The way in which I use the term muddle, is to characterize a distinct period of time preceding an important discovery. The most frequent words used to describe this period are confused, and doubt. But, there a great number of words used, including: disorderly, self-doubt, chaos, crazy, silly, out of equilibrium, fool, gigantic idiot, awkwardness, shadow, agony, restlessness, anxiety, we know not. Another hint, to a step in the creative process is the mention of a "gap." Here words like the following are used: muddled suspense, gaps, you are doing nothing, cannot start, noodling, inefficient, idling, dawdling, and puttering.
K. Matsushita, The Japanese industrialist who founded Panasonic said:" A wise man changes his mind three times a day, a fool never." Lewis Carroll, the English writer, mathematician, logician wrote: " Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Maybe changing our minds should not be of such a great concern. Donald W. Blohowiak, author of a book entitled Mavericks! said that: "Creative people may be those who can endure the strain of living with a problem until it's fully decomposed by the brain's digestive juices." "Conscious ignorance" is a phrase used by James Clerk Maxwell, the Scottish scientist in the field of mathematical physics. The next step or next compilation of quotations after "muddle" covers what we all know as the "Eureka Moment." John Locke, the English philosopher and physician said: "The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable of any we have." The idea of unsought thoughts seems an appropriate way to transition to Eureka.
TYPE QUOTES
The state of Imaginative muddled suspense which precedes successful inductive generalization.
-Alfred North Whitehead
Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries.
-Benjamin Franklin
Uncertainty is the prerequisite to gaining knowledge and frequently the result as well.
-Edith Hamilton
We learn from failure, not from success!
-Bram Stoker
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
-Thomas A. Edison
SELECTED QUOTES
The state of Imaginative muddled suspense which precedes successful inductive generalization.
-Alfred North Whitehead
All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.
-Albert Camus
Unfortunate those scientists who have only clear thoughts in their heads!
-Louis Pasteur
When the great innovation appears, it will most certainly be in a muddled, incomplete form. To the discoverer himself it will be only half-understood; to everyone else it will be a mystery. For any speculation which does not at first glance look crazy, there is no hope.
-Niels Bohr
Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
-Lewis Carroll, English writer, mathematician, logician
When I knew nothing, I thought I could do anything.
-Robert Duvall
I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.
-Albert Einstein
Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning.
-Katherine Anne Porter
The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.
-Frank Herbert
I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.
Daniel Boone
If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.
-Ken Robinson
Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost.
-Erol Ozan
It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes... we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions - especially selfish ones.
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
You Make Your Mistakes To Learn How To Get To The Good Stuff
-Quincy Jones
Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries.
-Benjamin Franklin
Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you have blundered.
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
A mistake is the most beautiful thing in the world. It is the only way you can get to some place you’ve never been before. I try to make as many as I can. Making a mistake is the only way that you can grow.
-E. W. Wainwright
Science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.
-Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself
-Charlie Chaplin
We learn from failure, not from success!
-Bram Stoker
There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.
-Brene Brown
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
-Henry Ford
It is only through failure and..... experiment that we learn and grow.
-Isaac Stern
Great geniuses make tons of mistakes.
-Dean Simonton, creativity author and psychologist
Uncertainty is the prerequisite to gaining knowledge and frequently the result as well.
-Edith Hamilton
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
-Thomas A. Edison
SELECTED POSTERS
The above posters are (A - H) from my poster collection. I will be publishing more posters later. The following table Displays the position of these posters in my classification of Phases and Topics of the Creative Process. My posts will follow the order of the following table. This post is A.1 on the Importance of Creativity. It is A point 1 because I have many more posters on this topic and anticipate posting more as A.2 etc.
………………………More Quote-Posters from M.2 Muddle, Error, and Failure………………………..
List of the Phases and Topics correlated to the Steps in the Scientific Method. These phases and topics have been derived from study of quotations from many creative individual from many fields of endeavor.
My goal is to publish quote poster collections on A through W as individual posts, eventually. Currently my quote collection numbers over 4,000 and my poster collection includes nearly 1,400 different individuals. I have created over 50 posters for each Phase and Topic listed in the above table. Advise and wisdom from as many individuals as possible is my goal. These quotes and the posters have driven the classification above. - Apply for a free subscription. Thanks Walt.
The next phase of the process is labeled N.1 Eureka and Discovery
Walter H Pierce