wrong = right

Ira Glass on the importance of being wrong:

"One of the reasons I was interested in doing this interview is because I feel like being wrong is really important to doing decent work. To do any kind of creative work well, you have to run at stuff knowing that it’s usually going to fail. You have to take that into account and you have to make peace with it. We spend a lot of money and time on stuff that goes nowhere. It’s not unusual for us to go through 25 or 30 ideas and then go into production on eight or 10 and then kill everything but three or four. In my experience, most stuff that you start is mediocre for a really long time before it actually gets good. And you can’t tell if it’s going to be good until you’re really late in the process. So the only thing you can do is have faith that if you do enough stuff, something will turn out great and really surprise you."

I ripped this from an anonymous design crush's bloggins. I like his insight:

"I love the idea of inexperience — the idea that you can develop a skill set that transcends any formal discipline, and move from project to project as both an experienced problem solver, but also a complete rookie in that realm. There are so many aspects of a successful idea that are just unmasterable..."

I love this idea too. I think inexperience is one of the most unique things we have, because where did it come from? It isn't learned. It isn't gained. It's a non-thing (or no-thing), a void. If we can somehow accept inexperience as a way to approach things (which I think coincides with embracing failure) then we might embark on some new frontiers.

(thanks keenan)

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Another thing, Wikipedia (the ultimate freesource) has taught me a lot about collaboration. Read at least the opening few paragraphs. It says in here that collaboration is "a deep collective, determination to reach an identical objective—for example an intruiging [sic] endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus." Beautiful.

C O L L A B O: designers + established & sons

good, clean fun—just what we're after.

Hindu Philosophy

"As the raindrop falls from heaven, it is afraid of being lost in the stream. As one stream merges into another, it is afraid of being lost into the river. As the river flows faster downhill, it is afraid of merging into the sea. But the process is inevitable, and when the river finally does merge, the raindrop discovers to its great surprise, that nothing has been lost—it remains a drop, while yet becoming the sea. With this realization comes supreme joy. Once you know that your identity is not going to be sacrificed for the benefit of the whole, being the whole sounds absolutely ideal. Who would remain a drop if he could have the unbounded status of the ocean? Our society is so fixated on individuality at any price, that it has taught us practically nothing about the joy of merging into the totality of pure awareness."

The relics propose that realizing the self and realizing the whole happens at the same time. Why is it that our society is so fixated on individuality? Does individuality even exist? Did it ever exist? If it does, is it worth pursuing?