---
title: The Chaos & Order of Creative Work
contentType: series
---

[@layout]: ../../layouts/guide.layout.md
[@guide]: ../../design/guide.components.md
[@page]: ../../design/page.components.md
[@maps]: ../../design/maps.components.md

<guide-hero>

<page-label>

[Series](/essays)

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# The Chaos & Order of Creative Work

From the creative side to the work side, and everything in between.

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<!-- The dragon map, read right to left, the way a creative project travels: from
     the dragon in chaos (ideas, the future), up the hill (figuring it out), down
     it (making it work), into the order lattice of work that is never done. Each
     part of the map leads to its essay below, in the order of the series.
     Regions follow the hill's drawn arc, in percent of the drawing's width and
     height. -->
<guide-entry kind="The map" layout="wide">

<art-map label="The parts" tone="drawing">
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![The dragon map: order on the left, the hill between, and the dragon in chaos on the right](/images/illustrations/img-9efeb803e886-light.png)

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</guide-entry>

---

<!-- id: part-i -->

<guide-chapter label="Part" number="I">

## The future operates in a different kind of time

*The future*

</guide-chapter>

<guide-entry kind="" layout="row">

<slot name="figure">

![@image.lightbox Diagram contrasting chronos tools for order and kairos tools for chaos](/images/illustrations/img-944523205bab-light.png)

</slot>

An exploration of the futility of attempting to put the future on a schedule along with an ancient antidote to our modern view of time.

[@link.button Read the essay](/essays/the-future-operates-in-a-different-kind-of-time/index.md)

</guide-entry>

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<!-- id: part-ii -->

<guide-chapter label="Part" number="II">

## Creative work is like fighting a dragon up a hill

*Figuring it out*

</guide-chapter>

<guide-entry kind="" layout="row">

<slot name="figure">

![@image.lightbox Hill chart with uphill figuring it out and downhill making it work](/images/illustrations/img-65190fe4b692-light.png)

</slot>

Creative work as the bridge between chaos and order. In this essay, we'll explore the uphill part of "figuring it out."

[@link.button Read the essay](/essays/creative-work-is-like-dragging-a-dragon-up-a-hill/index.md)

</guide-entry>

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<!-- id: part-iii -->

<guide-chapter label="Part" number="III">

## The rocky downhill slope of creative work

*Making it work*

</guide-chapter>

<guide-entry kind="" layout="row">

<slot name="figure">

![@image.lightbox After figuring it out, we move downhill to making it work](/images/illustrations/img-fafa6bb87898-light.png)

</slot>

An exploration of the less dramatic—but every bit as essential—second half of creative work: the part that feels the most like "work."

[@link.button Read the essay](/essays/the-rocky-downhill-slope-of-creative-work/index.md)

</guide-entry>

---

<!-- id: part-iv -->

<guide-chapter label="Part" number="IV">

## The past is never done

*The past*

</guide-chapter>

<guide-entry kind="" layout="row">

<slot name="figure">

![@image.lightbox A garden representing past work as living present experience](/images/illustrations/img-e06a42dcf0b4-light.png)

</slot>

An ancient and more humane way of looking at what's already "done."

[@link.button Read the essay](/essays/the-past-is-never-done/index.md)

</guide-entry>