And now for my next trick...

ears ago friends introduced me to the work of German painter Gerhard Richter. Richter often layers paint which he then scrapes away at giving the piece a third dimension. What I like about Richter's approach is how he literally digs deeper.

In carving up my tome of a children's book on financial education, I settled on a single story that transcends financial education. This made me wonder - have I dug deep enough or have I just scratched the surface?

The depth of my exploration of this topic became particularly clear as I read Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money. Make that the book's afterword. For as good as the book is, the afterword is even better because of Ferguson's discussion of cognitive psychology - particularly our ability to avoid biases such as overestimating success and underestimating risk and failure - and its impact on our ability to make good financial decisions on a daily basis. 

Question is, how many of us will ever read Ferguson's afterword? How many will read the 26 page study by Eliezer Yudkowsky that the afterword is based on? 10% of the population? 1%? How many of us have read all our email? Exactly.

In the last few years Rockabye Baby! started putting out albums called "Lullaby Renditions of..." various musical artists. They've done Radiohead, Bob Marley, Adele, Journey, Kanye West and many more. In each case they replace vocals with xylophones and other kid-friendly instrumentals. These renditions did for pop music what Baby Einstein did for classical music.

Yudkowsky's study discusses eight points in particular that are just as interesting as the findings of the marshmallow test. In a series I'm simply calling, "Big Ideas, Little Books," I will now for my next trick write a 32 page children's book for each of the eight ideas discussed in the study. And I will write them all in the next eight days. If DiMaggio can get a hit in 56 straight, I can write 16 rhyming couplets for eight days straight.

Gerhard Richter and the Art of Literary Maintenance

Before I even finish writing chapter two, I've already started making notes on how to edit it. In editing, I typically use a few different metaphors to help me along.

1) What kind of drink would this chapter be? Does it read like a shot of Jaegermeister (short and strong) or a can of the Beast (more content, but watered-down)? Ideally, I'm going for Guinness (smooth and hearty, and if the barkeep's poured a shamrock on top, even better).

2) Is it Grandma Moses (no surprises, very simple and straightforward) or Jackson Pollack (what the fuck am I looking at?)? Me, I'd like to go for Gerhard Richter who's painting in layers interests me.

The Layers:

The first layer usually just moves the story along. It's more action than description. It's more two-dimensional than three. For the second layer, I close my eyes and ask myself what I see. This is where I flesh out characters, settings, dialogue and the sequence of events. Transitions between sentences, paragraphs and the general action smooths out. You've moved the story along, congratulations, but have you made the most of opportunities for comedy? Have you introduced or played up the conflicts enough to keep people interested in the characters and the story? Also, have I stayed true to the main themes or have I lost focus by introducing tangential ideas and allusions while trying to be clever showing everyone what a fucking genius I am? That being said, I usually go through 5-8 drafts before opening the process up to public comment.

I had a junior high gym teacher stand over me once while on the bench press. I did a few reps and then heard him say, "OK, one more." I did one more. Then he said, "Now one more." I did another. After a third "one more" I saw where this was going, but I'm glad he pushed me. I've come to enjoy editing as it presents a similar challenge: Are you humble enough to admit that what you just wrote is shit and can you make it better? Ok, now make it better again. And again.