Desire paths
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Hey subscribers!
YOU KNOW THOSE unofficial routes in the grass that emerge when people take shortcuts through fields and between parking lots?
I've been thinking about them a lot.
Ever since I heard the story about how the University of Michigan delayed laying paths in their campus until the students had trodden natural trails into the newly laid turf.
When I first heard that story, I liked it because it spoke to me about being strategic. About delaying gratification. About being uncommonly attentive to other people in an industry like construction that's usually so uncompromising.
Recently I've been seeing these desire paths in an even more empowering light. Now when I see them…
I see the writer starting a blog instead of pitching gatekeepers.
I see the entrepreneur building a new system instead of following industry rules.
I see the artist making work, not because it serves some practical or economic purpose necessarily, but because they just find it fucking interesting.
I feel inspired when I see these intuitive routes. They are a kind of resistance. Against boredom. Against fear. Against the structures and scripts imposed and dictated to us.
Something important occurred to me about desire paths: they only appear in retrospect. They emerge through action. They form as we move. We experience them into existence.
In other words, we only know the right direction to take by taking the first step.
"A path is a prior interpretation of the best way to traverse a landscape." - Rebecca Solnit
It's why I tell people beginning their writing journey not to worry about niches or styles; those are puzzles we should only probe once we've got some steps to look back on.
When we're making a creative move, especially in the beginning, our only concern should be getting off the conventional path.
That's how we create our own agency.
That’s how we create interesting work.
That’s how we replace our worn out ways of feeling and thinking.
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Previous post
When someone asks "What's the point?" of your creative work, they're accidentally revealing the fundamental misunderstanding blocking their own fulfilment
When was the first time you were taught it was wrong to follow your creative instincts?
i thought this was a cool idea, Harrison! always appreciate people who can present an abstract concept into something more concrete and tangible, it makes it a lot easier to understand