.... don’t sweat the small stuff.
Pay attention to detail.
These two seem, at first glance, may seem contrary. But, what they express is a need for a balance.
When you print something on your computer, you may be asked if you want the printer to render the content in "Landscape" mode or in "Portrait" mode. These two terms, "Landscape" and "Portrait", come out of the painting and photography fields.
The classic Landscape picture here in Portland, Oregon is taken from the top of Pill Hill in the South-western area of Portland looking out to the Northeast. In the foreground, you see downtown Portland. Running through the middle is the Willamette river with the bridges spanning it. Then, you see the east side of Portland. In the distance, on the left, you can see Mt. Rainier. In the distance in the middle is Mt. Hood. And on the right, it's Mt. Jefferson. From downtown Portland to the mountains, from Rainier to Jefferson, this picture literally sweeps over thousands of square miles. You can see the bridges with enough detail to identify them. There will be little dots of color on the top deck of the Marquam Bridge, but you can't tell what makes or models they are... much less read their license plates. A painter painting this scene doesn't need to "sweat the small stuff."
A portrait, on the other hand, typically focuses on just one person. It's a "close up" picture. You can see the lines on the face, the individual hairs of the eyebrows, and the threads sewing the buttons to the person's shirt. The artist, in this case, must "pay close attention to detail."
So, which way is it? Which is right? Should you sweat the small stuff. Do you need to pay attention to details? The answer is yes... and no. Sometimes yes and sometimes no. This is why your printer has a selection for this, why you can click on Landscape Mode or Portrait Mode... and why you need to know why and when to click on either.
Your brain should have this same option. Cultivate this. Use both. And know when to click on either.
Albert Einstein said, "If you want to get a good idea, get a lot of ideas." This is landscape thinking. Just spill out a lot of ideas. Don't worry about the makes and models of the cars, much less their license numbers. What's important here is that there are cars... we'll figure them out later... and a bridge and river... "the big picture"... landscape mode... landscape thinking.
Leonardo da Vinci said, "Think of a thousand things... that you may then reduce them to proper order and form," "Reduce to proper order and form," i.e. fill in the details, what color the cars are, what makes and models they are, even what their license plate numbers are... portrait mode... portrait thinking.
da Vinci agrees with Einstein, start in landscape mode. Get a lot of ideas, a thousand things. Then, da Vinci says, switch to portrait mode, reduce them to proper order and form. You need both, and you need to know when and how to make the switch.
I sometimes talk to people who will gladly tell me, "I'm a detail-oriented person." These people are incapable of landscape-mode thinking. They can take anything you give them and refine it to the smallest little detail... but you have to give it to them. These people are valuable and good... but incomplete.
I sometimes talk to people who will gladly tell me, ""I'm a big-picture person." These people are incapable of portrait-mode thinking. They come up with all sorts of ideas, but none ever amounts to much because they can't reduce them to proper order and form. These people are valuable and good... but incomplete.
The complete person needs both landscape- and portrait-mode thinking and needs to know when to switch.
The most common problem is premature switching, switching too early. For example, maybe one of the products I'm developing has a a problem so I ask some of my colleagues to get together and "brainstorm" some ideas. Someone might say, "Could we move the spring?" And another person will pounce in saying, "No, no. That's won't work. The ANSI specification for the spring doesn't specify the exact modulus of elasticity and the tolerance stack-up with the dimensions of the cog will..." Wait a minute. We just switched to portrait mode so fast that it stripped the gears in my brain. We started reducing to proper order and form before we even had two ideas.... much less a thousand. We don't need a literal thousand ideas, but a dozen wouldn't be bad. When I set up these meetings, there are people I don't even invite. I structure the meeting in two halves. The first is landscape mode. Then, when we've thought of our thousand things (whether literally a thousand or maybe somewhat less), we take a literal break. "This is a good list. Let's take a break for 15 minutes, get some coffee, visit the little engineers' room, check for any urgent e-mails -- though I have noticed most of you taking care of those on your cell phones during the meeting -- and then meet back here to start looking at a few of these ideas in details." And only in this second half, do we focus on details.
This is a good way to structure meetings for finding solutions to problems in products. But the same concept applies to all sorts of creative and problem-solving situations in life whether with a group or just with yourself.
What do you want for dinner tonight? Start in Landscape mode. "I'd like to start with salad, then a light entree, and then maybe some fruit." Now you have the landscape of dinner. Now, switch to portrait mode and focus in on that salad first, what will it be? Etc.
This is a habit of thinking that successful people cultivate.
