Sturgeon’s Law for Artists
90% of Everything is Crap.
How many times have you worked on a project and really felt “Damn, I did not know I could really do such great work, it’s beyond what I expected of myself.” How many times have other people complimented you professionally that you outdid yourself or their expectations? Can you count the number of times this has happened on your fingers? If you can count on your fingers, it implies that you still have a lot to learn and by the virtue of learning, your life still holds some meaning to aspire for something. If your count has exceeded your fingers, then it implies that you already have accomplished your professional goals and it is time to aspire for personal goals and teach the coming generation about how you did what you did.
The reason most people may be able to count the number of times they exceeded their expectations on their fingers is that they fall under something called – Being Human. The current generation is obsessed with perfection. How many times have we heard people say “Oh, I’m a perfectionist.” Next time someone says that to you, ask them, “You are a perfectionist to what extent? Do the sheets of your bed never have wrinkles?” They would respond that they meant they are a perfectionist professionally. Okay. Ask them, “So, every time you worked on a project it was flawless, like without even a minuscule of error?” If they are being honest then they would probably reply that the work they did was perfect given the resources available. Then ask them further, “So you are implying that by being a perfectionist, you mean you did your best?” They should nod at this point. Irritate them further by asking, “Whose idea of perfection are you following when you imply that you are being a perfectionist?”
This is where Theodore Sturgeon comes into the frame to help us see a bigger picture. Theodore Sturgeon was a science fiction writer, a literary critic, and wrote a few episodes of Star Trek. He was someone who made a living through his Art, something most artists initially aspire for when they first think of making their Art their profession. At the time when Theodore was trying to be a science fiction writer, science fiction was seen as an inferior form of literature (though things have considerably changed now). People would bemoan that most of the books published under the genre were crap. And unfortunately Theodore knew that people were right, and being a writer himself, he was honest enough to evaluate that indeed most of the books were crap. Now whether it was a moment of epiphany or years of understanding, Sturgeon said that most of the things that are at human disposal are equally bad, not just science fiction and it’s just that the amount of people writing science fiction is way less and thus it is easily noticeable and easy to condemn. What he was saying subtly was actually a lesson in understanding failure and sometimes being content in things being bad. It also has a hint of stoicism in it.
Connecting the dots, there is no such thing as a universal idea of being a perfectionist. There is only a subjective idea of being a perfectionist. And you cannot find any one person who has done something remarkable say that he is a perfectionist. Stephen King never said that every book or story that he will write will be a best-seller. He can probably say that now but not at all at the start of his career. Even the revered modern icon Steve Jobs had to oversee the failure of The Lisa. There is no person, or no brand, or no company that has delivered all hits. Heck, has Kanye West won a Grammy for every single project he worked on? (Maybe yes, I may have to fact-check that, cause he is Kanye after all)
As artists who are trying to build their skills and are trying to create works that means something to themselves, it is our responsibility to not take ourselves seriously in terms of achieving what is someone’s subjective idea of Art. You and I, we all have to create our fair share of 90% crap work to find those hidden 10% great works. From a personal example, when I share my writings or short stories or creative work for criticism to people who are professionals in their fields, they most often have a similar complain that all of it was not good, it was good in flashes but not all of it. My response is always sincere, if it was good throughout, why would I even consider taking your criticism. As a self-respecting artist, we should be the ones who are most harsh with criticism to ourselves and yet we should be honest that there is something that is lagging and that’s why the criticism is needed. So, for a moment, if we try to be stoic about the idea that 90% of our work will be crap, we need to focus on the takeaways from that 90%. Once that little shift is made in your understanding about the output of your artistic efforts, you would focus more on creating your Art than evaluating your Art. Not to undermine the process of evaluation but we should be wary of overestimating the value of evaluation. And this is what Sturgeon’s law teaches us that if we dedicate ourselves and create enough with sincerity, we would learn to appreciate rejections better and put deeper focus on improving our Art by the way of practicing it.
