A change of tool changes your perspective
Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
The other day, I bought a Wacom drawing tablet. It is like a small external screen where you use a pen instead of a mouse. The primary purpose is to use it as a whiteboard when livestreaming lectures at the university. But it can also be used for paintings and art. I have been painting 60-second sketches every day for the last 124 days. The last couple of days, I have been using the Wacom for my speed sketching. It is the perfect way to become friends with my new tool, before my course starts. Up until now, I have been drawing on my iPad and after 4 months of daily use, I know it quite well. When I moved to the Wacom it was like turning back the clock on my progress. Using an iPad or a drawing tablet is pretty much the same thing (pen on a screen), but the subtle differences in how the pen feels and the friction etc, has a huge influence on the mental process. I believe this is true for most disciplines. Change the tool you use for a specific task, and you will get new ideas.
Musicians will most certainly recognize this effect. If you are a guitar player and get a new guitar, your head will start producing many new musical ideas, even though the tool is still a wooden piece with six metal string. But the feeling when using it is different. A different texture of the wood, a change of friction when you move your hand up and down the neck and most important of all – the sound changes. Sometimes my wife asks me why I own so many guitars and why I don’t just get rid of them and use one or two? She is an artist and I usually reply, “do the painter use only one brush?”. I remember the first time I played a Telecaster. I instantly started playing blues scales and it sounded really good and somewhat authentic, even though I had never played blues before. As soon as I got the right tool for the job, the results manifested instantly.
One of the things that I HATE is to solve a task using an incorrect tool. The perfect example is to use a Phillips screwdriver bit on a Pozidriv screw. Or when you don’t have the bit of the right size. It makes my blood boil! But what if there is a smarter way to complete the task using a different tool? Certain tasks are more inclined to have a “right” and a “wrong” way of doing them, but if we get locked in our minds that there is only one way to solve a problem, we risk stagnation. However, it makes a lot more sense to try out different guitars to play the same song, than to use different screwdriver bits for a given type of screw. The latter would be the equivalent to play death metal on a Harp. If your desire is to play the harp, you are probably better off choosing a different musical genre than death metal.
Now back to the drawing tablet. Even though I don’t have nearly the same control compared to the iPad, I am confident that in a couple of weeks I will be using the Wacom just as natural. It is very similar to getting a new guitar. A change of tool changes your perspective. Often, when you change the tool you will experience friction and a learning curve, but you know the potential for long term improvement is greater if you just stick to it. That’s precisely what I feel like now using the Wacom. It’s larger screen real estate gives a better overview, and the integration with the PC gives a lot more options. And other times when you change the tool, you just get instant improvement and the work gets done twice as fast, because the new method is simply better. Just don’t get stuck in the “only one solution” mindset. Sometimes the discussion of Pozidriv vs Torx is the wrong discussion to have. Maybe you should consider rivets instead of screws?