Experimentation can work, but only if a) you have a specific drive for experimenting in general and b) you accept the limitations inherent to each of your experiments.
To get an idea of what I mean by (a), here’s a sketch of my motives. It’s not comprehensive, and each experiment will have its own individual reasons as well. Still, I hope it can provide some insight into why I experiment.
- To try new things
- To learn from experience as well as I can
- To establish a benchmark for further iteration
- To push extremes
- To share with those who might follow my example with experiments of their own
- To inspire those who will never follow my example to at least consider other possibilities
- To write an interesting story by an living interested life
In other words, you need a feeling for Why experiments will be worthwhile regardless of their outcome.
This doesn’t mean you need certainty before you start experimenting. Certainly not! But it does mean you need motives that go beyond the individual experiments and draws more on the entire process, the journey itself.
Oh, and yours can’t be mine – they must be yours. You have to own them.
