Creative Elegance:

The Power of Incomplete Ideas
Matthew E. May, ChangeThis

"It is nearly impossible to make it through a typical day without exchanging ideas. Whether deciding on something as simple as a restaurant for a long overdue night out, or as complicated as the design of an entirely new product, we are forever involved in sculpting and selling our creative thought. Conventional wisdom says that to be successful, an idea must be concrete, complete and certain. But what if that's wrong? What if the most elegant, most imaginative, most engaging ideas are none of those things?"

"A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final piece, but equally what is not. It is in the discipline to discard what does not fit - to cut out what might have already cost days or even years of effort - that distinguishes the truly exceptional artist and marks the ideal piece of work, be it a symphony, a novel, a painting, a company, or most important of all, a life."

"In the Zen view, emptiness is a symbol of inexhaustible spirit. Silent pauses in music and theatre, blank spaces in painting, and even the restrained motion of the sublimely seductive Geisha in refined tea ceremonies all take on a special significance because it is in states of temporary inactivity or quietude that Zen artists see the very essence of creative energy."

Click here to link to the full Manifesto (pdf format).

and the most she will do
is throw shadows at you...

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