Back to basics

If, like me, you are having a hard time being what we laughingly call “productive” around here, this blog post is for you.

I think it is appropriate for us to go back and examine the First Precept of Lichtenbergianism: TASK AVOIDANCE. After all, is that not the basis of our entire philosophy? Do we not all agree that we get things done by not doing the things?

If that is so, how can we, in our Covid-Adjacent Malaise [CAM], use our TASK AVOIDANCE to become happier artists?

The first step is to remember how TASK AVOIDANCE actually works: it’s not that we never work on anything at all — it’s that we avoid working on Project A by working instead on Project B. Or C or D or…

Therefore, do you have Projects A-(x) lined up, ready and waiting for you to work on?

If not, why not? This is a serious question. If you just can’t bring yourself to work on Project A, what would be more appealing to you?

Allow me to suggest a possible solution: Start a Project B that means absolutely nothing to you. Just make it to fart around. Don’t intend it to be anything. Doodle. Write gibberish. Play that one note on the cello for ten minutes.

Nonce is a great word that we don’t use much any more that means “created for the occasion,” mostly used for invented words. (Shakespeare did it all the time.) The implication is that its use is limited, even to the one occasion. For example, I have a keyboard macro, shift-opt-ctrl-space, named Nonce Macro, the function of which changes as I need a new macro that I’m only going to use in that one setting and never again.

For Lichtenbergians, it is perfectly acceptable to invent nonce projects, things that don’t have to go anywhere, art that we are not committed to completing or ABANDONING to an AUDIENCE. (Although one never knows, of course, what the Angel of Art is going to decide is worthy.)

In other words, in order to put TASK AVOIDANCE into practice, go ahead and step right on over into ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS. Make it not count.