Ever have those situations where you just can’t move? we’ve all had those ideas, projects, impulses, thought trains where running along was as simple as can be… but then poof! something happens, something stops, and the intertia changes… or grinds to a halt. it’s only natural for most, if not all of us, in our immediate ITP circle to experience this first hand.
over the last few months, and especially, the last few weeks, i’ve heard multiple people, myself included, think about past projects as standstill or like stepping on a piece of gum. at first it consumes all of your attention when you discover the gum on your sole. as you lift your foot to inspect the damage, the gum sticks, stretches with the height of your raised foot, and slowly begins to break down.
but more peculiar, is the the similarity with projects. it’s not the best of metaphors, or is it a simile? anyway the process of being completely consumed with a project at first is fully realized. the most of intricate details mean everything, it’s got to be as close to prefect as possible, nothing less is acceptable. but then then the exponential curve of one’s effort starts to incease at a decreasing rate. the sticky, gummy effect of time sets in as one nears a stage of completion. the more the project is iterated, the stickier the gum between effort and intertia becomes.
looking back, i see this behaviour in many of my projects. Maybe in yours and yours as well, but i’m not talking about you or you in this entry. It’s much like the flavor of a piece of gum, strong and sweet at first, but not permanent. slowly the sugar dissipates from the gun into one’s mouth and the interest fades…
is it the subject? or the flavor of the gum in this metaphor? or is it the stage of project. as the project goes from idea to inception to iteration to instance, the intertia is lost. or is it just waiting to be ingested in another stick of gum?
