Insight #260
“Of course I have a dark side! Don’t assume my sweetness and light has no opposite.” (Bing Image Creator). . .
Call me old-fashioned, but I still use a fountain pen when I write. In fact, I’m so old-fashioned that I still fill my pen with ink from a bottle.
Maybe it’s the ritual that matters. Preparing my pen gives my brain time to order my thoughts so that when words flow onto paper, they already make some sense. At least to me.
Do you know what qualities make for good pen ink? The ability to flow freely. And the ability to dry quickly. I did not know that, even though I’ve used fountain pen ink for decades.
Opposites make the ink work. Flow freely and dry quickly. Not either or, but both together.
It seems the same applies to my writing. To produce something of meaning, my thoughts must first flow freely. If my thoughts set too quickly, my output will be blotchy. Too bold in some areas and too feeble in others. Or my thoughts will just dry up.
And the benefit of dry quickly? Well, once I’ve inked it, it’s done. There’s no backspace or delete key on paper. And once done, I move on. (If needs be, I can come back later, read what I had written, and decide if I can edit it closer to better.)
But, as always, there’s a catch. A lot of what flows freely is often nonsense. But you won’t really know the bling from the bull until the flow stops. So, flow freely is like brainstorming: inefficient while it’s happening, but hopefully effective by the time ideas dry up.
I think we all should adopt these ink qualities of flow freely and dry quickly. Because, to be successful, we often need opposing qualities. Admit it, sometimes it takes a little inefficiency to be really effective. (After all, many a smart idea was triggered by something stupid.)
You’ve heard the expression “be like water.” (It’s often attributed to Bruce Lee.) It means to be formless, to adjust to the moment, to the situation, don’t let a fixed mindset trap you, and so on. That’s the shallow meaning. The deeper meaning is, well, much deeper. (If you want to know how deep, you should probably read the book Bruce Lee: Artist of Life.)
But because my focus is mainly on how we should act at work, I say this: Don’t be like water. Be like ink. Flow freely, dry quickly.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
. . .