“… not even the best magician in the world can produce a rabbit out of a hat if there is not already a rabbit in the hat.”
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Boris Lermontov
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Ok. I admit. I often get a little crazy when I hear “well, you pulled that one out of your ass” <this generation’s version of pulling a rabbit out of a hat>.
Well. I apologize. Only 99%+ of the time I go crazy. I account for the less than 1% of the time to the fact sheer dumb luck can happen.
I say I go crazy because when someone makes a surprisingly good ‘in the moment decision’ or uncovers a relatively surprisingly insightful idea, in most cases, the fact they are surprising people does not mean they just made something up out of the ether. And pulling a rabbit out of a hat <or out of your ass> implies you created something from nothing.
Here is a Life truth, even a business truth, so maybe let’s just call it Truth: You cannot create something from nothing.
Sure. Sometimes the connections between ‘what was’ and ‘what ends up being’ are blurry <if not even visible and sometimes appears to come out of the proverbial ether>, but everyone needs to have a solid base of knowledge before making the connections <thinking or tangible things> to create something. That knowledge can be within <your own pea like brain and its experiences and thoughts> or without <tapping into other people or things>.
Anyway. Here is the full quote reference.
Livy Montagne:
“You’re a magician, Boris. To have produced all this in three weeks, and from nothing.”
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Lermontov:
“… not even the best magician in the world can produce a rabbit out of a hat if there is not already a rabbit in the hat.”
Again. You can’t create something from nothing; you can only create something from something else <or something elses>.
Another Truth?
Wrap your head around this: Ideas exist … and don’t exist <simultaneously>.
Yup. Physicists have found something <particles and things that move around that we cannot see> can simultaneously exist and not exist. In other words, some things are capable of existing in several different states.
Any physicist can correct me, but I believe it is the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics which suggests particles are allowed to travel along all paths and exist in all possible states simultaneously.
What changes uncertainty? The simple act of measurement. Measurement, or the simple recognition of what actually is, instantly forces it into just one path or state and it is no longer uncertain. I believe it is called something like ”collapse of the wave function‘” in physics.
Yeah. It is the same in thinking, doing or whatever.
Random knowledge collapses upon itself until it creates something. The ‘nothing’ is just a bunch of somethings yet to be consolidated.
I have been to far too many ‘brainstorming’ or ‘creative thinking’ or even ‘the power of visualization’ workshops <so many that my brain cannot storm and I cannot think straight let alone creatively> and I cannot visualize shit.
Every time I walk out of these mind numbing events I grab my copy of James Webb Young’s “Technique for Producing Ideas” <published in 1937 and still relevant today> and flip thru the pages to remind myself that ideation is all about cramming bits & pieces of ideas & information & thoughts into your head until you can either assimilate it into a ‘rabbit’ or you interact with someone else and inspire them to create a ‘rabbit.’
So. With that. Two thoughts.
Accumulate knowledge: the more you learn the more you can pull out of your ass <consistently>.
Practice: the more you use what you have learned the easier it is to pull something out of you ass.
Sorry. There is no such thing as divine inspiration. There is no such thing as pulling rabbits out of hats <unless there is already a rabbit there>. We all have a gazillion thoughts, observations, and information <parts, pieces or whole> bouncing around in our heads either in our subconscious or conscious mind. There are a myriad of possibilities existing with regard to possible outcomes.
The nothing is all these pieces and parts not assembled.
The something is when assembly is achieved.
Now. Not everyone is good at “assembling” or even implementing from the nothings floating around in their heads but that is a different post for a different day. If you feed your mind, you will end up with a boatload of rabbits in your hat.
But, please, something from nothing? Not even a magician can do that.
Remember. Most people who do good things & say good things are not pulling a rabbit out of some hat … they have worked hard, thought hard & done the work necessary to insure there is already a rabbit in the hat.