Knocking Out the Cobwebs

My husband and I recently re-watched Mad Men, one of the greatest TV shows ever made, in my opinion. I notice something different every time, because it's so rich with detail and insight.

This time, I kept thinking about the idea of “knocking out the cobwebs.” It's a phrase Don uses throughout the show, and Peggy picks it up later. When Don needs to let an idea settle, he goes to the movies. Peggy learns to do the same. For Don, this isn't slacking off. It's part of the work, giving his brain time to catch up with his creativity.

Mad Men, "The Phantom" (Season 5), AMC/Lionsgate

There's neuroscience behind this. Brains need to focus on something else in order to process information. A 2021 NIH-funded study found that during short rest periods, the brain replays a sped-up version of the skill it just practiced, and the more often it replays, the more memory and performance improve. That's what causes “shower thoughts”: stepping away from a problem doesn't stop your brain from working on it. It resets your focus just enough for your brain to make new connections in the background.

Having worked in entertainment, I've seen this in action, and experienced it myself. My husband, a video and film editor, will get out his fidget spinner, lean back in his chair, and stare off into space. It looks like he's zoning out, but he's actually working. I can hear the fidget spinner whirring from the other room and know his brain is whirring too. Building in that time to focus on something else is how he processes and develops ideas. It works. He always comes back with a clear read on how to approach the project, and everyone involved benefits.

It's because Don understands this need for cobweb-clearing that he butts heads with Putnam, Powell and Lowe over their proposed budget cuts. Lane sums up PPL's position with the line: “Pennies make pounds, and pounds make profit” (Season 3, “The Fog”). Don pushes back, arguing that the pencils, pens, and paper his team goes through aren't waste. The discarded drafts and bad ideas are proof his creatives are doing exactly what they're paid to do, testing out ideas until they land on the right one. While the PPL saw these seemingly unnecessary - pencils, pens, and paper - as line items to cut, Don argues that PPL was actually doing themselves a disservice by taking away creative processing tools. Lane later admits he hadn’t necessarily thought of it that way, and the tools stay.

Mad Men, "The Fog" (Season 3), AMC/Lionsgate

We see the creative team doing a lot of seemingly "unproductive" work in the Sterling Cooper offices over the course of the show. They drink, smoke weed, throw darts, and get into petty squabbles with former acapella group members and get the team to weigh in on whether or not they can actually sing or not (one of my favorite moments of the entire series - and another that I forgot about until this rewatch!)

Take it back...Kinsey arguing with his Princeton Tigertones buddy Graves
Mad Men, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Season 3), AMC/Lionsgate

But the thing is, those moments (almost) always have them coming back with stronger ideas. It usually works in them knocking the cobwebs out. In fact, it may even be the theme of the entire show. While the ending is left ambiguous - and the meaning, I would argue, would depend on how you feel about advertising in general - a solid interpretation would be that it is by taking a departure from the way one has always done things that you have your best ideas yet.

I'd had the idea of using TV and film to talk about the workplace for a while. I just hadn't written it yet. It might have looked like procrastination, or like I kept saying I'd get to something without following through (a thing I admittedly do often, having ADHD and frequently getting overwhelmed with too many ideas at once, both a blessing and a curse). But my brain was running its software in the background. That's what let me write this post in one sitting. I'd already done the editing in my head, so by the time I sat down, it came out closer to a finished piece than a draft I'd need to keep coming back to.

The best approach to creativity at work is the one that works for you. If drafting and iterating is how you process ideas, that's great. For me, I've learned, after trial and error and a fair amount of guilt for not having something on the page, that marinating is the way to go. Both count as work, even when one of them isn't yet tangible. Whatever gets your cobwebs cleared is valid.

I knew early on that blogging would be part of Career Wavelength. It just took me a while to actually start. I'm looking forward to adding more, and I've got some solid ideas already in the pipeline. But I'm giving myself room to write them in whatever order they're ready. This one wasn't even supposed to be first. The processing time is different for every idea. What I do know is that it's always happening in the background, as I reflect and pay attention to the world around me. Sometimes the idea you need most is the one that shows up right when you need it.

What do you do to knock out your own cobwebs? Share it in the comments!

Sources

NIH: Study shows how taking short breaks may help our brains learn new skills

Mad Men:
Season 3, Episode 3, "My Old Kentucky Home"
Season 3, Episode 5, “The Fog”
Season 5, Episode 13, “The Phantom”