This is my desktop. A Stickies page on the left and a folder on the top right, titled Project Mayhem.
Project Mayhem1 contains assets for various projects past, present, and future. And the Stickies collection is a sort of longer-horizon, or somewhat aspirational, to-do list. (I run a daily to-do list as well, previously written on paper, but these days it’s an email—or several emails—to myself. Emails get deleted once the task is completed.)
First—and this is maybe a post of its own—I should mention that I tend to consider a fairly wide array of activities through the lens of “Projects.”
Building a bench, writing a book, a niche area of research, crafting an event, applying for a grant, finding a rally racing school to attend with my buddy Jon (if he ever finds the time), dumb bits with my friend Charlie that only serve to make us laugh, counting ravens, celebrating an engineering icon, whatever. If it requires some effort or planning, the assembling of resources, and could someday be satisfyingly checked off a list, it’s a project.
I see my packaging and labeling of projects as a quasi-library. Once jotted down, or a folder created, they become binders I can thumb through from time to time to see where inspiration or a new jolt of motivation may strike.
If I’m collaborating with someone else—and right now I count 14 semi-active projects that involve at least one other person—it means that I’m not reliant on their timeliness or a perfectly paired zeal. Oh, don’t get me wrong—sometimes a single project can be pressing and I’ll experience an all-consuming fire to see it through. But by and large, I’m quelled by having a repository of creative reference material to flip through and tinker on. One may slot into my current schedule better, another might just speak to my interests of the moment. Anything can be re-stowed for a later date. And the fact that I’ve hardly tackled many of these volumes—all the better. Those un-cracked binders are my antilibrary.
Nassim Taleb popularized the term in his book The Black Swan.2 It’s a framing of one’s unread personal library as a research tool—something more practical and admirable than a trophy case of the pages you’ve already consumed. (It’s also a very cozy perspective to fall into when lamenting how little of my bookcase has been read.)
The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others—a very small minority—who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones…
…You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.
Nassim’s latter point touches on the Dunning–Kruger Effect and the assumption that the more we expand our awareness, the greater our realization becomes of just how little we know and how vast the world is. Potential, in short.
I have similar potential aspirations for my antilibrary of projects. By pulling on the threads of interest and passion and entangling myself with creative and excited collaborators, it’s my hope that the idea-waters keep flowing and my reservoir of possible projects blooms to vast, unachievable depths.
Now, I take my commitments seriously, and I have a real problem culling an unaccomplished item from my to-do list once it’s been written in earnest (though I’ve been making some headway in that regard). So I’m measured in how much I draw others into a half-considered boondoggle or publicly declare what I’m mulling over. Not everything that’s jotted down for future reflection is a great idea that merits pursuit to completion. In fact, some are straight up idiotic. But that’s the beauty of the library and the antilibrary.
Having a catalog of compelling or novel (or idiotic) projects to be rifled through, dusted off, and visited and revisited is my safety net. Projects are how I find fulfillment and how I best connect with friends. And a trove of potential endeavors allows me to chip away at an idea without the pressure of it being my only idea. It’s a vault I can dip into if and when the mood strikes—and one that holds a good bit of social currency—as it’s not uncommon for fresh life to be breathed into an old scheme by an enthusiastic new accomplice.
Project Mayhem and its associated lists isn’t just a system to draw renewed inspiration from a forgotten notion. It’s been a steadfast well-being and social tool that’s ensured I’ve always got something I can pull off the shelf to focus my attention, drag me out of a rut, and provide me an avenue to connect with—or even playfully conspire with—the folks I seek to be closest to.
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Yes, “Project Mayhem” is a nod to Fight Club. But it should be read as “project-mayhem,” not “Project: Mayhem,” as it’s describing a mess of unrelated projects, not some sinister plot. It’s sort of a pun… I think? Anyway, it made me chuckle when I created it in 2014 and so it remains.
I miss this version of Nassim—before he dug his heels into being an Internet bully singularly fixated on the merits of squid ink pasta, heavy weights, and his own deeply entrenched viewpoints.
I've always felt a sense of weight or guilt for having unfinished work. Giving it its own space and love makes a lot of sense. I love this reframing and am going to leave more to dos as an antilibrary, to appreciate the unfinished and celebrate it too! Thanks for the inspiration and the post(s).
I have questions about the timber frame workshop folder (as I am starting the same folder)