We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Lines!
A small bit of Mr. James Altucher’s guidance
You know, I used to love waiting in lines. Seriously, I did. As a kid, waiting in line happened right before getting on a Disney ride, and that was The Best!!!
It depends on a person’s perspective, apparently. As a child I didn’t know what the DMV was, or any other “adult” lines. I am now… less enamored.
Now I see them everywhere. There can be lines in all sorts of places, even when you don’t expect them. Just look at these cheetahs waiting patiently. They’ve been there a long time. I’m sure they’d like to test out their 0-60’s. But it’s not their turn yet. Who knows when their turn will finally come? (I’ll guess at this in the footnotes.)1
Somebody save us, please!
Lines, lines, lines. What would you give to avoid them? Well, if you haven’t read James Altucher’s Skip the LIne, now’s the time. It’s an easy, entertaining read, and you may find some ideas that really help you. Possibly a lot. Here’s a suggestion. Get a copy and read it while you’re in a particularly horrid line. Two birds.
Like me, James hates those stinkin’ lines. He looks for other ways. And he rejects the notion that the only way to become an expert is to go the 10,000 hours route. I like his thinking. With all respect to Gladwell.
James has quite a few suggestions on how to skip lines, and also how to cope emotionally with the idea. He has this crazy belief. If you ignore conventional wisdom while building something that’s excellent, there are unconventional ways to excel much more quickly. And while you won’t be on a wide, straight, paved, conventional road, nevertheless You Will Not Die Immediately, Alone in the Woods.
No, you won’t die on the spot if you step out of the line. Absent wild coincidence of course. But if you do die, right then and there, it won’t be from stepping out. Probably not. Unlikely, anyway. I’m pretty sure.
And assuming you survive, you’ll be better off for the efforts, regardless of the outcome.
A single practice
I won’t run through the whole book; it would deprive you of the pleasure of reading it yourself (I actually mean this). James has started many businesses and brought them to great heights very quickly. The logic of his approach is difficult to refute. Again, well worth your time.
But there’s a practice from Skip the Line that I will describe, one that I’ve adopted. I come up with 10 ideas about something every day of the year.
Another James, Mr. Clear of Atomic Habits, would approve of the rigor.
About the practice: As James A. will warn, most of your daily ideas will be total crap. Worse than worthless. But that’s not exactly the point. The idea is to develop your creative muscles on a steady basis. As a bonus, occasionally you might actually be onto something.
They can be 10 ideas about anything. As Altucher suggested, what about 10 ideas on how FedEx could do a better job? Or how to fold a napkin? Coming up with a few ideas is no problem but getting to 10 can be really challenging. Creating those last few ideas really works your creative muscles. Try it and see for yourself.
Daily efforts will pay off over time regardless of the topics you choose. Soon you will become creatively “Strong Like Bull”. Just find a way to write 10 ideas about a different something every day, wherever you are.
A few products of practice
Remember, they won’t all be good ideas. Many will be horrible. Pure trash.
The point is just to do it and have fun with it. And maybe you’ll find something worth exploring directly from your list of 10, after all.
I frequently make lists of ways to make images, and some of those get put into practice. I’ll share some outcomes, starting “People as Art”:
The next image came out of a photo scavenger hunt. I’m not sure if it fully works, but I was playing with it…
Sometimes the idea takes a while to develop, plan, arrange and illuminate, like this next one:
And I cannot resist pure quirk and whimsy from time to time:
I enjoy visualizing dreams; they really get me out of any box I might be otherwise confined by, and open up my thinking.
Although ironically, I used a box to make Dreaming of Mushrooms (you may have read about it):
No box needed for Dreaming of Cycling:
What kinds of dreams can you imagine? It’s fun, yes? Having fun is not to be overlooked. We tend to produce more when we are happy.
The 10 Ideas Activity is about building creativity muscles. But of course, you can work to develop ANY skill if you work on it daily; Mr. Clear illustrates that regularly in Atomic Habits. Mr. Altucher suggests that developing your creativity is worthwhile in business, and who am I to argue? But you can consciously build muscles for any skill you’d like to develop.
What muscles will you develop next?
—
Shameless Plug for Limited Edition Prints
Finally, I bring you this shameless plug. I make and sell Limited Edition Prints (editions of 10 only), and I’ve decided these and future groups of prints will be available for limited durations as well. Would you like something special for yourself or a loved one this holiday season? Look at this set, while you still can. It’ll make at least one of us very happy, I guarantee it!
Something completely different will be available for Jan/Feb 2024, but any remaining prints from this set will be retired from circulation on the last day of 2023. Gone indefinitely. If not longer. One of them is already sold out.
Here’s a mockup of how an image from this wildlife set could look in your home:
Thanks, and see you next week!
Is there something here you like or dislike? Questions? Have anything else to say? Let us all know by clicking on the Comments button below, and express yourself. Don’t be shy, now.
If you like this post you’re bound to like the next one as well. I’m sending them weekly. Quit any time, or better yet, stay and read on!
Know anybody who should hear about all this? Be a friend and let them know!
Or, are you interested in seeing more work? My website welcomes you. We may even want to work together. I promise a joyous and productive experience if we do. www.dobkinphoto.com
About those cheetahs. They were “teenage” offspring of a tremendous huntress. They studied her moves as she went in search of dinner on this fine afternoon. It was apparently not quite their turn to go hunting alone for bigger game. But they were just about momma’s size, so their time was nigh, I’m sure.
I should have added, too, momma is depicted in the Limited Edition Prints mentioned above! Her image is titled Feline Fatale.