Imitate the Masters
One of the most fabulous discoveries I have made in the last few years of research is how wildly differently truly breakthrough thinkers approach the task of solving problems. Many of the things I’ve been conditioned to believe are “productive” have drastically narrowed the scope of tools at my disposal. Thankfully, faithful chroniclers of breakthrough thinkers have captured the often-weird, seldom-productive-sounding tactics of true creative geniuses.
The short excerpt on Frank Lloyd Wright in Mason Currey’s delightful Daily Rituals commends a couple of my favorite counter-intuitive tactics.
On Delaying Decisions: “Numerous colleagues have reported, with some consternation, his habit of postponing project drawings until right before a crucial client meeting. For Fallingwater, perhaps the most famous residents of the 20th century, right didn't begin the drawings until the client called to say he was getting in the car and would be arriving for their meeting in a little more than two hours.” No doubt Wright was among the upper-echelon architects in MacKinnon’s landmark creativity study.
On napping: “‘I wake up around 4 and can't sleep. But my mind’s clear, so I get up and work for three or four hours. Then I go to bed for another nap.’ During the afternoon he would often take an additional nap, lying down on a thinly padded wooden bench or even a concrete ledge; the uncomfortable perch, he said, prevented him from oversleeping.”
That’s right: Frank Lloyd Wright was a prodigious procrastinator and a regular ole double-napper.
No wonder he was so inventive at the drafting table!
Here’s the kicker: I had totally forgotten about these fantastic FLW anecdotes. They only sprang to mind while I was taking a quick power nap in the middle of a program! Funny enough, I was laying on an uncomfortable-perch-section of the couch, thinking, “It’s probably best that I not fall asleep too deeply,” when the anecdotes sprang back to mind. Which is to say, practice what you preach…
Related: Delay Decisions
Related: Take A Nano-Nap
Related: Practice What You Preach
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The quality of our thinking is deeply influenced by the diversity of the inputs we collect. Implementing practices like Brian Grazer’s “Curiosity Conversations” ensures innovators are well-equipped with a variety of high-quality raw material for problem-solving.