On thrust work, drag work, and why creative work is perpetually frustrating --
“Each individual creative episode is unsustainable by its very nature. As a given episode accelerates, surpassing the sustainable long term trajectory, the thrust engine overwhelms the available supporting capabilities. … Just as momentum build to truly exciting levels…some new limitation appears squelching that momentum. …The problem is that you outran your supporting capabilities and that deficit became a source of drag. Perhaps you didn’t have systems in place to capture leads. Perhaps you lacked the bandwidth necessary to follow up on all the new opportunities. Perhaps, due to lack of experience, you pursued the wrong opportunities. Perhaps you just didn’t know what to do next – you outran your existing knowledge base. In one way or another new varieties of drag emerge. The accelerating curve you had been riding becomes unsustainable and you find yourself mired in the slow build of the next episode. This is what we experience as anti-climax and temporary stagnation.”—Greg Raider, from his essay “A Pilgrimage Through Stagnation and Acceleration”
On thrust work, drag work, and why creative work is perpetually frustrating --
“Each individual creative episode is unsustainable by its very nature. As a given episode accelerates, surpassing the sustainable long term trajectory, the thrust engine overwhelms the available supporting capabilities. … Just as momentum build to truly exciting levels…some new limitation appears squelching that momentum. …The problem is that you outran your supporting capabilities and that deficit became a source of drag. Perhaps you didn’t have systems in place to capture leads. Perhaps you lacked the bandwidth necessary to follow up on all the new opportunities. Perhaps, due to lack of experience, you pursued the wrong opportunities. Perhaps you just didn’t know what to do next – you outran your existing knowledge base. In one way or another new varieties of drag emerge. The accelerating curve you had been riding becomes unsustainable and you find yourself mired in the slow build of the next episode. This is what we experience as anti-climax and temporary stagnation.”—Greg Raider, from his essay “A Pilgrimage Through Stagnation and Acceleration”
The whole piece is worth reading, it’s really good -- http://onthespiral.com/pilgrimage-through-stagnation-acceleration
Hat tip to Zach Obront for linking me to it originally.