Oblique Strategies for Starting a New Project

When there's a deadline, there's also a destination, a context, a reason for something. And that's what makes me finish it. Up until that point, it's an experiment. It's sitting on my shelf and I can take it down again as I often do, work on it again, put it back on. [Then I can take it] out two years later and work on it some more.

So everything's ... See more

“I always say ‘beginnings are easy, endings are hard’. Beginnings get easier and easier [because] there's so much technological assistance [and] so many ways of getting something started like rhythm machines and chord pattern makers.

There are a lot of ways of getting something pretty respectable going quite early on. To quote Picasso, ‘there's noth... See more

Through talking to my supervisor, it became clear that my graveyard of projects was a product of self-handicapping . We avoid finishing projects because we can't stand the possibility that the finished product won't be as great or perfect as we envisioned it, which means we aren't as great as we think we are. Consider the violinist who intentionall... See more