“If you know at the beginning, then you’re in a lot of trouble”. My favourite part of the David Mamet lectures so far, “it’s like saying I know the perfect girl I’ll know her when I see her.” I don’t know if I can teach anyone to trust jumping in and just moving. That is ongoingly the message I try conveying to students especially the ones who feel blocked. Last week my brother commended me effort behind the book for my dissertation and asked how I felt about trying to do this great big thing. I said I’m just trying to write a bad book. He laughed but that is how I move forward. Just write a bad book. If it turns out awesome so be it or if later I can make it better, so be it. Imagining it must be great and spend time judging oneself like that – pointless distraction. Reminds me among the gems in Warren Zevon’s catalogue is a song about feeling like the person he is in a relationship has sometimes turned out to be very unlikeable. It is called Poisonous Lookalike. He sings “poisonous lookalike, you’re not my girl, poisonous lookalike, what have you done with her”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"