Trivial theory of human productivity

Whipped up this little chart after a fleeting thought I had while driving. It occurred to me that everyone I know has a unique tradeoff between chaos and order. Some strive for perfect order, cleaning messes as they occur, crafting perfect filing systems, trying to keep their email inbox empty. Others simply forge ahead, valuing progress and production over cleanliness and structure.

From my point of view, pushing too far on either end of the scale bears a heavy price. Organizing and cleaning all the time leave a mind rigid and too many aspirations unfulfilled. Doing doing doing is ultimately just as counter-productive, since the damage you leave behind for others to fix eventually alienates you from your family and society.

The two dotted vertical lines, delineate the middle ground where the tradeoff is optimal - you have the raw creative energy that comes from chaos and drives innovation, intuitive leaps and superhuman productive spurts, and you also have the structure that sustains productivity by nurturing precision, calm and poise.

It's no secret to my loved ones that I tend too far towards chaos generally, but as I grow older and wiser I think (I hope!) I'm trending towards the middle.

George Orwell's Writing Advice

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
   

And he will probably ask himself two more:

1. Could I put it more shortly?
2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
   

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

1. 
   

* From “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell.