Why, yes, I will take the compliment(s)!
/I suck at self-promotion, as evidenced by the fact that I am not currently booked on NPR or late night shows to talk about Lichtenbergianism and how it can improve the world, but I don’t have anything really to blog about today and I received an email from Gary Gute, the professor at the University of Northern Iowa who uses Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy as a text in his course on creativity.
Twice now he has invited me to Zoom into his class and chat with the students about Lichtenbergianism and how it can improve the world, and both times have been a lot of fun for me. Today’s email included a text document that had last spring’s class “thank you” notes from the students, and I am going to brag about that.
I won’t copy/paste all those here, because that would be beyond cringe, but I will tell you about a couple of things they said that made me feel really good.
The first was the number of students who said that the book had radically changed their perception of the creative process and freed them up to do better work. Several mentioned overcoming their perfectionism and fear of failure, which is in line with what I think differentiates Lichtenbergianism from all the other books on creativity: It gives you permission to fail as part of the process.
The other thing that really made me happy was the statement from several of the students that they rarely enjoy reading the texts assigned in their classes, but Lichtenbergianism was actually fun to read. I was a little taken aback by this. I mean, I remember trying to make it amusing, but to be told by jaded college students that they enjoyed reading my book was a real ego boost.
So NPR, if you’re listening, the next time you need a feel-good story/interview or something just downright inspirational, hit me up. I give good interview.
A reminder that Lacuna Group will host an information session about William Blake’s Inn on Sunday, August 25, 2:00–4:00 p.m., at Southern Arc Dance. We will run through the music, discuss the collaborative approach we intend to use to design the show, and answer questions about the whole shebang.
