Of the previous five posts, two — “In the company of Bees (Again)” and “In the Company of Bees (and Again)” — were edits of the fifth post, “In the Company of Bees”.

I decided that instead of simply editing the original post, I would edit in full view. So I left versions 1 and 2 so that version 3 could be compared with them.

In general, I think too much polished product and too little process is visible in creative output, whether in mathematics papers, in poetry, in music, in film, etc. etc. While it is starting to be possible to get a look behind the scenes of large budget items like movies, and it is true that Youtuber DIYers sometimes post the full history of a project, it is still the case that creative output very often seems almost magical and not subject to struggle. This is true even if, in some rational, abstract way, we know a great deal of work and struggle was involved. Because we don’t feel the struggle, we can’t grasp the reality of the struggle.

So I thought I would experiment with having all three versions up there. Rubin’s book “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” played some sort of influence here. In particular, just before doing these two edits I read and felt “The Abundant Mindset”, “The Experimenter and the Finisher”, and “Temporary Rules”. I recommend Rubin’s book very highly.