what it does vs. how it feels
You can practically taste the excitement this week, because not only are there two sections of Improv for Introverts opening up (one starting tomorrow and one starting next Wednesday), but today the newsletter includes actual content, in case you need something to read while you’re waiting for your nails to dry. Enjoy! (Or don’t, that’s also fine.)
Later,
John
What It Does vs. How It Feels
The writer Ted Chiang says that using AI to write a school assignment is like taking a forklift to the weight room. As in, it completely misses the point of the activity, which is human effort. Writing papers and lifting weights aren't necessary, they're just a way to motivate humans to make the effort. The world is not inherently improved by barbells being elevated to a certain height. It matters how they got there.
But this is a culture very much concerned with products and production and productivity, so you can see why people might start using the end result as shorthand for the process. Spoiler alert: I think this is bad.
I'm not opposed to results or metrics or working to better yourself. I'm just opposed to the idea that your experience is only valid if you can prove it to other people.
If someone's lifting weights regularly, she's going to get stronger. Great! A verifiable result! But the result isn't the experience. Her numbers going up don't reflect how she feels when she's lifting, how her relationship to her routine changes, how she starts to inhabit her body differently. These are all subjective things that can't be proved or measured, and so they tend to be undervalued. But don't you think for most people those things are more important than whether they can lift an engine block?
If you've taken classes with me, you know where I'm going with this. I can make lots of arguments about how improv will awaken your creativity, put you in touch with your subconscious, and make you feel more at ease in communicating, and I'm not lying. These things actually happen when people learn improv.
But — for me, anyway — the results aren't the point of it. For me, improv is about being fully present with other human beings in real time. This is a rare and beautiful thing when it happens, and when it happens to you, you can feel how it's different from other aspects of your life. It doesn't matter if it makes you more productive at work. You're having an experience that only you could have had, and now that experience is a permanent part of who you are.
And if you want some of those other results, that's great too! As far as I'm concerned, everyone should take improv, so whatever gets you through the door is the right reason. But I will always insist that the most important part of improv is your unique experience of it ... which, not coincidentally, is the one thing AI can never replace.