Sunday, October 09, 2016

messy...

Messy! I clean up my office, finish room and workshop, and in a matter of days, it's messy. So is messy a bad thing? My students come to woodshop, wearing black, and observe, "I'm wearing black, AGAIN." And then they also note, that's not a bad thing. In getting sawdust on black clothing, they've evidence of having done something in school, evidence that does not come in their other subjects.

Being messy is also the consequence of  and evidence of doing more than one thing at once at the occasion risk of being distracted.

An article in Time Magazine this week, suggests the many benefits of being Messy.
Two leading creativity researchers, Howard Gruber and Sara Davis, have argued that the tendency to work on multiple projects is so common among the most creative people that it should be regarded as standard practice. Gruber had a particular interest in Charles Darwin, who throughout his life alternated between research in geology, zoology, psychology and botany, always with some projects in the foreground and others in the background, competing for his attention. He undertook his celebrated voyage with the Beagle with “an ample and unprofessional vagueness in his goals.”
So, there, I've said it, and I make no apologies.  I am irredeemably messy and while I'm not necessarily proud of it, it goes with the territory and is related to attempting to do several things at once.

So what did I have in mind when I asked readers to help me establish the outline of the WOH book? the answer is simple, though it might be too much work for most. Simply read old episodes of this blog, and post a  date or a link in the comments section if you think one of the important points of the Wisdom of the Hands concept (as you understand it) is well made on that date. So, for example, If you like what you read on June 1, 2009, post that date or a link to the post on that date. Mention, what you think might be the important of it. I hope to be doing the same thing myself.

Yesterday I again spent the day at my desk, so have little to actually show for it. I might as well have been wearing black. But I did get photos off to my editor for 3 chapters of the book on making box guitars.

Make, fix, create, and suggest to others the joy of learning likewise.

1 comment:

  1. I don't know if it's too much work to choose a particular blog entry. For me it's a matter of small cumulative effects from many posts, a series of Aha! moments. But I'll go back over the archives and see.

    Mario

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