Ira Glass on the Taste Gap

These youtube videos by Ira Glass of the glorious radio show This American
Life make up one of the most inspiring 12 minutes I've ever seen:

http://www.maximumfun.org/blog/2007/02/ira-glass-on-storytelling.html

The biggest revelation was this one, in Glass-speak which I have
painstakingly transcribed (because I love it):

"there's a gap - that for the first couple of years that you're making
stuff, what you're making isn't so good, ok, it's not that great. It's
trying to be good, but it's really not that good. But your *taste*, the
thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer. And your
taste is still so good that you can tell that what you're making is kind
of a disappointment to you, you know what I mean? Like you can tell that
it's still sort of crappy. A lot people never get past that phase, a lot
of people at that point they quit. And the thing I would just like to say
to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know, who does
interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they
had really good taste and they knew what they were making wasn't as good
as they wanted it to be. They fell short...

You gotta know that it's totally normal, and the most important possible
thing that you can do, is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put
yourself on a deadline so you know that every week, every month you're
going to finish one story, whatever it's going to be.... it's only by
doing a volume of work that you're going to catch up, that you're going to
close that gap and the work you're making will be as good as your
ambitions."

And then, god bless him, he plays an old, embarassing tape of himself on
the radio, to make the point of how after *8 years* working at it he was
still pretty bad. And yet, eventually, he *got* it.

The Weekly Review

This is such an essential part of how I work now that when I miss it for
some reason I feel a sense of confusion and anxiety. However when I do
complete it I feel just the opposite.

Like most of the revolutionary changes in my habits over the last 16
months, this is from Getting Things Done. But this one is the motor that
powers everything else about the system. Basically all the lists I use in
my daily work get updated and cleaned up, and so do all the papers and
objects in my working area.

I block out early friday afternoons for this - recommended because if the
process turns up something urgent then you can still catch people at work.
I have to make sure to allow no less than 2 full hours. The fact that I've
missed no more than a handful of weekly reviews in the last year - in the
middle of a work day on a typically busy week, all through writing my
thesis - speaks to how critical it's become.

So what it involves is going down a checklist that I made in Microsoft
Word and print out each time. I changed it around a lot at the beginning,
but now it's pretty much stabilized. Here's the short version, of the
absolutely key parts of my weekly review:

* Dumping my pockets, backpack, and desk clutter into my inbox (this step
is great - today I realized I've been carrying a loaf of bread in my
backpack to school and back for three days)
* Pruning all my to do lists
* Copy reminders and notes from my pocket index cards into my PDA
* For every project on my list, check out that the timetable is on track,
and figure out what is a visible, physical action I can do towards it to
put on a to do list.
* Process all my inboxes (more on this in future, but basically go through
every item one by one and put it away, chuck it, or do one step towards
dealing with it, until the inbox is empty)
* Go through my deferred work boxes, to make sure nothing is mouldering in
there
* Empty my garbage and recycling

My real list is much longer, since it's such a habit I can easily attach
more items to it that need to happen regularly - like making backups.

Interestingly, the emptying garbage & recycling is one of the best
results. There's an insidious bit of mental resistance to getting rid of
something if you have a full recycling box, and fixing that alone can help
organization a lot.

When this is all done, my desk is clean and clear. Everything is in its
place. In the words of my favourite kids book, Rhyme and reason reign once
more, sense and sanity prevail. And not just physically, I know that my
projects are mentally in order, since I've looked at them and their
deadlines and figured out what the next step is for each. I can leave to
enjoy my saturday with a lightness in my step.

Magpieing: How my collectors work

I had this image of like a giant bin I could carry along with me, like an
apple-pickers sack if you've seen one of those, and I could pick out and
collect all the shiny and fascinating things I heard or saw or thought of
and toss them in the hopper to be saved for good. Because I'd been
thinking about the problems of creativity, how many ideas you come across
in a day and forget about, and also how people manage to think of the
perfect quotation to head their book chapter, or give weight or wit to a
best-man's speech. Certain people must have found a way to build their
private hoards, like a magpie.

So about a year ago I discovered that I can comfortably sit on five
ordinary index cards in my back pocket, along with a pen clipped on the
outward side. As people who've hung out with me lately know, I can whip my
stack of cards out at a moments notice to make a note. Quotations,
research ideas, to do items, upcoming events, people's names, all go on
those cards.

Then at least once a week I enter it all into my PDA and replenish with
fresh cards. This is a certain amount of work, and takes at least half an
hour a week, but I've found that it's totally worth it. It means that if
something comes up for me to work on in the future I can act on it
immediately, making a note, rather than attempting to mentally store it
away. It's nearly perfect in its capturing of book recommendations,
projects to try someday maybe, and events around town. But it's really
changed things in how it lets me save random inspirations I have
throughout the day. For instance I will share with you this one, from last
month:

"The fantasy of an edible world, made of candy or chocolate. Does that
mean on some level we'd really like to bite everything we see?"

Ok they're not all gold. But that's the great part: good or bad, it's out
of my head and down on paper, freeing up space for the next idea to come
along. As David Brooks says, "your brain is a great place to have ideas,
but not to store them."

Why index cards and not directly into my PDA? Well it's slightly less rude
to be writing on an index card, since people might think I was checking
email (even though my Palm was manufactured during the Clinton
administration). I'd take them places I wouldn't take my palm. But the big
point is just that little bit of extra time to write using the touch
screen could mean just enough resistance for me to decide to be lazy and
skip this one (pretending that I'll write it later). It's got to feel
pretty much automatic.

The quotation collector is working great too, already giving me a glorious
heap of endlessly ponderable thoughts, like this one also from April:

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend
to be." -Kurt Vonnegut

This is what sold me on the PDA in the first place: a practically
unlimited storage space for bits of text and lists (and searchable!).
Paper just won't do for a permanent storage medium for this, because it
inspires rationing and stinginess: it should be ok to have one month where
I collect and store *a thousand* quotes - maybe even all from the same
source if you really hit a vein. In the realm of digitized text it's ok to
be a packrat.

The funnest part of it I'm finding are the lists that aren't so essential,
but come along with the rest for free. Without them I would have already
forgotten my enjoyment of the words chthonic, paragon, chirality and imbue
last month (in the Words list). And my unexpected favourite is a list I've
been keeping of Phrases, funny, catchy or interesting strings of words
that have caught my ear. They come from rap songs, newspaper headlines,
advertising, the web, tv shows, comedy routines, overheard conversations,
spam, and my own brain. Keep in mind while reading this list is that I
made no special effort to notice these in April, and by just emptying my
collectors this list essentially made itself. (please see me about
permission if you wish to use one of these for your band name)

2007 April
fill your boots
haplessness, hype and hypnosis
You can allure femme covert?
fleeing inmates seldom analyze the consequences
If it wasn't for disappointments, I wouldn't have any appointments
Desperate lark
A flying screamer, and a crasher too
All persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental.
accidents in a very busy place
Shields up, lock the door and keep your dukes up
We're all concerned about how gross you look.
looking like you just got diagnosed with cancer of the puppy
spurty knowledge
the only way out is through
two-story outhouse
If this isn't nice, what is? (I don't know what is)
The first of your many reverse masterstrokes
The weather is not trippy, perhaps it is the way we perceive it that is
indeed trippy...
Who will survive, and what will be left of them?
I believe in an eye for a tooth and a tooth for an eye. I like to mix it
up like that.
Reincarnation is making a comeback
Kittenball
Feeling dangerously well
Pick up your whiskers
This teetering bulb of dread and dream - Edson
Soul shards
Dessert in motion
fast snails
That's where I'm a viking
I like people with big egos. They remind me of me.
If you're going to laugh about something in 5 years, you might as well
laugh about it now.
Love not given lightly
SCIENTIFIC PROOF THAT I'M JESUS CHRIST AND GOD
Designated mammal
Hasta la bye bye
Now he walks through his sunken dream
Even the blues gets the blues

(I wrote that last one down in the middle of the night, and I have no
idea what it means. Any thoughts?)