{ Wednesday, December 16, 2009 }
Previously, I wrote about how working on the right thing is more important than working hard, and a lot of people asked how you know you're working on the right thing. And the only way to gauge that is instinct, gut feeling, or the tingle in your spine that Nabokov says he feels when he encounters a great work of literature. But there are methods of arriving at the right thing, and generally that requires exposing yourself to a lot of ideas, fleshing out a few, ruminating on them, and throwing almost all of them out.
Yesterday, Rob sent me links to Ira Glass's advice on Storytelling, which are yes, about Storytelling, but also applicable to any creative endeavor, whether that be producing a movie, writing a book, or creating a piece of software. You should watch all 4 videos in the series, but the second one talks about the importance of *finding the right story* -- the equivalent of an entrepreneur finding the right idea.
Repeated "failure" and throwing things away -- even throwing away good but not great things -- can't be overemphasized, and are often forgotten when people are talking about grand successes. This, from Steve Jobs:
LINK | 12:18 PM | TB
Career paths, like good scientific theories, should be falsifiable.
Ideas and ventures are proven wrong and killed off, but the beauty is that, as Karl Popper wrote, "we remain alive to guess gain."
Michael E Driscoll | December 16, 2009 5:55 PMThanks for the video; always good to hear about process from someone who is at the top of the game.
I like the process:
* Try a ton of stuff internally (prototyping)
* Output all the "candidates" externally (betas & dot releases)
* Occasionally, if you're lucky, you'll realize you have a huge hit! (Flickr)
Never forget even Walt Disney himself filed for bankruptcy 3 consecutive times before finally getting the first "Disney" theme park built.
Every great success story started out with someone saying "that will never work." Those who believe things will never work are those who doom themselves to failure. Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right!
Art Scott | December 17, 2009 5:52 AMI've learned from my 5yearold that failing and trying again ad nauseum is a good way to find the "right way" -- she's got swaggering persistence that I admire and now put to use in my own work. It's like learning to swing across the monkey bars. Eventually you are one with the bars and you find the swing in your arms.
Leanne | December 22, 2009 12:44 PM{ Post a comment }
reminds me of the Black Swan idea of "maximizing serendipidity"
btw, 1997 called and it wants its css back
chris dixon | December 16, 2009 4:14 PM