Creative Output is born when creativity and courage share their living quarters with imperfection.

The Context

For centuries, we lived under the tyrannical rule of Grammar. Any tiny mistake, be it a missed comma, an extra apostrophe, or an incorrect preposition, could make your writing slip down the ramp of linguistic perfection.

Then AI happened, and everyone, the lit-bourgeois to even the lit-pauvre, started writing flawlessly. It’s quite possible that several didn’t know what was being written, but their language was parfaite. We delighted in this perfection for a year or two, and then started missing the beauty of imperfection. Because, let’s face it, without imperfections, uniqueness vanishes and variations disappear. Life then becomes a colorless and uniform expanse of perfection.

My Relationship with Perfection

I’ve forever been a priestess of imperfection when dealing with the non-fatal disciplines. I remember one of my IDCDT course participants feeling rather disquieted by my open admission that the quest for perfection harms our ability to be creative.

If you are a perfectionist, your hackles might be rising already.

“Why? What makes you think that?” I hear you asking, your shoulders drawn back, your neck tensed, and your eyes narrowed.

The answer is complex, and it resides in the domain of feelings (the mysterious affective domain, my dear instructional designers.)

You see, I have nothing against perfection per se. Had I been a programmer or a doctor, I’d have married it for life. But I am not. I am a writer, an artist, a creator. And to be creative, I must have the courage to go wrong – not just once but several times. The quest for perfection often erodes this particular variety of courage.

“What’s so special about this particular variety?” you ask.

Okay, so let’s first understand courage from the viewpoint of a creator.

The Courage of a Creator

You see, this isn’t the type of courage that makes you leap 300 meters into a river flowing through a canyon. This courage prepares you to fail. It also prepares you to dive into the deep waters of criticism and dislike; of people laughing at your creation because it has this one speck of dirt, a tiny hole, an unvarnished spot, or a language error! Because, when you create something new, be it a piece of writing or music, a drawing, a movie, or even a mechanical contraption – you need the courage to see it fail. If you wait for your creation to be perfect, you’d never let it leave your bosom.

In my experience, creativity and courage love each other to the end of the world and back – and perfection is that villain that lives to drive a wedge between them. Bring home imperfection, and watch creativity bloom.

Creativity, Courage, and Perfection - A Stark Streak Cartoon.

In the heaven of the creative souls, perfection is an unwelcome guest.

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