Prolific

It is January 2023. Youtube Music is playing in the background. It has curated a playlist for me. On comes a song. The introduction sounds familiar, but I don't know the song. I switch tabs to view the song name. Its Gravity by Coldplay, released in 2005.

A song by a band that I've adored since 2008. I thought I'd listen to all of their songs (from the era of pre-divorce Chris). But here it was, a new song from the archives. Different, yet familiar; while it was new to me, you cannot mistake the sounds of a band that was the soundtrack of your pre- and teen years. Different clothes, same body.

In that moment that I found out it was their song, I greatly appreciated the prolific nature of the band. Just good stuff, being put out there.

Led me to thinking about the parable of clay (attributed to "Art and Fear" by Bayles and Orland):

[A] ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

Link seems tenuous, though. Gravity is a great song; it wasn't a discarded pile of clay, it was a good ceramic piece. But there's a lesson about being prolific there somewhere. Put more out there. Less time strategising.

I will say though, one of the best feelings is wanting more after discovering a band or author whose work speaks to me. Once I'm done, I dig into their archives, and look forward to new releases (the former has never disappointed; the latter has mixed outcomes). This happened with Coldplay in 2008, Arcade Fire in 2010, Nassim Taleb during the pandemic years (I discovered him earlier but the message didn't click with me then).