“Not every idea has to be complete and completely defensible right from the beginning. It is because we question and push ideas that we make the progress that we do.”
— The Distrust of Intellectual Authority, Farnham Street
Substitite the word “idea” with “brushmark” or “pencil line” or “painting” or “drawing”.
Not knowing what the outcome will be, but allowing, and trusting, ourselves to undertake the journey into the not-entirely-known-nor-unknown, is part of the joy of painting and drawing, irrespective of style.
This quote is from an article about the distrust of knowledge, how life with technology has made it “harder to have the expertise necessary to navigate every arena in our lives independently“, even as education levels have risen. Does making toast using a toaster rather than over a fire give you more or less control? Most of us could, given matches, make a fire, but couldn’t make nor fix a toaster. Control is not the same as convenience. Yet convience does give us control of our time.
I have no idea where this train of thought is going; I don’t even eat toast. So let me divert to the sentences following the quoted two at the top: “Experts would do well to remember that they may be masters of their fields, but they are servants to society. Mastery means nothing without trust and engagement.” It seems to me like a definition of both a good teacher and a good student: trust and engagement.