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Updated July 24, 2024You’re reading an excerpt of Creative Doing, by Herbert Lui. 75 practical techniques to unlock creative potential in your work, hobby, or next career. Purchase now for instant, lifetime access to the book.
My friend Abdel’s lament, after watching a student ‘solve’ the Rubik’s Cube on his desk just like the YouTube video showed her how: ‘You need to value your ignorance.’Ross Gay, The Book of Delights
When I played video games as a young boy, I constantly referred to cheat codes and guides. I wanted to play the game more efficiently.
Now, I deliberately go out of my way to avoid these items. I don’t want my experience to be influenced by it. I value the joy of discovery, which is impossible without ignorance.
There’s probably something here about the curse of knowledge (“The better you know something, the less you remember about how hard it was to learn…”), or how external perspectives can help you break your Solomon’s Paradox, but that’s not what I want to say.
In order to discover, you must experience ignorance. If you don’t value your ignorance, then you also won’t value the discovery. Curt Gabrielson writes, “If you tell somebody something, you’ve forever robbed them of the opportunity to discover it for themselves.” (Via Jim O’Shaughnessy).
Choose an idea to put away. Don’t look at it again for at least six months. This prompt is particularly useful if you’re struggling with developing an idea; get out of your own way and let time do the work for you by archiving it.
The late Intel chief Andy Grove writes of a simple rule in High Output Management: “All production flows have a basic characteristic: the material becomes more valuable as it moves through the process.” That’s because more time and energy have been spent on the material to make it a final product.
One implication of this idea is the earlier you stop working on something, the fewer resources you waste. For example, if I’m coming up with a pitch, a quick Google search could tell me if someone else has written about the thing I want to write about. If someone has, in exactly the way I wanted to write about it, then I can easily shelve the idea in its current state, as it’s not acceptable to me. If I didn’t come across the prior coverage until later in my process, I’d have to give up the idea after hours spent researching and writing (which has happened before).