Do the Wrong Thing
Your Worst Ideas are the Solution to Your Problems
When designer Frank Chimero gets stuck on a problem he imagines the worst possible solution and writes it down. That leap onto the page then sparks him to correct his idea and get going.
Sometimes doing the worst thing is the right thing. The wrong thing would be to do nothing.
Say you have to write an essay about how Abraham Lincoln won the Civil War. You start by writing down “Abraham Lincoln did not win the Civil War.” That is patently false. You cross that out immediately and start scribbling down evidence, and suddenly you’re off!
I touched on this briefly in The Greatest Commandment for a Writer. Doing the wrong thing can help you break through conventional wisdom or rote traditions.
Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
One of my favorite moments from Seinfeld is when George Costanza decides to do the opposite of what his instincts tell him to do:
George changes his lunch order. He approaches a beautiful woman. He tells her the truth about his life. He refuses to brown nose George Steinbrenner. His brutal honesty wins him the girl and his dream job.
But here’s where it gets interesting. Jason Alexander, the actor who played George, said this:
I know people who have done it. I mean, it became a philosophy, for real people in real life, who prospered. And they literally said, “My instincts are absolutely wrong. Everything I do is wrong. So I’m going to do the opposite of what I think I should do and see what happens.” And I know a handful of guys who tried that for a considerable period of time and really prospered from it.
Go ahead. Do something foolish. Flip the script! Look like a fool. If you want to have fresh work, if you want to lead a fun life then you’ll have to risk being weird.
And when doing the wrong thing turns out to be the wrong thing, you’ll have experiential knowledge of why. That grasp of the fundamentals is far more valuable than just knowing something in your head.
