Imperfection I’m perfection

I am aware that I have a strong desire to publish only perfect pieces of writing. I feel the tug of … wait, wait… it could be better. It could be more polished. It could sound smarter. It could be more coherent and logical.

And it could be all those things. The problem is that it could ALWAYS be more of those things.

I very much admire the people on Medium (and elsewhere) who are brave enough to publish their unfiltered (or only lightly filtered!) thoughts. It is incredibly enjoyable reading the progress of someone’s thoughts, or the journey of their exploration through a thorny problem. I seem to find it equally interesting whether its a professional problem in my field, like how to measure social impact, conduct a mixed methods evaluation or do non-invasive data governance, or a personal issue like how to manage anger or use buddhist practices to avoid crossing over into pathological empathy.

I would like to share my explorations because I want to be part of the wonderful international community of people I admire around me who share openly. Those are the people who seem the happiest, and have the richest lives. What they share gives to others, and they enjoy giving it, so its a double win.

I would like to share my explorations about both professional things, and about personal things, because I find it un-useful that the two spheres are so often kept apart. Sure, it is neater that way, but everything I learn as an artist informs who I am as a professional. So often something I learn in a professional context brings something interesting to my personal context.

And I have more to say about this! But in the spirit of publishing the journey in progress — here it is. And because I’m me, I’ve made art about it.