Task 39

Break the edge of the frames

Problem

Being too reasonable

I have done a lot of foolish things in my life, but my record for it was when I took on the role of interpreter for Morten Krogvold during a two-week workshop in a small Portuguese village in 1998. To begin with, I agreed to doing it without knowing the language that well. I then had to buy a Portuguese course as soon as I could and use my night watches to study on my own. The biggest problem, however, was that two weeks after the course I was supposed to take two final exams for my medical studies, in medicine and surgery. If I had failed, I would have had to delay my residency for six months, so there was a lot at risk involved. My fellow students thought I had gone crazy.

The course that I went to in Portugal was fantastic. I learned so much and took great pic- tures. But most importantly, I met Tone Elin who was charmed by my halting Portuguese while interpreting. Now we are married and have two great kids together. The most foolish thing I had done turned out to be the most sensible.

And the exams? They went just fine!

It can certainly be good to do what is sensible part of the time. But for me, many frivolous whims have proven to be the most sensible. I don’t need to exert myself to do foolish things; they come to me naturally. Fortunately, I have a certain balance in my ‘sensible accounts’, among them that I married a sensible woman.

Everyone tries to do sensible things, such as going to school and doing what the teacher says or following the unwritten rules of society. But when everyone tries to make the same sensible choices, they often end up standing in the same line. Therefore, sometimes it may be easier to go outside of what is expected.

I think that the most sensible thing to do after high school is to be a bit reckless and take time off and travel. And, a little later in life if you feel stuck in a job where you are just earning money to pay off debt, take a break in your life for a period and fulfill a dream. We don’t know how long we have left in our lives. Through my work as a doctor I constantly see how life can change or end from one moment to the next. It is not sensible to wait to do everything when you are retired. Instead, spread your retirement in pockets of time throughout your working life.

Do you know someone who is too sensible? Do you know someone who is too irrational? How about someone who has found the right balance? What about you?

On a scale of 1 to 6, how relevant is this issue for you?:

Solution

Frivolousness

There have been so many sensible, long tasks in this book so far that we need a little commo- tion. The only thing you have to do now is make an image that is completely unexpected. Weird, crazy or senseless. Feel free to crop your images in unexpected ways!

The biggest problem with sensible choices is that many other people make choices in the same way. If, on the other hand, you make a more reckless choice, you are forced to think and act differently than how you are used to. This expands your mind and may lead you down new roads with fewer travellers.

PHOTO ASSIGNMENT:

Take pictures of something completely weird, wild or crazy!
It doesn’t matter what it is, just that it is silly, fun or meaningless.

On a scale of 1 to 6, how useful was this task for you?:

BOOK SUGGESTION: Originals by Adam Grant. See also ted.com

❞ Rules are foolish, arbitrary, mindless things that raise you quickly to a level of acceptable mediocrity, then prevent you from progressing further.

Bruce Barnbaum

❞ Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.

Vincent van Gogh

❞ The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreason-
able one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw

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