Necessary creative procrastination?
An interesting quote from the MIT Media Lab (thanks Aaron!):
Loving what you do is key. But I realize that loving what you can do is also important. The need to do more seems to drive extreme creativity.
The idea of overcommitting oneself is not uncommon. "Maybe I can do more?" one thinks. And then you help yourself to another serving of doing more whether for altruism or for profit. "Sure, I can do that too." At some point you ask yourself, "Have I now undercommitted my time to be preciously just creative?" In other words, when you've sold off your entire brain to achieving specific goals, is there nothing left for your selfish self to squander away just for the heck of it?
The more you overcommit, the more that procrastination becomes intolerably expensive to engage ... yet it is when procrastination becomes exceedingly costly to do, it is then that extreme creativity emerges. In the impossible moment, miracles tend to happen. "Necessary procrastination" is a prime factor in the creative process. When the cost of procrastination increases, the probability for radical new thoughts to emerge increases as well. The thought you never thought you would ever need, is often the one that can count the most in the big scope of things.
(via Prof. John Maeda's blog -- check out his thesis tips too, all you crazy grad students <grin> )
