While on vacation, I happened to be reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac and had a few insights that struck me as worth sharing. It's not so much the content of the book that struck me, which is great in it's own right, but rather the way it was written.

Working for roughly three weeks straight and without interruption he birthed the first draft of the book. Taping together pages of paper and feeding the one long scroll into his manual typewriter so he didn't have to stop his freight train of thought. Wonder what Jack would be able to create if given today's technology?

I find this method of working very seductive as well as productive. The day before my vacation I found myself at work early tying up a bunch of loose ends before leaving that day. I had serious doubts about everything coming together; I thought there was no way. Well, it did.

Working from the gut, like Jack and with a solid deadline, not only gets the job done but also produces fresh work that is built on energy, not a second overthought. Well, for me anyways.

Jack Kerouac's original scroll of On the Road is now on display in Lowell, MA through October, then on to NYC (http://www.ontheroad.org/). It's worth checking out because the scroll itself is an art piece.

So if Jack could pound out a book that defined a movement in 3 weeks I can’t help but wonder what else can be accomplished that fast...