Hi Saturday Saints & Sinners!
When do you obey, and when do you revolt?
I’ve probably mentioned this story here before. But, here it is again anyway.
When I was sixteen or seventeen, my exasperated father told me, “The trouble with you is that you think if you believe a rule is stupid, it doesn’t apply to you.”
I think he was trying to reprimand me. But it was the first glimmer I had that he understood anything about me. That was indeed exactly how I felt.
Now I’m safely middle-aged, and that sentence still describes a lot of my behavior—with a few exceptions. I try to carefully follow rules that help protect other people, or that allow us to live together as a safe community. I observe public health protections as best as I can, I generally follow traffic laws, and I wait in line patiently when waiting to get into a venue.
But obedience has never been reflexive for me, and it never will be.
The middle school my two younger children, G and T, attend has started a zero-tolerance tardy policy. If you are late for any reason, you get lunch detention. I am punctual to a fault. However, my two younger children also carpool with E, who, as I’ve noted before, has some health issues, and sometimes we leave the house a little late.
I told G and T that if it ever looks like they are going to be late, instead of dropping them off, we’ll take E to school first and maybe get some Starbucks or something. Then I will take them to school and explain they had an appointment. This means they won’t be tardy.
I take this same approach to my creative work.
Seth Godin, in his book, The Practice, talks about the importance of knowing what is in the box before trying to think outside of the box.
He argues that creativity is less about originality than it is about empathy. You have to deeply understand the problem you’re trying to solve, and then you can use old tools in new ways or make better tools to solve the problem.
Filmmaker Rian Johnson is my favorite recent example of this. His Knives Out movies have all the tropes a cozy mystery is supposed to have, but he has a unique spin on the old formula that makes his films incredibly entertaining and satisfying.
What do you think about rules and creativity?
Cheers,
Jason
When I was at school, I would often be sent to the head of year for a reprimand. These interactions would go something like this:
Mr. P: "Why are you here? Again."
Me: "I don't know. Again."
Mr. P: "Ms. L told me *the rule I broke like having the wrong uniform, or emailing my homework instead of writing it in my book, or my book was wet from the rain...* happened."
Me: "Correct. Can you explain why that means I have to be here? I have course work to do."
Mr. P: *exasperated* "No. It's ok. Let's go to the library and if anyone asks you're in detention."
Me: "But I'm going to the library anyway, and I shouldn't be in detention."
Mr. P: "Just. Be quiet."
On hindsight, I can see my teachers were trying to get me to be less sloppy, and more professional. At the time, the rules felt stupid and contributed nothing to my learning (and I argued my point eloquently), and I failed to see the nuances of what the rules were for. I still fail to see this sort of thing in adult life, but I've learned to pick my battles.
I’ve often believed true creativity hinges on humility, but never thought of empathy playing a role. Thanks for the reframe.