Something I’ve always been complaining about when watching new movies these days is the weak stories they base upon, whereas trying to compromise by squandering money on grand effects and CGI. Therefore, I was touched listening to Ira Glass, someone who cares about good stories and wants to impart the knowledge to more people that work in the profession of storytelling. Apart from the techniques of the story writing itself, the words that left a powerful impression on me is when he said at the beginning of the work one may be producing not satisfactory work, and it’s okay because on the other hand it shows that you have great taste for the profession that you know this is not the work you wanted. I can relate to this deeply because in most scenarios, I am usually the harshest critic of myself. Having had an initial thought about a certain project, I often hit the dilemma where the process drifted away from the ambitious plan that motivated me to start off in the first place but there was a deadline so I wouldn’t be able to start over. What I take off from him is the idea that self-reflection is necessary but it should not get in the way of finishing the work. In the long run, it is these extensive amount of imperfect work that accumulate in the working process to drive you towards further. Another thought I drew from watching the video is the importance of killing bad ideas. “But really, don’t shy away from killing bad ideas. Revel in it. By killing something bad, you’re allowing something better to live,” which is especially true when the time is not a priority in finishing a task and the multiplicity of ideas becomes overwhelming. There is also an aspect of self-questioning and second guessing involved in the pot when you have already spent a huge amount of time on a project and start doubting if it would be worth starting from the scratch. In this case when there remains sufficient time, I think courage and confidence come into play, and the extra amount of time you have already spent is not valueless because that path offers another approach that might benefit the work you are about to start, or it simply just would make you work more efficiently on the next project.