Learn the Rules

Learn the rules like a pro to break them like an artist (Picasso)

I love to know the rules. Not just in games, but in everything. I like to know what the rules are, so I know where I can stretch them.

There are some rules we should always follow, they’re pretty standard and have come down through generations: Don’t kill each other, don’t steal from each other, don’t want what each other has (as that makes us jealous and miserable, etc.), and of course the most important rules: Love God, love everyone. Those are rules to live by, not harming others and putting God’s love foremost in your life.

When it comes to man-made laws, we know there are some on the books that are just plain strange, and that show up with the fashion of the day. For example in Kanata, Ontario there is a bylaw where you can’t paint your garage door purple, or in Petrolia where it’s illegal to whistle in public (see Weird But True Laws in Canada for more details). These are more guidelines than rules, and people generally don’t follow them or they are repealed when the fashion changes. I’ve always heard that J-walking is illegal (where you cut the corner when crossing two ways), but I’ve never heard of anyone being ticketed for it except in movies.

So how does this relate to art and creativity?

Innovators are always breaking the rules. But first, they had to know what the rules were in the first place. They found ones that didn’t make sense; that bottlenecked a process or seemed unnecessary altogether, and broke them.

Knowing the rules are important in other ways — they help you spot the mistakes. The week I wrote this I was working on a crochet project, and one of the instructions didn’t make sense to me. It said to repeat a part of the pattern (that’s a common practice), but the line you started back on didn’t have any guidance on where to start after when you were beginning the repeated section. It was missing key instructions. I muddled through and thought “okay, well, this becomes the first row and they indicated row one, so I’ll start here.” It was better, but still not right. They actually wanted us to start the pattern two rows later in the repeat. I found that out when I made the second piece. Of course, I had finished the first example completely so I could compare the correct translation with what had been written. I can go back and undo the first one, but it’s a lot of work. [If you’re curious, I did go back, undo the first example and crocheted it again — it felt (and looked!) much better.]

Anyhow, once I knew which instruction or “rule” in the pattern was incorrect, I was able to fix it and move on. If I hadn’t learned the rules, what each phrase meant and how it should look, then I wouldn’t have been able to correctly finish the project. I feel bad for anyone who is using this as a starter project because then they’ll feel that they failed, not realising it was the project instructions.

“Rules” are there to be broken, but only after you know why they’re there in the first place. If it’s a rule for safety, always follow it. If it’s a rule to protect you or the end user, always follow it. If its a rule that’s there because that’s how someone likes to do the process (I.e. Always use wet-on-wet technique for watercolour, never mix media etc.) those are definitely meant to be broken.

Picasso was right when he said to Learn the rules like a Pro to break them like an artist. So go learn what rules to break; I can’t wait to see what you create!