Wonderful thoughts from Seth Godin arrived in my inbox. Most of what he thinks up and writes is very useful to me, as a starting point for my own train of thoughts. Of course, I tend to see it magic wise (quote):
Writing the first draft of a computer program is easy. It’s the testing that separates the professional from a mere hack. Test and then, of course, make it better.
The same thing is true with: Restaurant recipes, Essays, Web user interface, Customer service, Management techniques, Licensing agreements, Strategy, Relationships of all kinds.
The reason it’s so difficult to test and improve is that it requires you to acknowledge that your original plan wasn’t perfect. And to have the humility and care to go ahead and fix it.
No fair announcing that you’re good at starting things. The world is looking for people who are good at polishing them until they work.
So true, and so valuable for magic. Maybe we also should acknowledge that fact of life, change our usual believes and dedicate ourselves to testing and thereby improving our routines, tricks, moves and sleights.
Too many magicians stopping too early to think (according to Vernon) and too little magicians daring to test their work (according to Godin). But isn’t it that what the great masters of our art did for decades to ‘polish’ their routines instead of continuously inventing unfinished tricks? Isn’t it that what we appreciate in routines that are ’smooth as a silk’?
