Waste of Speed

A few years ago, the following hypothetical would have been a fantasy.

“What if you could take your job, and automate what you do so that most of the work is done ten times faster.”

Ten times faster? Twenty times faster?
Today, of course, if you’re a digital creative, that’s become a reality.

So what are we going to do with that new speed?

One option is to follow the speed. Be done way sooner. Delegate to 10 agents at once. Crank out the productivity, because creativity in itself doesn’t pay the bills. Faced with a cliff, where everyone’s racing to the bottom, you wonder why you’re not racing there too. When you don’t know what the point of your work is, it’s always safe to add more of it.

But let’s not waste all that speed on just adding productivity.

For other options, we have to think creatively.

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If you’re going to create something new, now you can make ten different prototypes very quickly, and choose the best one.

If you want to communicate something clearly, now you can stash your work (don’t publish just yet) and make ten passes at it. Different takes. Edit it down to the essential.

If you want to practice a new skill, run ten study sessions and get quizzed each time.

If you want to prepare for an important conversation, find ten different ways you could be misunderstood, and prepare your message for each.

If you define your goals, to go where no one dares to go creatively, imagine ten different positive outcomes, until you find the one that, if it works out, would scare you the most.

If you want to create a masterpiece, split it into ten important parts, and put in the practice on perfecting each one.

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It’s just a matter of time before this split occurs. The creativity split.

On the one side, the ones who do the work of ten.
On the other, the ones who find the work that needs ten times the amount of creative attention.