Fifty pounds of clay

[layla]

Orion sent me a link to this post on creativity and what might be the best anecdote on failed projects ever:

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot -- albeit a perfect one -- to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes -- the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

Time to roll up my sleeves and throw some more imperfect pots.

Comments

[gothwitch.livejournal.com]

That's a great story, good analogy to use in conversation when the "idea of creativity" or some-such pops up. I need to make me a pile of imperfect pots too ;p here we go!

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Isn't it awesome? I love how it's such a concrete analogy and so true. No one ever became an author or a cartoonist by sitting around crafting that one perfect pot, but it often takes a very long time to realize that's not how you do it.