The story that article relays, the one about the ceramics teacher, that story is put into just about every self-help, productivity, development book on the planet. It is always referenced, though sometimes it’s a photography instructor instead, but it’s all the same.
The thing that might need to be looked into is the mediums that the reference is using in order to explore it’s topic.
In the case of the photography example, it’s incredibly simple to take a bajillion photos. With modern tech anybody can do that. The big thing is getting your butt in gear, working on your eye, and then doing it. Quantity is an achievable thing through photography. I’ve done events that have lasted only a couple of hours and I’ll take hundreds of photos in that span.
On the other hand ceramics might be a bit tougher. Physical materials are needed, which can get expensive, and time is needed to put together each piece. I’ve never done ceramics so I can’t assume how long each project might take, but you probably can’t get dozens done in a day. Maybe one a day. I really have no clue.
So the rate of production for separate mediums is different. You can get more done in shorter amounts of time doing one thing but not another.
What about writing? I’m trying to do a blog post a day for the next month. I’ve stuck with it for the past 5 days, but some of them are brief… very brief. Blips of ideas.
But fiction? I mean a draft of a SHORT story, less than 10 pages, would probably take me a week. And that’d just be a first draft.
And that’s another thing, there’s no first drafts for photos. Not really. Sure you could go back and take it again, but how often does that happen? Unless it was staged, how often does the moment present itself again?
And in ceramics are you really going to remake the same piece? That feels like a waste of materials, because once the clay has set I don’t think you can unset it.
I feel like there is an important lesson here.