Here again Merlin pokes at one of the primary symptoms of my on-going creative crisis. At some point I need to stop collecting information and experience and start synthesizing something new out of all my collected data.

The real Goliath for me is ‘good enough’. I am a famous non-finisher. I will pour valuable time into meaningful projects that I never finish because I am never satisfied I have ALL the relevant information. Think of me as David searching the creek bed for five stones that match the Platonic ideal of ‘stones for slings’. The battle rages and is lost while I look for better information.

There will always be better and more recent data. I am struggling with this right now as I write for you instead of working on a report I am responsible for.

I just spent almost 10 minutes looking for a scientific discovery I could metaphorically withhold for want of the Higgs Boson. This is what I am talking about people.

I know this is the perennial problem of the creative class, and one that is talked about prit’near constantly on tumblr, and it remains a problem for me. One of many.

Edit- Yes I know I am talking about something slightly different than Merlin. That is how this works. Deal.

merlin:

How do you know when you’ve had “enough?”

Not everything, all the time, completely, forever. Just enough. Enough to start, finish, or simply maintain.

Unfortunately, foodbabies only appear after it’s too late. And, if your satiety’s gauged solely by whether the buffet’s still open, you’re screwed. Like the hypothalamus-damaged rat, you’ll eat until you die.

— Enough. A very short essay about chow mein, condemned men, and information gluttony that I wrote for Seth Godin’s What Matters Now project.