Mar
29
Discard an Axiom
Filed Under Obliques
This post is based on a prompt from the Oblique Strategies (1st Edition) developed by Brain Eno and Peter Schmidt.
Discard an axiom: Action almost always trumps inaction. The rule itself comes from 43Folders, but I feel it was one of those things that was always floating around in my head without having actual words put to it. Kind of like all those business and self help books (the line between the two is sometimes blurred) where you read some sage wisdom that is really just common sense put to different music. Still, I liked this nugget enough to write it down.
“Just keep moving” is all the rule says. It reminds me of another rule from a book about writing I read just after high school. Something about keeping your pen moving, even if you are writing trash. Action breeds progress. Whenever I’m in a bad mood, I make a list of all the things I want to do. This cheers me up immediately. The world moves from one of dread to one of potential. I’m surprised at the power of a list of things to clean.
This idea is particularly applicable to video games. I used to play Return to Castle Wolfenstein with some co-workers at lunch. I’m currently in the running for the worst First Person Shooter player ever. I’m terrible. Lunch was always humiliating, but I kept at it, hoping a) I would improve, or b) I’d be up against at least one person worse than me. Neither happened. I got myself killed a lot by standing around.
You just have to keep moving.
My wife has done a pretty good job discarding this axiom for video games. We were playing Super Mario Galaxy awhile back and she would just stop and wait something out. To my shock, the tactic worked. No one from IT capped her in the back of the head. The giant floating mushroom head moved out of the way and she moved on.
I’ve tried to discard this axiom in the past when it comes to writing. I’ll quit with a journal or abandon a blog with the idea that I will be able to recharge, to renew. As if my writing muse feeds off of some limited bile within me that I must not deplete. This never works. Every time I start again, I’m a little more rusty. It takes a little longer to find my voice again. My muse feeds on momentum. If I stop, there is an increasing chance I will never start again.
Read a little differently, this axiom tells us to be a little more deliberate, a little less quick to jump in to something. Take some time to consider the path of the giant floating mushroom head before choosing your own course. But I am a deliberate person. If anything, I discard this action far too much. This is what I just learned about myself. Again.
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