WNA #14: Quiet before the storm & a before-the-foreword-word
It’s been a slow couple of weeks. At least, in terms of newsworthy happenings.
I’m waiting for the publisher to finalize the contract;
I’m also waiting for him to respond to my title alternatives;
I’m writing the book.
Regarding the last bullet, I’ve been having epiphanies at the usual moments. In the shower, on my bike, and while staring at a speck of dust on the floor. Not at the same time, of course.
They’re tricky to navigate. The epiphanies. If I’d act on each one of them, I’d be rewriting the entire book on a monthly basis. But some of them are valuable insights.
For example, I’ve been pondering this idea that the book needs a certain opening. Not a foreword per se, but more of a short piece that opens up the reader’s mind a little and invites them to dream.
A… before-the-foreword-word? Anyway, here’s what I have now:
A Craft Without a Ceiling
A lot of people people are relatively good at their job. Some are exceptional, and then a few aren’t so great. In most fields, the best and the worst aren’t all too far apart. An invisible but very real ceiling smushes them together: there’s no greater than great.
For example, when a tax attorney does your taxes with zero errors, that’s great, but it’s also as good as it gets. Similarly, a carpenter can’t make a level shelf more level, and a cab driver can only get you from A to B smoothly within the limits of physics (and traffic).
To more precisely gauge how good people are at their job, we often factor in time. If two tax attorneys can do our taxes flawlessly, we consider the faster one to be better at their job. The same goes for carpenters, baristas, and dock workers, but also for teachers, therapists, and brain surgeons. When quality is maxed out, faster equals better.
But even with time factored in, the playing field is still very narrow. Many tasks can only be done so fast. Doing taxes will always take a minimum amount of time, even if the attorney automates most of the process. So does brewing coffee, explaining mathematical concepts to students, or removing an abscess from a human brain.
In addition, the difference between the fastest and the slowest workers to do an exceptional job is relatively small: a perfect macchiato might take a master barista 90 seconds and an apprentice 3 minutes to make—a factor of two.
In all these and similar fields — making up the vast majority of the workforce in developed countries — everyone is bound by those two immutable limits: the absolute minimum amount of time it takes to do something and the (very achievable) best possible outcome.
A perfect macchiato in 90 seconds, a level shelf in four minutes, a flawless tax return in an hour and a half, and successful brain surgery in three hours and twenty minutes.
The Outliers
And then there’s us. Designers, illustrators, animators, video editors, writers, photographers, and everyone floating in between. In our work, both limits — quality and time — are flexible.
In terms of quality, a creation can always be better; we can always surpass ourselves and every expectation. There’s no rigid upper limit, no ceiling.
For example, the carpenter’s shelf can’t be more level than level, but a logo can be greater than great. Brain surgery won’t cure more than the illness, but a brilliant tagline can engrave itself in the minds of an entire generation. And a tax return can’t give us more than we’re entitled to (wink, wink), but a single photograph can inspire thousands of people to alter the course of their lives.
In addition to this unlimited potential quality, there’s virtually no lower limit to how quickly we can arrive at it. Some of the world’s greatest creative works (both commercial and artistic) were born in mere seconds. Paula Scher’s napkin story is one of many striking examples.
Granted, speed is a double-edged sword when it comes to creation. Too much focus on efficiency is likely to sabotage our creativity. And even though we work with deadlines, generally speaking, our work isn’t time-sensitive on the scale of hours.
But that doesn’t mean time (and thus speed) is a non-issue to us. As we’ll explore in Part IV: Time, our days, like anyone else’s, are numbered. The more effectively we execute our work — in other words, the faster we’ll arrive at greatness or beyond — the less of this precious resource we have to spend getting there.
This frees up time that we can use to learn, observe, and explore ourselves and the world. But also to unwind, decompress, and recharge. Paradoxically, more free time will make us better at what we do.
An Awkward Position
The awkwardness of our position is also what makes our line of work so exciting; the possibilities seem endless. A graphic designer can make four fantastic logos a year at $25,000 each without spending more than a few hours on each one of them. A copywriter can write one paragraph a week for $ 1,000 a pop. And a photographer can take one picture every month — click — for $ 10,000 each.
These aren’t fairy tales: albeit rare, they are realistically attainable for some of us — if we get everything right, that is.
Before we ask how to get there, some nuance is in order. The point is not that we should work very little and charge very much (although most of us could improve on both fronts). Instead, it’s to illustrate that with enough perseverance, the right mindset, a lot of patience, and a little luck, we can achieve much more than most of us dare to imagine.
After all, we chose a craft without a ceiling.
Now, on to the question: How do we capitalize on this quirky reality?
The answer is, of course, multi-faceted. But the journey does have a clear start, which lies in understanding Creation, Clients, Money, Time, Process, and Tools. Let’s get started.