Chaos

I read with much interest this post from Matt Gemmell about simplicity the other day and agreed with all of it. I disagreed with all of it too, but I’ll get to that. It’s not that I think Matt is wrong in his conclusions, but, well, I do and here’s why. To me the important thing is the outcome of your work not the method or surroundings of its creation. That’s what I mean by him being both right and wrong. He makes stuff in his way. I make stuff in my way. Neither is correct or best.

The picture below is of my office, it doesn’t always look like this sometimes it’s much less tidy.

I’m not entirely sold on the idea that simplicity is any more powerful than complexity and too many times people have told me that what I need to be creative is simplicity and focus perchance some elegance in my life. Well, I don’t write well without some distractions, I find that if I sit down to write with no sound, no diversions, I fidget and lose track or the voices in my head become too loud for me to concentrate. As I write this Twitter is constantly updating on the left screen and I can hear my children playing downstairs. The amount of ‘rubble’ on my desk means that I have little room for manoeuvre. Were my room spotlessly clean with few distractions I’d simply hate it and I’d be less productive. When I sit in an empty room my mind goes as blank and flat as its surroundings.

When you’re creating a piece of work, your audience is your readers, or your viewers, or your listeners, or your customers. You still have the right to say no. You’re free to delete an email, and to filter the sender straight to the trash. You’re free to unsubscribe from a blog. You’re free to mute, unfollow or block someone on Twitter. You’re free to not talk to someone who’s consistently, unproductively negative.

I agree with the sentiment here, but all this changes radically when you are creating work for a company and not yourself. As an employee of a magazine the option to delete an offensive email without reply or the option to not talk to a consistently negative and unproductive customer isn’t always there. I speak as someone who had to reply to a customer outraged by our choice of font in a publication. 23 emails. Twenty. Three. Learning how to deal with the unproductively negative is a great lesson and in my opinion is better than simply pushing it way and ignoring it. How do you know you’re not missing their point without entering into discussion? The printed word can be very confusing and is easily misunderstood. Not dealing with those people is simple, I agree, but better? I’m not so sure.

… provide much-needed perspective, or allow you to declutter your workspace and your thoughts. It can also make you happier.

I think perspective is often warped by simplicity, binary distinctions are what kill debate and the endless need for our political classes to define everything as simple option a vs. simple option b is a prime example, but I fear I’m taking Matt’s simple mantra to it’s most extreme and being a bit unfair. However, as I’ve already mentioned decluttering my thoughts and workspace is the last thing I need. By far and away and I  mean by an order of magnitude the two things that have made me happiest are Niamh and Toby. Two of the most incredibly complex and clutter inducing things known to man. Or, as I like to call them ‘The kids’

There’s nothing better for your work and your life than a quiet, focused mind.

As I said, I don’t buy this assessment I think there’s nothing better for your mind than some chaos and pressure, that focusses the mind. Perhaps I should I say it focusses my mind.