The fight for honesty
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“This is going to be a hard letter to write…”
It was Spring 1936 and a young John Steinbeck, hungry for another hit, had just finished the manuscript of his newest book. Commissioned by the San Francisco News, the story was a satirical take on labour strife in Depression-era California. He did his job.
But there was a problem, as he explained in his blunt letter to the publisher: “it is a bad book and I must get rid of it.”
He closes with what is my favourite line: “If I can’t do better, I have slipped badly.”
So he started again. This time, writing with a deeper understanding of the story he felt he owed himself. And his readers.
In place of cynicism, he brought dignity to his characters and their plight. That book became The Grapes of Wrath.
Self criticism—including the ability to “kill your darlings (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kill+your+darlings) ”—is a tenet of improving your craft. And like all things timeless in their truth, it remains one of the hardest rules to follow in every enterprise where you’re paid to solve problems.
But it is only half of what’s needed for honesty in your work, |NAME|.
Just as important is your willingness to both invite and accept meaningful criticism from others.
We trick ourselves into thinking that this is akin to being willing to put a hand on a hot stove. But how exactly is it punishment to have bad ideas weeded out or good ones withstand the scrutiny of others?
Too often, we assume that criticism is a value judgement on our ability to do good work. So we’re either crushed by it or we ignore it.
We feel the need to be sure of our ideas and the assumptions they are built on, because we assume (wrongly) that to do anything else might reveal ourselves at very least as indecisive, or at worst, as incompetent frauds.
We deny ourselves the power that can come from a change of mind.
It’s a curious thing that as we grow deeper into ourselves as professionals, we grow rigid where we ought to stay vulnerable, and yet stay weak where we could be so much stronger.
It’s easy to fall in love with your ideas. But even the good ones are riddled with confirmation bias (http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/23/confirmation-bias/) and have an expiration date.
Instead, commit yourself to loving the problems you’ve been hired to solve.
Because problem solving is timeless.
And by engaging what maverick physicist Richard Feynman once called “the pleasure of finding things out, (http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0465023959/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=15121&creative=390961&creativeASIN=0465023959&linkCode=as2&tag=thinkitcreati-20%22) ” it is here where clear, unbiased thinking can make you tenacious. Formidable, even.
Very best, Patrick
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