The X-Effect

I want to talk about cementing the wave of dynamic quality into a static quality that can stick.

A while ago I started a morning routine that has worked out well so far. It started with wanting some steady order and purpose in my first waking hours of the day. This desire to improve was the dynamic quality. I made it stick so far by focusing only on going about the routine.

The morning routine is sticking but I want to make it stick a little better. I tend to be lazy about walking Olive and scooping the cat litter on some weekdays and most weekends. I find myself making excuses. I need these habits to stick better.

Enter X-Effect.

I discovered this by accident while browsing reddit casually. This is based on the idea that willpower can be exercized like a muscle can. See this Google Talk by Kelly McGoniagal.

The X-effect is designed to increase our willpower in learning a new habit that we could be struggling with. In other words, it promises to transform dynamic quality into a static quality that sticks.

I started my cards today.

Wish me luck!

Dynamic v/s Static Quality

Woodworking like any trade or hobby has quality. It has a different quality to you and me.

When I first started woodworking it was difficult, frustrating, enjoyable and fun. That was dynamic quality at play. Waves of inspiration are the razor edge of the blade of dynamic quality. The blade cuts after the wave hits you. This is the first experience of quality.

When this quality sticks, it becomes less frustrating, difficult, enjoyable and fun... well I still enjoy woodworking and I think it is fun but not in the estatic way woodworking made me feel when I started. This is woodworking transferring from being dynamic quality to a static quality.

Remember when you learned to drive. You probably went through this same thing. Driving was frightening, frustrating and fun. Now it is mundane since you have been doing it for years and years.

A life in a perpetual state of dynamic quality is chaotic. Imagine a full-time globe trotter with no fixed address. I am sure it is fun for a while but I doubt anyone wants globe-trotting for ever.

A life in a perpetual state of static quality is mundane. Imagine living in a cookie cutter subdivision working at the same job and doing the same tasks only to come home to watch the same TV show, eat the same dinner and go to bed.

I think the pursuit of happiness is in finding the balance of dynamic quality events amidst a life of static quality.

This is why waves of inspiration, those cutting edges of the blade of dynamic quality are so important to me.

But equally important is the static quality left behind by the wave.

The Habit of Cleaning

In my new obsession of keeping clean, I have had two revelations.

FIRST
The main problem with keeping clean is not the actual cleaning part.
It is the keeping part.
The thing that makes us start and finish cleaning.
The schedule of it.
The daily and weekly habits.

No one teaches us this.

There is plenty of information on cleaning products. Obviously there is money to be made. It is an easy way to make money selling water.

If you have a habit of cleaning, you will find the product to clean with. You will eventually do better cleaning.

The habit or ritual or whatever you may call it is the key here.

This is what I am really really trying to nail.
I am starting small.

SECOND
Vinegar is magic.
It cleans almost anything.
Diluted with water and a few drops of dishwashing detergent added, it cleans the toughest of stains on those corners of the bathroom that we have learned to ignore.

Add baking soda to the party and you have enough cleaning power to reform the government.

Waves of Inspiration

Inspiration comes to me in waves. Not very often. But when it arrives, it comes in a rush.

Like a surfer just paddling in the ocean finds an unsuspecting swell turning into a giant wave.

All I can do at that time is ride the wave. And it is a rush. I am obsessed with riding it. It is my only focus.

Then the wave dies. I might not see another one in months, even years sometimes.

In the past 10 years, here are some examples of these waves:
Bicycling as transportation
HTML, XML, CSS, PHP coding
Photography
Videography/movie making
Urban planning
Percussion/drumming
Woodworking
Folding clothes vertically
Youtube video production
Morning routine
etc.

These waves started and ended.
I have vivid memories of them hitting me.
All I remember is holding on!
Because I knew it would end.

So I do two things:

1. Go head first and commit fully to the swelling wave
2. Try my best to form a habit so I can preserve a part of the wave after it is gone

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I am obsessed with cleaning these days. My cleaning habits in the past have not been deliberate or planned. I just cleaned. Now I am forming philisophies and new habits. Unfuck Your Habitat is a huge inspiration.

The Creative Processes

Searching for the creative process is a fallacy. There is no one process. There are processes.

It is easy to hear about a creative's process if said creative is a newbie. Newbies tend to have time to talk about their process. Veteran creatives are busy. Access to them is tough as well.

I don't think veteran creatives are secretive about their process. A good creative knows that the best thing to do to an idea is to expose it to the world. I think veteran creatives don't have a medium to share their knowledge and process. Youtube videos, blog posts etc take a lot of time and effort to produce.

Creating a medium is a full time job in and of itself.

I am a big fan of podcasts. I listen to them often. Today I discovered Andrew Bird in a podcast called Song Exploder. Andrew Bird talked about his creative process in producing the song Roma Fade. Since listening to this episode, I am hooked on the lifting rythm, the combination of whistling and violin, and Andrew Bird's melodic voice. I have plugged in my reference headphones and I am listening to the song on repeat.

I read somewhere that people stop discovering new music in their 30's. I think we need better mediums where discoveries can happen.

TV is no longer that medium.
Radio neither.
Coffee shops are dead.
Books will always rule.
Podcasts are the next best thing.

I am happy that a creative's process became a little more accessible today.

Diverging Value Systems

Of course, you prefer when your value system intersects with the value system of another person. It makes for a pleasant collaboration.

An ideal collaboration goes beyond the scope of the initial problem. An ideal collaboration is an unfamiliar journey for its collaborators.

The key ingredient for that to happen is for the collaborators to have somewhat diverging value systems.

One likes red, another likes blue, a third likes green... now they have a color wheel between the three collaborators with seemingly infinite combinations. Without that diversity, we would have gradients of the same color and nothing more.

Very few people have completely identical value systems. Chances are, your collaborators will bring something unique and diverse to the table.

All you have to do is encourage the diversity and not promote the sameness.
This part is tough.

Intersecting Value Systems

Imagine five apples.
You are asked to choose one.
You are told they all taste exactly the same.
But your choice will be judged on criteria unknown to you.
You are allowed to not play.

Analytical thinking is emotionless and structured. Analytical thinkers are good at categorizing. An analytical thinker will put the apples in categories by size, shape, color, surface defects, presence or absence of stem, etc. But they will have to predict the judge's value of these categories which they don't know.

An emotional thinker will know which apple makes them feel the best. Maybe one apple reminds them of a story in their favorite children's book. Or maybe one looks like the apples their parent's tree used to bear. But the judge's value is yet unknown.

There are two value systems at play in this game. One is the value system of you, the participant. The other is the value system of the judge. Even if the judge's value system is unknown, it is still important to the choice.

Success is when the your value system intersects with that of the judge. But success is also when your value system comes close enough when no one else tried.

The Cost of Peace of Mind

There is a direct cost to avoid anxiety. It is the price of buying peace of mind. The higher the anxiety the easier it is to justify paying for peace of mind.

Consider this:

A new car is under warranty. You get free services for a while. Any mechanical issues are quickly fixed for free. There is a high level of peace of mind driving a new car. But it comes with car payments. 60 of them.

An odler car is probably paid-off car. No car payments. But old cars start to have mechanical problems. There is the anxiety of reliability.

The price of avoiding anxiety is the cost of a new car payment. The repair to an old car is a one-time expense. The price of not having that anxiety is a recurring payment schedule of 60 months.

To live with an older car, you must find trust and data. The more you trust your mechanic, the less anxiety you feel. Also, the more you know about your car, the less anxiety you feel.

This is the antidote to any anxiety producing idea.
Trust and data.

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P.S.
I am writing this because the alternator in my car went bad. I was stranded briefly. Before I knew what was wrong, I thought it was time to get a new car. My car is ten years old and pushing 150,000 miles. Turns out that a new alternator is all it needs to function as good as new.
I also purchased a device that tells me how my car functions. I am excited to use it for the data it provides.

Sea Shells and Palm Trees

If you want to get better at drawing sea shells and palm trees you should make friends with other artists who also like to draw sea shells and palm trees. Creativity requires a network to thrive.

Sea shells and palm trees are perfectly decent places to begin your creative journey but lets face it, they are not exactly that vibrant a topic to draw. If you decide sea shells and palm trees have now gotten bland and you wish to draw something that stirs more emotion in the viewer, you will have to find a new creative network. Your sea shell and palm tree network will not be able to help you.

Walter Isaacson writes in his new book that lone geniuses are overrated. Collaboration is key even for the brightest of people. This is valid not only in art but anywhere creativity applies.

Here is how you do it:
Step 1: Gain the insight to know when you are stagnating
Step 2: Realize limitations of your current creative network
Step 3: Find and join a creative network that is on the trajectory of your creative path
Step 4: Grow and learn

Pro tip: Find a town where many creative networks thrive.