The Experiment principle
Ah, this is the fun one! The other principles might have seem tough. They require some discipline, some training, some other skills. But I’m pretty sure everyone on earth will find the fun with this principle. We humans love trying new things, experimenting, thinking “but what if I did X instead?!”
And that’s good, because it’s necessary for learning. If you just do the same thing over and over, you get very good at that one thing and nothing else. If you’re lucky, it was a good habit that will serve you somewhat well. If you’re unlucky, that one thing you tried is a bad habit that does you no good.
To prevent luck of the draw deciding your life, try many things. Sure, if something clearly works for you, stick with it. But always keep some part of your routine and habits open for experimentation.
I follow the 80/20 rule here. Follow a routine or plan that works for you 80% of the time, but leave that other 20% for trying new things and doing something unexpected. (This is a general guideline, of course. I don’t stick to these numbers exactly, if that’s even possible.)
About 1 out of 5 times, you should start a thought with: “I wonder … what if we did X … would that even work … hmm …” And then you try that.
During analysis
Experimentation already comes into play, partially, during the feedback principle.
When you list all possible solutions to a problem, you’re already experimenting! You probably think of some new solutions. Once you’ve never tried before.
As such, I recommend not holding back during that stage. When you see a problem, really allow yourself to think of every possible solution. No matter how stupid, or risky, or “out of the box” it seems.
These either turn out to be the actual solution, or they point towards the solution.
Once I had a story that felt like it was too full. After some consideration, I decided it might be because there were too many characters. I wrote down the usual solutions: merge some similar characters, make the story longer to give each one more time, make some characters simpler and clearly bystanders to the story.
Later that day, I wrote down: “hahaha just REMOVE them entirely from the story so the two main characters have both lost a parent and both have the same teacher”
Yeah, you guessed it. I just had to try it. And it was the best solution. I removed the characters entirely and rewrote some later scenes to mention this fact, and the impact this loss had on the main characters. The story became way better for it.
It surprises me how much fear people have for being experimental or creative. Not only do people put a cage around what they can say or do, but even around the ideas they allow themselves to come up with.
Open this cage. Nobody needs to read your notebook (or Word documents) filled with stupid ideas. Let it all out, write it all down, don’t filter. Notice when your brain goes into “oh no that’s a stupid thought” or “oh no can’t think that!”
Like critical thinking, most people know how to be creative, they were just told to stop doing that.
When choosing what to do
This is perhaps even more important. You need to set yourself up for experimentation.
If you always choose the same training, or the same project, you will find it hard to experiment within that.
So make the decision beforehand. With everything you do, add one part—on purpose—that is new and fresh and experimental.
This is most noticeable when I write books. Because, well, each book is just a bunch of letters printed on paper, right? After a while, they all look the same—and they are. I’ve written a few books that read similarly before learning of this experimentation principle.
Now, for each book, I search for one new thing to try. A new style of writing. A new way of thinking about characters. Do we even need chapters?! Hmm, maybe I can start each chapter with an image.
Just one thing is usually enough. It usually means I have to view the whole art of writing from a different angle, challenging myself. And more often than not, this new approach ends up being a permanent improvement.
When making music, you might add a new instrument. Or write the song in a different language. Or place your microphone elsewhere. Or write a melody with a pitch that’s unusual for you (to sing). Or challenge yourself to write something with only 4 of the strings on the guitar.
Game development is a slightly worse example, as that is such a complex and involved process. Usually, you are forced to try 100 new things per project. But I do try to maintain this principle.
For example, I made a “cutting game”: Unstable Universe. A boardgame played with a single piece of paper, in which the main action is cutting into the paper using strict rules. The rest of the game isn’t special—all parts were familiar to me. But I picked that one thing, that one hook, “cutting game”, as the experiment.
People will complain, again
As expected, people will call you stupid.
- It will never work.
- That’s too out of the box.
- It’s too risky.
- Your goal was to make income as a musician right? Well then I don’t see how that weird idea will help with that!
Okay, maybe I’ve just been surrounded by people calling me stupid my entire life. But I don’t think this is exceptional, as I’ve heard many artists mention receiving the exact same comments and reception as I did. In general, people cannot share your vision until you execute it, because it is your vision. Similarly, people cannot understand the skill involved in creating something, until they create it themselves.
And again, they might be right. But you don’t know until you’ve tried. And trying beats not trying.
You can only learn if you allow yourself to fail and fail hard. And that only happens if you try something new, something with which you’re uncomfortable.
Experiment, please, experiment. It will bring the fun back into anything you do. It will get you unstuck with your learning process. It’s the only reason you can read this guide on a computer screen: stupid experiments lead the way to innovation and progress.
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