Is Making Sense Always Important?

No. There, I said it.

Is making sense really always important? 100% of the time, all 365 days, 24 hours a day? Sounds a bit absurd when it’s put that way, no? So let’s just entertain the thought for now that no, it’s not all that important.

Imagine if all our decisions were based off of rationality. Imagine if we never asked for someone’s name because they were strangers. Or if we never chucked the map away and only saw what hundreds of other eyes saw, and experienced nothing new. Imagine if we never went against the grain, how interesting our lives would be! (#dryhumour)

So, here’s an accumulation of different perspectives & ideas that encourage you to do the “atypical” thing!

In her post A Door That Opens Outward, Helen Williams says,

“I allow myself to remain unconcerned with (or perhaps, deep enough within the actual work to not even consider) what other people will think of it. If we can stop ourselves from asking “Is the work good?” and instead focus on what we’re learning from it, then we can dramatically alter the reasons why we choose to be creative in the first place: not for the nods of approval or widespread understanding but for our own personal breakthroughs, of churning through a “huge volume of work” most of which will be terrible, but it is only in those rough drafts and sketches and outlines that we piece together our true intentions.”

Yes, it’s the choice that Williams talks about making, that keeps her creativity charged. Here’s a video by David Foster Wallace that does just that, but makes you look at the idea of the choices you make in your life under a new light.

Although the video strings in messages that address to a different topic, the same messages can be branched out from the tree of creativity. As the narrator in the video says,

“You get to consciously decide what has meaning, and what doesn’t.
That is real Freedom.”

Similarly, from the same post by Williams, here’s another video that encourages you to go against the grain of doing what’s normal- giving up when you’re unclear of what you want to do.

So don’t do things that make sense from time to time. Don’t fall into a rut, don’t rebel for a while or a day. Or do. Just take a chance, and make a change. Because when you look at the bigger picture, designing a roller coaster that went in a straight line-at the same pace, never made anyone buy a ticket. So please, maybe just for a second, start your decision by not making sense, and by being creative!