You May Not Need Every Tool

Do you have a lot of tools?

I don't. I had a nice collection inherited from my dad (I call them a collection because I collected them but when they were his he actually USED them) until they were destroyed in a fire.

Now, an apartment dweller, I have few tools. I still don't use all of them -- but I know how.

When we are solving problems we have many tools. The temptation is to use them all. It's oddly satisfying to bring out tool after tool. Satisfying, but sometimes inefficient. Simplicity - elegant simplicity is often best.

Use the tools that work, and leave the rest for another time.

It isn't always necessary to overwhelm a problem in order to solve it.

Sometimes the solution is right there in from of you and in need of only one tool. Dialogue. Talk about it and see what happens. You might just solve that problem faster than you expected.

-- doug smith

This entry comes from one of my other blogs: High Performance Leadership and also appears on Centered Problem Solving. I copied it here, just because...

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Lighter Than Air

Lighter Than Air - acrylic painting by Douglas Brent Smith, November 1976. Notes: I don't have every painting I've ever painted. Some years ago I purged many of them. I like this one, though, and have it hanging in my apartment. It's whimsical. It's a painting in a painting. It has a top hat. It has balance, a candle, even a drop of blood. What else could you want in a painting?

there at last

brick by brick the hard high wall around me began to fall with music so soft only intimate ears could hear when with that wonderful tenderness so overflowing in you you touched my aching concrete cynicism and kissed my world weary mind into dreams of singing laughs of growing and joys of being alive like each bare brick of that wall you slowly, oh so carefully dismounted the doubts freed the fears and with quiet little steps entered my heart in a halo of rebirth revealing that there were once two loves in my crowded carefully plotted closed-hearted life: my rusted roaming van and my faithful guitar and now as sunrise welcomes Spring as living brings new growth i joyfully see three. -- douglas brent smith

Just Before Sunrise

Just Before Sunrise - collage by douglas brent smith

Creating on Illusion

Creating on Illusion - collage by Douglas Brent Smith Where's the illusion? What sleight of hand do we focus on? I think that I made this collage in 1989. That was so long ago and yet, in terms of illusions, not long at all. What do you think?

Deep Thinker Thinking

Deep Thinker Thinking, drawing by douglas Brent smith, December 2001, from Journal #35, Mission Control, Volume Two, 2001 - 2002. Drawing helps me think. Thinking, sometimes, draws me to draw. It amazes me how few adults draw at all. Somewhere along the line in childhood they just stopped. We should all draw more and more often. Pencil, pen, crayon, whatever you've got. Instead of scrolling tonight, spend that time drawing a picture. Instead of wasting your time and feeling bad about it you've have a picture you can feel good about. It doesn't have to be great, it just has to be yours.

Browsing Past The Built In Bias

Browsing Past The Built In Bias -- collage by douglas brent smith Paper and glue using pictures from magazines. I always enjoyed seeing an illustration in a text book that had a caption that declared "Not to scale." Of course it's not to scale, it's in a book. Or it's in a magazine. This illustration of course IS to scale, if you're using a scale from the Irregular Catalogue. Doesn't it look hot in those hazmat suits?

Two Guitars

Two Guitars -- sketch by douglas brent smith

The Hurricane Hour

The Hurricane Hour - collage by douglas brent smith, 3 January 1988.

Horse Named Hannah

the horse got free in a galloping hurry needed something to read and a tall cup of milk I did post this earlier under the title "Who Let the Horse In." Here it is again. Horse Named Hannah -- sketch by douglas brent smith, 1998, from Journal #33, Life In Progress

TMI Department: Not Ready

The house on Elm Street burns It was about three years ago when I told my therapist, in talking about my ex, "I guess I should feel good that she's happy and wish her well..." His response? "That's preposterous. It hurts too much for that and you know it. You can let that bullshit go." I appreciated his honesty. I understood my own truth in that moment. It was preposterous then. And, it still is. Some hurts heal. Some scar over. Some leave sensitive spots. If you can't fix it, at least don't pretend something that's not true. -- doug smith

douglas brent smith

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