quantity equals quality

Sam points out this splendid contribution to the big ideas/little ideas debate. It's a pottery parable from Art And Fear quoted on LifeClever.

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot—albeit a perfect one—to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work—and learning from their mistakes—the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

 

Comments

[Rob Mortimer]

Brilliant. A good lesson (sic) there...

[Ed]

This is very true. The guys at IDEO (and many other designers I'm sure) do rapid prototyping, failing and refining day in day out. One of the designers always bring a protype to every client meeting because it's just easier for clients to understand the progress he's making.

How do you reckon we could use this way of working and applying it to our trade (planning or not)?

Starter for ten: shoot lots of quick and dirty ads, distribute it online and see what the response is. Then may be make the best one with a proper production behind it? It's like real life focus groups I suppose.

[Mark Earls]

Brill.

Not think-think-think-do-review

But do-feel-do again-feel-do again-feel-think?

Maybe.

[Ben]

I'm gonna wade in here with my muddy size 8's.

I agree that prototyping is important and I agree that iteration is way forward.

I just don't agree, automatically, that more or complex is better.

Just thought I mention it.

[Alex Nisbett]

2 things:

If you want a really good idea, you need to start with a gurzillion ideas (er... that's brainstorming).

and...

"Fail often to succeed sooner" (that's David Kelley of IDEO on prototyping)

[Stefan G. Bucher]

Both the art school I went to and my first employer after that believed that no idea was ever good enough until it levitated under its own power and shot rays of sunlight out of it's rear.

Yes, the good is the enemy of the great. But the inverse is also true.

As I do more and more work, I get more and more ideas. What's important is that I stop thinking and start doing. Ideas cheat all the time. Execution is the true measure of quality. I'd rather have a 90% idea and fully lean into it, than keep groping for the 100% idea and then throw it together at the last minute. (if, indeed, that glorious idea appears.)

It's not like the start of execution is the end of thinking. Starting from the 90% point, ideas keep flowing into each piece, bringing it to where it needs to go. I've done enough exhaustive brainstorming to know that the first few things my subconscious kick out tend to be pretty valid starting points for action. They're not necessarily inferior to ideas that come at the end of a massive brain storming session.

There is an unfortunate perception that tortured process = greatness. but everything we've done becomes part of the next thing we do. It's OK to be loose and have fun with projects. As long as you keep working your brain won't let you down.