On Perspiration: Thomas Edison and Ira Glass
Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Much has been said about inspirations lately, but one thing I do want to mention: inspirations alone do not produce great work. Thomas Edison1 was onto something when he said that “none of [his] inventions came by accident.” It takes work and effort. A lot of it.
Ira Glass, a reporter who’s now famous for hosting This American Life on National Public Radio, has something similar to say with regards to the art of storytelling2. Ira is now renowned for his ability to take a story and make it very interesting — he’s able to put a spin on it that causes you to think about a subject in which you’ve never thought about before. In short, he’s a Jedi Master.
As a master of the craft, he has a lot of advice to give. “Do a lot of work. Put a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline.” “I took longer to know how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met.” From the way he talks and the passion that just exudes out of his pores — you know he’s sincere. The thing that really drew me to this short video is around the 3 minute mark, when he plays a tape from his eighth year at work. He pauses the tape from time to time to address to the audience — to us — how horrible he was. Now, to a novice in radio story-telling like moi, it sounded fine. However, pay close attention to his facial expression as he listens to his younger self with much anguish and pain, almost as if someone was clawing at the blackboard.
I admit that it’s far easier to criticize one’s past than it is for the present, but I’ll bet that he was just as harsh back then to himself as he is now. He must have; there’s no other way for improvement if one (1) doesn’t self-analyze and self-criticize and (2) make much effort to improve. As Ira stated in the beginning of this video, many new artists — whether they are designers, film makers, illustrators, etc — recognize that their work is not as good as their “taste”3. Unfortunately, so many people become defeated and quit. And here, I just want to echo what Ira said:
It’s going to take a while. It’s natural to take a while… you just have to fight your way through it.
2 Found this via iso50’s blog
3 Though, from my experience, it seems like still so many people just don’t have good tastes. When I was taking classes at Academy of Art, some students would challenge their instructor whenever their artwork is being criticized. In any case, this is another topic altogether — perhaps fitting for another post.
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Tagged as inspiration, perspiration + Categorized as Design
Wow… this is really inspirational
next post… break down of the “undo” lion’s roar video :)