The process is the end goal

Creating, learning, enjoying, believing, trusting, trying, selling, achieving: I am focussed on verbs today. The doing words. Sounds boring but hear me out.

Verbs are interesting because they imply an ongoing process. For example, the act of creating something is often focussed on the end result. You might say, “I want to create a novel”… or “I want to start a company” or “I want to learn a language”. We have tangible examples of things we want to emulate or to have which get us excited and elicit emotional responses. However, when we make the end goal the focus, it can lead to disappointment when it is not achieved early on. Rather, it is the process and ongoing nature of the achievement that should be the focus. If you “do creative stuff” for long enough then something creative will pop out the other side. Similarly, if you “do language learning stuff” for long enough then you will learn a language. The important part is the doing. The process. There is some comfort in this.

It might be a matter of letting go of an end goal, or rather letting go of a strict preconception of success and end goals, and focussing more on the process letting it take you where it may.

Waste and resource constraints

I find it very easy to be wasteful. I can spend money far easier than I can make it. If I let it, my house atrophies and falls apart so that water and energy leaks away. Netflix will line up episode after episode so that time ticks away.

Waste happens when I have plenty of choice.

The opposite thing seems to happen when I think I have less than I need. If I am stretched on a job I can put in superhuman efforts and meet a deadline. If I am running out of money, I can make ten bucks last for a long long time. If I have a clear idea of where I am headed, resource constraint is not so much of an issue. Sometimes it is liberating and let’s me achieve more than I set out to achieve.

Will the world ever fill up?

A common refrain on many of humanity’s problems is that there are simply too many people. Flora and Fauna will never be prioritized over humans, and with an ever growing pool of humans the pressure on the environment will lead to widespread catastrophe.

In many respects of course this is true and obvious. Forests are shrinking and animal species are going extinct. However, Humans don’t just extract from a fixed set of resources. We can also create new resources through invention. Check this awesome article for more info.

I think the future of wildlife is not so doomed but also not so wild. Unfortunately more like a zoo than a Serengeti, I think we are headed for a strong culture of managing land, technology and investment for flora and fauna to flourish.

Like it or not, We as a species are not going to stop taking over wild lands, but we are also not going to stop innovating.

Newness and perseverance

The decision to give up on something is easy to make and it is also absolute. At one point you are engaged in something, with all the possibilities and trials and tribulations implied, and then you are back at zero. You just stopped.

Often a decision to stop is because the thing you are doing gets difficult. We convince ourselves that a Rubik’s cube is too hard, or that the alarm clock went off too early and we haven’t had enough sleep. We stop engaging and move on to something else (or to more sleep).

To frame it another way, rather than stopping because something gets hard, we stop because it is no longer new and exciting. Sooner or later, any activity or relationship loses its feeling of newness, its novelty. There is a comfort in starting something fresh, an excitement, and also a lack of pressure – how can we be good at something if we haven’t been doing it for very long? The novelty fades and what we are left with is a reflection of how well we are doing. It’s easy to drop the ball and stop playing if we are not happy with what we see.

To quote Seth Godin: “Two things you might take away from this: First, there’s solace in finding someone who has done it before, whatever “it” is you’re trying to do. Knowing that it’s possible and studying how it was done can’t help but increase the chances you’ll stick it out.

Second: huge value accrues to the few able to actually do a thing for the very first time.”

Imagine you kept at it and got it right? No need to imagine, just keep at it.

All the masters – the power of collation

I have a great book called “1001 albums you must hear before you die“. The pages guide you through pop music and cherrypicked albums from the 1950’s onwards.Collation is an art form in itself, and this is the best example I have to show. Poring over the pictures and reviews brings out the nostalgia in spades.

The era of the album is all but over but here is a record of how great it was.

These were the masters, and their masterpieces. If you are an aspiring musician looking to learn your trade and tradition, you might want to start here. The same applies to all good work of course. Who were the masters, and what exactly did they do so well?

Ability versus skill

I am learning how to swim again. I used to swim in teams at school until the age of 13, and then I just stopped. Last year I entered a triathlon and felt like I was nearly drowning on the swim leg so I resorted to breaststroke. Not exactly “captain speedy”. I decided to enlist some help.

My point is that I have to believe I can improve through practice and learning. It was so tempting after that triathlon to say I was just “not a swimmer” and that those who swim fast have the right genes for it. However, from that point of view, it’s a short step to copping out of anything and also to something altogether more sinister such as racism and eugenics.

Ability is inherent, but not so important. Skills are learned, and largely dependent on culture and attitude. I will be a better swimmer if I train.

Congestion

One of the most frustrating situations is congestion – gridlock. I recently went to Johannesburg for a day of meetings. I wanted to organise 4 different meetings with clients and potential clients while I was in the city, but the traffic situation meant I could only plan for 2 meetings in the whole day. Congestion of roads.

Apparently it only takes four people in a hundred to choose not to drive on the roads each day to ease gridlock. A 4% decrease in mindless cramming let’s the traffic flow.

Bear with me here, but I think our brains work in similar ways. If we take 4% of our time spent on marginal ideas, distractions, wastes of time – and instead spend it on a few minutes of good stuff – imagine the cumulative effect? If you stopped watching TV for just 10 mins a night of reading good books – every night – the ideas would flow. If you stopped scrolling through your Facebook feed for just 10 mins of creating something new every day – imagine the cumulative effect.

The kicker is that once we start with something productive and force ourselves to do it for 10 minutes, we are far more likely to keep doing it.

Ease the congestion and noise in your brain for just a tiny amount each and every day. It works.

Owning a masterpiece

It’s in every art collector’s dreams to own a piece of history. It defines a gallery to show off a master’s work. It is considered a massive show of generosity to lend one out as has recently happened with a Monet picture (link) …But…

But far more interesting is trying to create your own masterpiece. Clearly we can’t all be Monet or start a movement like the impressionists did. However, we can refine our skills and take the necessary care over a piece of art to call ourselves its master. Some questions to consider in creating your own masterpiece:

How much do you know about the history of what you are creating? What came before the piece you are working on? Influences? Track record?
Why are you making what you make? For profit? For Community? For Impact? Surprise? Delight? Efficiency?
Where’s the risk in your work? Was it guaranteed to work or could it have failed?

Chimpwithcans’ manifesto

It struck me yesterday that I have not committed to this blog fully.

Those of you who have followed the blog for a while will know that I get spurts of energy to post on all sorts of topics, and then I have dormant periods. This is despite my very best intentions to blog each and every day consistently. I have struggled to take ownership of the blog and one of the biggest reasons for that is that I have no structure around my blogging other than a vague desire to blog.

So now I present a manifesto – a statement of purpose and of themes for the blog. I hope you like it and I hope it helps me to blog more often.

If you look at the tagline on the blog’s home page (under the monkey) you will see I have changed it. This blog will have three major themes running in the back of my head like three cylinders driving the engine to unify my work; Masterpieces, Effectiveness, and Truth. Here’s a rundown of why:

Masterpieces: Because this is where the magic happens and this is what ignites an idea in our head. To strive to create a masterpiece, to recognise a masterpiece and to understand exactly what a masterpiece entails can only lead to better art.
Effectiveness: Because these days there is an overflow of information, distraction and negativity which can stifle the very best artistic intentions. Hacking our way through these difficulties to become effective is one of the big challenges of our information age.
Truth: Because this has seemingly become market related much like a stock price. If one story is more popular than another, then it can claim truth despite despite the facts. Defining, recognizing and appreciating truth is vital to me.

Second Guess

Eventually you are going to second guess yourself. This may happen in the dreaming phase, the creative phase, the editing phase. But it will happen in the course of a project. The question is what will you do?

One interpretation of this second guessing is that it is the dreaded “creative block” or “writer’s block” at play. If so, why not copy Trenton Doyle Hancock and double down on your risk taking and move on?

There’s also a lot of comfort in the idea that the uncertain, fractured self is the true self. Let it be and have confidence that whatever decision you make will be the right one, so long as you make one!

Also important in my life is the idea that home is a comfort. When you are lost and unsure, home is often the place to look. Where do you come from? To work against this is to work against your nature.

#longtimesinceiwroteablogpostdammit!