The Tension between Creativity and Efficiency

 It has been slightly more than a month since my last blog post. Oops! That was not the plan! I had anticipated a break while I was visiting Canada since my parents live completely off the grid. (This includes no internet access.) However, I had hoped to hit the ground running upon my return to Japan. Instead, I came down with a wicked case of bronchitis and am only now feeling like I'm back in the land of the living. Whew!

One good thing about this break, however, was that I had a lot of time to catch up on podcasts and web articles that I had tucked away. Several were exceptional and today I'd like to introduce a podcast that I've been mulling over ever since I first heard it.

I often listen to Jocelyn K. Glei's podcast, Hurry Slowly. Her aim is to help her listeners "find more creativity and meaning in their daily work". I always find her interviews and monologues to be thoughtful and stimulating but a recent podcast about the tension between creativity and efficiency was particularly insightful.

In this busy world, it's easy to think that creativity can be manipulated and made to conform to our ideas of productivity and how things get done. Not true, Jocelyn reminds us. That's not how creativity works.

Favorite quotes:

• There is no technology, no time-saving device that can alter the rhythms of creative labor.
• Remarkable creative projects don’t come from efficiency. If anything, they come from inefficiency. From doggedly ignoring all the rules and saying I am going to devote an ungodly amount of time to this thing that no one else thinks is important but that I think is important.

I've been struggling with a bit of a creative dry spell and so her words were a great reminder to give the creative process the time and space it needs. (Which is not to say the one doesn't need discipline as well, of course!)

I will most certainly be listening to this podcast again. In fact, I highly recommend it for anyone who does creative work of any kind. So, if that's you, off you go! (^.~)/

Link:Jocelyn K. Glei: Creativity vs Efficiency

By the way, if you do listen to the podcast, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Just leave a comment below.

(Completely unrelated but here's a photo of overgrown asparagus in my mother's garden.)