If at first you don't succeed...

I have a friend who's very creative. She posted the following on her Facebook page today:

Hmmm... I always thought of myself as an artist, but after reading this quote from my class today... Maybe I'm a scientist?

"Science is the action or process of pursuing truth but not necessarily ever finding truth."

The quote in her post is from a nutrition class she's taking through eCornell, and it got me thinking about science vs. art, creativity vs. the scientific method, and various other weighty thoughts.

David has a t-shirt that says something to the effect of:

Experiment
Fail
Learn
Succeed

He got it at a Drum Corps International show in Charlotte; one of the reasons he loves it is that it can apply to both science and music. (For those of you who don't know, he's a career scientist, with a PhD in pharmacology and biophysics. For those of you who know me, I can pronounce pharmacology and biophysics.)  He would, however, amend it a little: he would add "Repeat" and an ellipse between "Learn" and "Succeed", because it actually takes more than one iteration, typically, to get to success.

But I digress.

I also love the sentiment, but I think it actually applies to everything.

We call it a rough draft in writing, we call it a hypothesis in science, we call it an early work in art or music, we call it JV or a D-league in sports, but really, it's all the same.

Experiment.
Fail.
Learn.
Repeat...
Succeed.

But, as with most things, there's a catch.

First of all, you need creativity. Yeah. That. I don't care if you're dream job is writing poetry in a cabin in the woods, discovering the cure for cancer, working for NASA, or painting the next Sistine Chapel, you need a good healthy dose of creativity, thinking outside the box, thinking around corners, or whatever you want to call it. If the only way you know is the way "we've always done it," you're not going to be able to experiment. If the only thing you want to learn is "how", you're not going to be able to experiment. Experimentation involves asking, "What if? Why? Why not?" without necessarily having an answer...yet

Next, and this is a biggie, you need a nice balance of humility and confidence. Wait, what? Do those two even balance? Well, yeah. They can. And you need both. Humility because you have to know you'll fail. And confidence because you have to believe you'll succeed. If we never fail, then we've never pushed our boundaries. But if you're willing to fail, it means you're willing to try.

And then there's intelligence. Without intelligence, our failures are simply failures. With intelligence, they become experience. Incidentally, I don't necessarily mean education when I say intelligence (though I'm all in favor of educating oneself as much as possible). But what I do mean is the ability to think critically. To weigh options. To be open to different perspectives. Going down the same path endlessly may be comforting, but it doesn't really get you anywhere.

Finally, you need perseverance. Because failure happens. And then it happens again. And again. And sometimes, just for kicks, it happens again. And if the only thing you're worried about is not failing, well, you'll stop. But if what you're concerned with is learning, or creating, well, then, you'll keep on. Until you succeed.

The damnable thing, though, is you may never succeed. Your assistant may finish your work. Your symphony may not receive critical or popular acclaim in your lifetime. You may spend a lifetime experimenting, and never find the cure for cancer...but your work may enable someone else to a generation later.

And that, really is the point. So, yes, artists and scientists (and teachers, and historians, and, please God, politicians) have more in common than we might think. When you play, when you experiment, when you push boundaries, when you make others (and yourself) uncomfortable, when you ask the difficult questions, when you look for your own truth, even knowing that you may not get there, well, that's when we transcend ourselves, and move forward into a nobler place.