Crispness

Originally posted in my old blog in September 2008.

What is it that separates the truly outstanding from the ordinary? We tend to throw around words like awesome, outstanding, genius and brilliant with too much abandon. We should save those words for what truly is.

When something deserves the use of the superlatives mentioned above and others, it has a degree of crispness that is the definition of the difference from lower expressions of the same thing. Crispness is more than pure accuracy. It is a wholistic quality that combines accuracy, expression, focus, vision and virtuosity into Style. The consistency of style exhibited by an outstanding event communicates an abstraction that touches us at a very deep level.

Whether an activity is physical, intellectual or artistic, crispness pervades the category of professionalism that is the highest expression of the activity. Articulation, consistency and creativity combine into a crisp instantiation of the particular class of activity. The sub-class is itself a crisp instantiation of the parent class and up the hierarchy to the ultimate abstract class.
It can be very difficult to recognize missing crispness. We tend to accept mediocrity as the normal state such that we mistake the merely good or excellent for the superb, exceptional and outstanding.

Constantly seeking crispness with persistence and focus helps to pull ourselves out of any mediocre wallowing that tempts our actions.