the cognitive bug

This, she argues, may not be a "cognitive bug" at all, but a “supreme coping mechanism”.  If we knew what was ahead of us at the onset, what we are up against, she says, we might be “too dispirited to begin”.

Oh how true this is! I never expect my projects to take as long as they do and I never accurately estimate the amount of work a project will take.

I used to think this was my own unique defect. That somehow I was singularly bad at estimating the time needed, not wise enough to anticipate the hurdles I’d have to cross, too slow at my work, and not skilled enough to get things done in the time I’d “allotted”.

But it seems I am not alone. And in December 2020, I learned that perhaps it is a blessing we have this distortion built into our brains. It is okay. It allows us to move from idea to creating. Even a polymath (I had to look the word up: "a person of encyclopedic learning") like Maria Popova has it.

And thank goodness for that. She says if she had known how long her book A Velocity of Being would take she would have never begun it.

And the world would be a sadder place without it. It's a wonderful book of letters addressed to young readers written by inspiring people of our time about why reading is important. An original piece of art is included with each letter that was inspired by the letter. It's a true treasure and I'm glad Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick saw it through.

So I made a little zine with my favorite cognitive “bug” that I’ve been thinking of since then. And when the time and effort of a project surprises me, I'm learning to thank the bug, instead of cursing it.

Thank you, bug.

P.S. It took me longer to make the zine than I thought it would.