Be Inefficient

Written By Jeremy Utley

The series we’ve launched at the d.school, called “Stanford’s Masters of Creativity,” is designed to help support folks on the journey to creative mastery. One of the great challenges on this journey is that the “rules” of creative genius fly in the face of the normal, smart thing to do. I should know, as a recovering type-A, straight-A kind of guy…

I thought this tension was exemplified beautifully in an old Seinfeld interview with Harvard Business Review:

“You and Larry David wrote Seinfeld together, without a traditional writers’ room, and burnout was one reason you stopped. Was there a more sustainable way to do it? Could McKinsey or someone have helped you find a better model?

Who’s McKinsey?

It’s a consulting firm.

Are they funny?

No.

Then I don’t need them. If you’re efficient, you’re doing it the wrong way.”

So much of creative work doesn’t feel efficient. I can’t imagine how Frank Lloyd Wright’s associates felt while he dawdled under the Fallingwater deadline. That couldn’t have felt great. Not to mention how Claude Shannon’s colleagues at Bell Labs must have felt watching him juggle down the hallway…

As Amos Tversky quipped, “You waste years by not being able to waste hours,” and yet, wasting hours feels so… inefficient. The key is to know when to waste time — when wasting time is actually productive.

Related: Imitate Frank Lloyd Wright
Related: Claude Shannon
Related: Divergent Diversions
Related: Permission To Seek A Diversion

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