. on the day it was due, discover that I had left out a paragraph or an important sentence on an early page thus forcing me to retype the entire document. I can only imagine, what long erudite, amazingly creative works would have emerged from my “pen” had I had access to a computer on which I could have made corrections without retyping the entire document.
The process has not changed much over the years. The idea for this blog began germinating while I was at the gym this morning between 6:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. When I got to Panera, I got coffee and a breakfast sandwich which I enjoyed while reading the papers, responding to emails, talking to my coffee buddy, Penny, looking around and saying good morning to a few other people, and looking up some random information via google until I had “wasted” over 2 ½ hours. I had not in that time written one word of this blog. Often I began thinking about a particular blog days or even weeks prior to writing a word. I may write some note cards (actually typing notes in my note app) which I may or may not look at prior to writing. Sometimes I say that I am waiting for the muse which, for me, and apparently for many if Professor Grant is correct, is a matter of waiting for the little bits of ideas to visit, try on different costumes and either get discarded or allowed to visit other ideas until the proverbial light bulb goes off and my brain is ready to send my fingers into high gear.
The end result may yet need many editorial corrections but the essence is down on paper. To the casual non-writer observer, the words flow from my “pen” and imprint themselves on the screen.
My understanding is that many creative people in all areas of life follow essentially the same process. Obviously, there are some projects whose completion and submission are dictated by a deadline. For some of us, a self-imposed deadline is important. In the case of the blogs I have a commitment to myself to finish and publish one daily. Other projects sit with notes and ideas or as unedited and, thus, unfinished creations which have been moved from house to house to house to house! Perhaps they will be birthed and perhaps they will not. Unless I set a deadline which I then make sacred, many will never be born. The term procrastinator may actually be accurate to describe my approach in this case.
I suspect that, as educators and parents, we need to foster the seemingly natural tendency for children to spend time day dreaming. At the same time, we probably need to teach them the discipline of both making notes and setting deadlines. We will want to be careful about attempting to force children to be organized in this process. I may keep notes on post its on my desk or on a small notepad. I may keep additional ones on my computer or phone. A good friend of mine relies entirely on post its which she puts on her checkbook or wallet in her purse. Sometimes they fall off. For both of us, the mere act of writing down the note may be enough even if we never look at it again.
As a father, sometimes I would attempt to get my son to organize his room or the area of the house which was for his “stuff.” From an early age he reminded me that it was his space and he should not have to follow my rules. Sadly, even when he became an adult I might offer to clean, do dishes or impose my organizational rules or system on his space! 99% of the time he would remind me that it was his space and he would take care of it when he was ready. I hope I listened most of the time, but if I was now parenting a young child I would, hopefully, be a lot more respectful of respecting his space and their process. While at various developmental stages they might need some “guidance” in setting deadlines or honoring deadlines set by the school, I would want to be more respectful of supporting a creative process which worked for them. I do realize that in a traditional classroom it may be more difficult to accommodate the styles and systems of each of the children. There are some wonderful models for making this work. Teachers may need a lot of support for being creative in setting up and managing the classroom but the more we understand that kids may be busiest when they seem to be playing the more we will nurture the creative process in all of them and ourselves!
Written April 2, 2016
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