I will always remember my fascination the first time I saw this diagram in 2008. I immediately dived in the GTD methodology. Looking back, I think what thrilled me so much in that first encounter was the idea that a process could be applied to my own stuff, to the things I do. This diagram kinda gave you the permission to treat what you do seriously. No one ever had done so. Processes were usually reserved for "the big things".
What followed was several years of practice and discipline (and committing all kind of embarrassing errors along the way), till the GTD methodology became ingrained as my natural ways, correcting many years of bad habits. It is in also in one of David Allen's books or articles that I learned the description of this acquisition process in 4 stages:
I had a box full of notebooks that I wrote just because and just stood there, abandoned when finished, on to the next white page. In GTD terms, I was capturing a lot, but failing to process. First warning: creating feels good, but anything you leave half done will have a psychic cost on your mind. If you just create sensually,i.e. for the sole gratification of your senses, it means that you will abandon projects when the 'honeymoon period' is over, the first day that things go sour. The dreaded inventory, and you haven't even decided what you're going to do about it next. I have to say I did finish a lot of stuff, but also I kinda put under the mat all the rest. When you're in your twenties you're a time and energy millionaire, pretty much everything can be solved by throwing an extra oompf or an overnight at it. Perhaps it's what we biologically are supposed to do in that period: try as much stuff as we can, in a disorderly manner, variety is what counts. But, as things take more effort to do, and the scope of what you intend to achieve rises, you start to think about developing a different kind of superpowers...
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The problem to be solved is: my capability to create music in the intangible world is way beyond my capability to take it to fruition as an objective product in "the real world". Like, in a 20,000 to 1 proportion. The transition from ideas to sounds is too slow, so the music inventory stacks up in my head.
And inventory, as in any other realm, is only a source of problems. In the case of songs, it's reached the point where it's like a jungle down there. Songs that have waited for their expression way too long beyond their point of maturity, start to get bullied by the newcomers who need a riff or two and can't wait. Two songs that weren't supposed to meet each other get mutually contaminated and there comes a point where you don't know what belongs to each. Sometimes that melange is creative; but it can easily degenerate into utter chaos; in some occasions, I get to feel that I'm committing plagiarism of songs that are not still created! Etc. You should see my hard drives... I'm not complaining, I don't want it to stop, I just want to convey more and better of it. From the internal point of view it will benefit me, and and from the external, it is only once the stuff is out there that it can be of any use to other human being. I wholeheartedly agree with Ian McKaye's rule: it is only a song when it has reached someone else's ears. The way I see it, we creative people have a moral obligation of putting stuff out there, to make things happen. Some people, poor fellas, wouldn't recognize an idea if they were hit by it on the head. They catch other people's ideas that are in the environment, in the collective atmosphere (and, don't get me wrong, they sometimes do awesome things with them, things beyond the creator's possibilities); so, besides the personal gratification and health I obtain from the whole process (my choice, my thing, my joy), from a social point of view it's my duty to make the contribution, to put out good stuff out there for others to enjoy, get inspired, grow in unexpected ways. And quick; enough with the ivory towers, you only have to watch some news to see that the ugly ones are winning, their atmosphere dumpers are way more developed...
Someone may notice that my yesterday's post was a comic strip, which has nothing to do with this list of premises. I hope it serves as a demo of what I think standards are for: not to burden yourself, but to know what's within standard and what's not. Yesterday's post was off-standards; if, as days go by, comic strips keep coming, I'll have to either restrain myself or modify the standard. I like to say that things should be written down, but nothing should be ever written into stone, as reality is in constant flux, and any line you draw is only as good as the help it brings you; yesterday's strip came to me, it was Sunday and I had the time, and if I hadn't taken the idea to expression, it would still in my head, where creates pressure and no one can profit from it. This connects with the intent of not creating more inventory; the immediateness of Internet allowed me to do that on the spot. So this is a balancing act of factors, the art is learning to draw better lines, to lace them better, and keep an eye on when they are still a guideline or when they have become a distraction. |
Nacho Jordi
I have a guitar and I'm gonna use it Archives
September 2018
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