Sunday, April 2, 2017

On Getting Stuck

I am stuck.  Quite often, actually.  For me, getting stuck is most often a problem when trying to generate an idea or when writing a paper.  I don't break loose until the deadline is imminent or until I find a way to separate the process from the end result.  When writing a paper, that generally means writing out pieces in pencil, or saving a separate "Work In Progress" Word document. 

I don't know if this is a common problem, but for me I think it revolves around the fact that I never truly learned the process of iterative improvement.  I generally worked on one draft, and when that was finished, I was done.  I missed learning the skill of quickly getting an idea generated, then getting feedback, then quickly getting an outline generated, then getting feedback, then quickly getting a draft generated... feedback, 2nd draft, feedback, 3rd draft, and so on.  "A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked."*  Trying to go straight to the complex system results in getting stuck.


*Known as Gall's Law, from John Gall's book Systemantics

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