Page 390 - Brion Toss - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

CHAPTER 12

Sheer Ingenuity

“I’d rather make it up than look it up!”

—Lavinia Jordan

Nothing brings out creative drive like a length of house. It's the one crammed with electrical tape,
rope, a bit of hardware, and a pressing need either paper clips, screws, nails, Christmas tree lights, Vise
to move something or keep it from moving. People Grips, candles, and bottle openers. Yes, it’s a jumble,
have been facing the endless permutations of this but odds are you’ll find what you need when you
challenge for thousands of years, and they’re still go there.
coming up with innovative responses. Likewise, I urge you to cultivate an uncon-
Every idea in every preceding chapter is a result scious drawer in your shop, and in your mind, for
of this process, but they were all organized (I hope) all those odd bits with no immediately apparent
into a more-or-less rational order, like a well-laid- use that might someday come in handy. By all
down toolbox. But I’d like to close with a chapter means, strive for order and sensibility, but remem-
that’s more like the “unconscious drawer” in your ber the words of von Clausewitz, “A plan of battle

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