DAY 009 – DESIGNING DANGEROUSLY

Effective vs. Ineffective

I have found that many students truncate their own process due to a concern about being “wrong.” One of the major tenets of my classes is thinking less in terms of right and wrong, which is a binary, and considering their work (and the work of others) in terms of a spectrum of effectiveness. 

Truth be told, gauging effectiveness is much closer to how I experience my own work. I’ve never felt 100% about a show, and I tend not to trust people who are regularly self-satisfied and congratulatory regarding their own work. I can’t fathom getting to opening night and saying in the mirror, “Great work, Matt! You really knocked it out of the park on this one! You’re a helluva guy!” In this scenario I then put on a porkpie hat and pantomime finger guns shooting at my duplicate in the mirror.

No...I consider 85% or 90% quite a success. If we speak in terms of grades, I don’t think I’ve yet made something better than an A-. I feel like a B creator, but I try to be an A collaborator. Each project I want to inch the dial closer to effective and further away from ineffective. Truly, the work of a lifetime and the thing that keeps me hungry. As I expressed to the students back in January, ultimately we compete with ourselves to see how high we can go, how much truth we can speak.