Thanks for finding and sharing.
I think this makes a lot of sense. Even when applied to other creative pursuits. For example I’ve been struggling to learn guitar for years, but every time I muck about on it poorly my enjoyment is short lived as I think about how I could be doing a sketch or something else I’m actually good at, and so I feel like I’m “wasting my time” even though more time is what I need to improve… or maybe my mind works too much is esoteric opportunity cost calculations.
But apply that too other things like learning a new CAD platform, or exploring totally new solutions… it is one of the reasons I left footwear after almost 8 years at Nike. I felt like I had done my most innovative work in the first few years. As I progressed I learned so much more but I also started closing down entire possible sets of solutions because “it’s not done that way”. Again, maybe just me, but I found when I worked on different categories it helped me stay more personally engaged and open.
But it is hard to walk away from those time investments. I spent a good chunk of time getting good at Fusion 360. Gravity Sketch sent me a headset to learn their platform but I struggle with spending the time on it (back to the learning guitar thing)
Another interesting thing is expectation others put on you. The article mentions Jackson Pollock and how once he hit his hot streak he didn’t deviate… but also was the expectation of him by his gallery not to deviate once they had a sellable in demand product? If a company hires Karim Rashid would they expect something that largely looks like Karim’s past work? I saw an early cut of an extended interview with Ross Lovegrove last week that will go live in a few days I think where he talks about that expectation that people have of him to do these really organic shapes. I’ll post it when it goes live.
Taken together, these results suggest that neither exploration nor exploitation alone is associated with the hot streak dynamics; rather, it is the shift from exploration to exploitation that closely traces the onset of a hot streak. One plausible explanation is that exploration, as a risky, variance-enhancing strategy, increases one’s chances to stumble upon new, potentially groundbreaking ideas; the subsequent exploitation behavior allows the individual to focus, develop knowledge and capabilities in that focal area, and build out their discoveries further. Importantly, our findings suggest that both ingredients of exploration and exploitation seem necessary. This supports the notion that not all explorations are fruitful, and that exploitation in the absence of promising new ideas may not be as productive. On the other hand, the sequence of exploration followed by exploitation may facilitate the emergence of high-impact work by incorporating new insights into a focused agenda. The positioning of exploration before exploitation may therefore serve to expand an individual’s creative possibilities.
I really love this thought. It reminds me of something one of my mentors once said to me years back:
“in every project at some point we have switch from what it can be to what it will be” - Paul Bradley.
That always stuck with me.
