Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy

by Dale Lyles

Are you a creative genius? No, only Mozart is a creative genius, and you are not him. But you are creative—yes, you are, admit it—and you want to overcome your fears and your bad habits so that you can write that novel/paint that painting/compose that song/program that app. procrastination as a creative strategy gives you nine Precepts, ways to restructure your thinking about how you create and why so that you can just get to work and create the work of your dreams. But not today. Tomorrow is better.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Art

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was in high school, before I had ever had a girlfriend, I met Becky, who went to a different school, at a debate tournament. We created a new religion together, Orthodox Abandonism, and discussed its tenets, and wound up holding hands and I was the smartest most clever person in the world. Because I had co-invented a new religion, and I was going to kiss Becky with the dark hair and eyes and particular lilt in her voice. I did not kiss her. She wound up holding hands with another guy on the bus home.

When I was in grad school, the Utne Reader had an issue on Salon building and soon a group of people including me were meeting once a month to Discuss Things and we were the smartest most clever people in the world, and it was odd that nobody else wanted to hear about my salon, and when I boasted about being in it nobody cared.

3/4 of this book is gold. I felt validated when I saw, in print, ideas that I've discovered about my own creative process (I feel like such a poser even using the phrase "my own creative process") but put better than I could. And the other ideas - yes. They make sense. They are going to be a good part of my soup. But 1/4 of it is the author so proud of himself because once upon a time he and his friends created a group with a multisyllabic title and now they are Lichtenbergianists and he makes sure to mention how cool he and his friends are. And he gets "meta" He is so clever and proud that he wrote a book! for us to read.

It was clearly carefully proofread. And it was clearly carefully proofread by people who like and care about him. It needed a read from someone who didn't know him from Adam and didn't care about "I'm omitting some details from this anecdote about me to protect the innocent." The smarm got to my nerves. I started on the first page, and by the time I got to the beginning, ten pages in, I was screaming "Jesus Christ! Get on with it!" I know ten pages seems like not that many, but it's 8% of the book and it seemed a lot longer.

If there is a second edition, I have a hunch that Dale Lyles will add stuff. I wish that, instead, he would delete stuff. Start with "Here's a pretentiously named framework for creativity, that should help you in your creative life" and get to it. And don't assume that the reader knows you or thinks you and your friends are clever and cool - or cares about you at all. We don't. We DO care about what you want to say about this topic. Exclude all else by successive approximation.

[Newt Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s a stretch to call Lichtenbergianism a book. It’s really 88 pages of firestarter disguised as a book(2 stars if the pages had been perforated for easier removal).

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Every few years I feel the need to read a book like this to get the creative juices going and reassure myself that it's okay that I have a zillion different projects. This short book does that, with the usual amount of woo.

[Sweety B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will be keeping this as a reference book on my bookshelf. Aligns greatly with a lot of my current ideas on work and creativity!