The Parable of the Pottery Class #shorts

2023-02-11 · Short · Ali · recording, 1:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Mindset, motivation and happiness · mode: Personal story · tags: Lesson from a book

Ali retells the parable of the pottery class from Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland: the best pots came from the group making one a day, so the most predictable path to quality is quantity, which also beats the paralysis of perfectionism.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The parable of the pottery class and its lesson: quantity leads to quality

• ★★ In Ali's telling of the parable of the pottery class, a pottery teacher called Brian had one group make a pot every day for 30 days and the other work on a single pot; every highest-quality pot came from the group that made 30 pots. — 00:00:00

• ★★★ When learning something, Ali says, the most predictable path to quality is quantity: doing something over and over helps you overcome the fear of imperfection, while focusing solely on quality from the start leaves you paralysed by perfection. — 00:00:29

  “the most predictable path to quality is in fact quantity”

• ★★ Ali adds that focusing on quantity is a better route to quality and also way more fun. — 00:00:29

• ★ Ali says the parable of the pottery class comes from the book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. — 00:00:29

Threads in this video

• refine · How do you get past perfectionism and the fear of starting? — When learning something, Ali says, the most predictable path to quality is quantity: doing something over and over helps you overcome the fear of imperfection, while focusing solely on quality from the start leaves you paralysed by perfection. (00:00:29)

Mentioned

Central: parable of the pottery class

Also: Art & Fear · David Bayles · Ted Orland

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