The Backstory
Back in 1987—before CDs, iPods, the Internet, and eBay—I was a freshman in Virginia Tech’s architecture program. That first year was when they stre-e-e-e-e-tched our mind with possibilities. And my first professor, Gene Egger, had quirky rules and offbeat assignments that we never appreciated until later.
Like: The man wouldn’t let us use color for three months. He said we had earn it. No colored pencils, no markers, no tinted paper.
No fasteners or glue for model building, either. From Labor Day to Thanksgiving, our world was black pencil, black pens, white paper, and clever assembly.
And that’s how he kept us focused on the fundamentals of making things, not making things pretty. And learning to handle materials as they wanted to be handled rather than forcing our will on them.
Smart man.
His lessons have helped me in many worlds of work, from developing websites to building databases to writing. But the best of Egger’s lessons might be the most widely applicable: his 10% rule.
Only 10% of what you create is going to be worth looking at. So you better create a lot of things. Don’t make only 10 things and risk having only 1 thing to show. Make a hundred so you can choose your best from 10.
And here’s the assignment that made his lesson stick for 25 years (and counting):
The Assignment
After his 10% proclamation (he never spoke, he always proclaimed), Egger told us to—
♦ Draw 10 squares
We could draw them however we liked, as long as we—
- Didn’t draw a typical 4-sided 4-cornered box,
- Each box was different, and
- We stopped working when his timer rang.
And after we’d drawn our 10, he called us together to hang our mini-masterpieces. He walked the wall and sang his usual song of harrumph-encourage-correct-tease-taunt. Then he told us to—
♦ Choose one square you like, and make 10 more squares just like it…but not exactly like it
The drawing style or technique we used for our favored square was now a theme, and it was tricky (but fun!) to repeat it 10 times without duplicating it.
And then we were rounded up again to show off our new collections. He paced the wall and nodded his satisfaction, congratulating us on our cleverness, our variety, and our stamina. And then he told us to—
♦ Go make 100
As they say in the South: We liked to’ve died. Imagine a panorama of 24 dropped jaws and a professor pacing and cackling and rubbing his hands together. Truly a wicked, lovely man.
So I spent the rest of the morning and a long night thoughtfully inking 100 alike-yet-not-quite-alike squares.
And, of course, he was right.
The Results
Most of my 100 squares were OK
But just okay. Not thought-provoking, not well-designed, not well-drawn. Just meh.
Some of my 100 squares were really nifty
Who knows…maybe I jumped to a new string of ideas, or worked my way up to a good’un, or just got out of my own way.
A few of my 100 squares were amazing
After drawing dozens the theme solidified and my technique improved. I drew a lot less and created a lot more. And every so often one of my squares shimmered with craftsmanship.
The Takeaway
A fabulous way to drag the best bits from all the corners of your mind or all the people in your workgroup: Generate 100.
You don’t need a better tagline. You need to write 100.
You don’t need a new product concept. You need to imagine 100.
You don’t need to sketch an idea for your client’s logo. You need to draw 100.
You need 100 of whatever you’re creating so you can feel free to create stuff that sucks. Sitting there trying to invent one great-and-most-perfect thing can drain your creative juice and tie your thinking cap in knots.
Far better to plan for 100 so you can look at the first six (that are craptaculous) and know you have 94 more opportunities to get it right.
Besides, it’s easier, funner, and effective-er to create generously. To lavishly and carelessly cover a cocktail napkin/legal pad/whiteboard/Moleskine with miles of potential suckage, knowing the odds are in your favor that 10 well-crafted options will appear…and maybe one that’s purely brilliant.
Not up to making 100?
Doesn’t matter. Crank out as many as you can. Even better: make 5 more than you think you can.
However much you can manage is better than doing nothing at all.
I mean, what’s 10% of nothing?
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Et tu? What do you think? Is creating 100 things excessive, utter brilliance, or somewhere in between? Tell me on Twitter or find me on Facebook.
Photo credit: striatic
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