on scaffolding

The key to overcoming this precondition is to make writing a multi-pass process. Visual art is multi-pass: artists start with a rough sketch that captures the general idea for their composition. Then they go through and do a more detailed sketch, turning the rough lines into recognizable features, fiddling with proportions and placement until each ... See more

Much as working with a piano teacher is not, fundamentally, about learning songs, but about using songs to push yourself; I now think of our projects, not as ends in themselves, but as means to help us improve the underlying process and ourselves. This helps put me in the right frame of mind. I want this essay to turn out well, of course. But the g... See more

This is what I do for everything I post:

1. Write all of my thoughts on a subject.


2. Argue against those ideas.


3. Explore different angles until I’m sick of it.


4. Leave it for a few days or years, then repeat those steps.


5. Hate how messy these thoughts have become.


6. Reduce them to a tiny outline of the key points.


7. Post the outline. Trash the rest.

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of... See more