The ceramics teacher announced he was dividing the class into two groups. Those on the left side of the studio would be graded on the quantity of work produced, those on the right on its quality. The final day of class, he’d weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one perfect pot to get an “A”. Come grading time, a curious fact emerged: the best work was produced by the group being graded for quantity. While the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group sat theorizing about perfection, and had little more to show for their efforts. Moral of the story: If you’re stuck overthinking, waiting for inspiration, what you need to do is just show up. Do work. And keep showing up.
No comments:
Post a Comment