Rant Image

The Rant

The next time they want me to do creativity on a schedule I'm gonna do a Peter Pan!

Submitted by Seneca » Sat 18-Feb-2012, 11:08

Subject Area: Project Management

Keywords: creativity, estimating, creative process, schedule, Peter Pan, design

17 member ratings

Who do these Management dudes think they're kidding. Creativity can't be done on a schedule.
It annoys the hell out of me. Sitting in these planning meetings trying to estimate how long it's going to take to develop this world beating killer app.
Don't they understand that creative ideas just don't appear on schedule? Ideas form through an endless cycle of invention and destruction.
Just talking about a creative idea to a management "suit" can kill it. Ideas are always half-baked when they're new. Worse - any idea sounds good after a few beers. In the morning you just throw them away and start again. Hemingway said that the first draft of anything is garbage - how true is that.
At the outset we never know how many cycles of creation and destruction we're going to go through before we hit something of value. Maybe never. Hah!
And then they get so disappointed when we don't come in on schedule. And they come down hard on us. On us! The people who constitute the core (and only) means of production in this ideas factory!
Two thousand years ago the Greeks figured out that: "A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners."
And so they want to punish us for the practical realities of the creative process?
What part of this don't they understand?
So next time an angry "suit" bails me up and wants to know about my "design directions" and "complete-by dates" I'm gonna do a Peter Pan. You know:
Wendy Darling asks Peter Pan the way to Neverland. He answers, "Follow the second star on the right and on till dawn."
Yeah that should do it!

50 Comments 

Member Comments

RE: The next time they want me to do creativity on a schedule I'm gonna do a Peter Pan!

I feel your pain .. but what about Capt Hook and the crocodile

By Popper » Sun 19-Feb-2012, 12:26, My rating: ✭ ✭ ✭ ✩ ✩

I know, being a creative is a tough life but there are other practical realities in play as well.
If you are employed someone is paying your salary and it's not unreasonable for them to want some output from you for the money. Better if it's predictable. That means they can convince bankers to lend them money so they can give it to you to create things and hopefully, in the end make a profit.
If they can't make a profit they can't pay the bankers who then turn into Capt Hook like characters who want the whole kit and caboodle, that is, your company, to walk the plank (after they've repossessed all your valuables).
In turn Capt Hook has a crocodile just waiting for him to take a wrong step. Remember? "tick tock tick tock". If the bankers can't make a profit on their investments someone in turn is going to eat them. And so it goes in an endless cycle up the food chain.
So if you want to be an employed creative there is no escape. You have to generate ideas on a schedule otherwise nobody can afford you.
There is an alternative. You could join the LOST BOYS. That is, work for yourself, load up with cans of baked beans, grab a laptop and a microwave dish and head for a cave somewhere in Tibet. That way you can take as long as you like to create your killer app. - no "suits" to disrupt the creative process. That is, until the beans run out and you die. That's reality for you; harsh but in a sadistic kind of way, fair.
Good luck!

50 Comments  • Page 50 of 50 •        Previous « 1…  46   47   48   49   50 

Email to a friend

Email this Rant to a friend
%0ASee:%0A http://www.chambers.com.au/forum/view_post.php?frm=1%26pstid=173" alt="Email to a friend" />