Optimization.
When we think about the future, we often think about how to make things more efficient, more streamlined, more predictable.
Yet, in this relentless pursuit of optimization, we often overlook the very essence of what makes us human: creativity.
In a world increasingly optimized and made efficient, or algorithmically determined — where is this thing? Where is creativity?
There are times when I wonder about what I do, particularly when it seems absurd or ridiculous in larger contexts.
And then I sense that the absurdity and its chaos — it's 'this does not make sense' character is the creativity. A willingness to embrace that which lies outside. A sense that one is in a different territory where the rules and logic of being and knowing from the 'old world' do not work here.
But something make a feeling of plausibility and possibility. That's the compass in this weird new terrain.
Something is felt.
This feeling does not come from metrics or predictable models as to how to do thing 'X'.
This feeling doesn't emerge from A/B tests, focus groups, or efficiency tools.
It comes from somewhere else. From some other way.
Absurdity?
A sense of disorientation.
A feeling of resistance to the expected.
From a curiosity unmoored from outcome or expectation.
It's the kind of creativity that thrives in the spaces between logic and chaos, where the unexpected can flourish.
Non-instrumented creativity defies expectation and logic because it isn't trying to solve a problem. It's taking you on a journey towards unintended outcomes and unexpected possibilities.
This kind of creativity feeds on instinct. It luxuriates in exposure to unfamiliar perspectives, gut feelings, and the refusal to explain everything.
It's messy. It's inefficient. It often doesn't make sense. That is, until it suddenly does.
In that space between confusion and clarity, something truly new can appear.
We're talking about the value of the Side Project.
(Not the Side Hustle..that's something entirely different.)
The Side Project is that thing that cannot be explained except largely by feeling.
"I don't know why I'm doing this. It's just..you know...cool."
The Side Project is the place where the unexpected takes shape, unshackled from the demands of perfection or utility, allowing the absurdity of chaos to show us the way of new possible territories.
This is why I set up Office Hours: Side Projects Edition.
It's a space to share the 'whoa..cool!' projects that happen at the periphery. The things we diminish as 'hobby' projects. But I firmly believe that the unanticipated comes from there. From a feeling about something that does not quite make sense...yet.
Are you curious?
Want to see what happens when logic bends or breaks?
Want to feel the true essence of innovation, unbound by the constraints of reason?
Our first three sessions were on point.
Three short, sharp shares of a side project, followed by 20 minutes of group discussion.
Luxuriate in the warm bath of the creative consciousness of your fellow human beings.
And Discuss!
Subscribe to Office Hours: Side Projects Edition
It's been described as “The best way to end the week!” by an enthusiastic reviewer.