Confidence
Confidence -- Confidence is the level of surety that one gains about manifesting an idea, a vision. Confidence is gained over time by the application and acquisition of vision, ideas, drive, knowledge, experience, and memory.
Vision -- Seeing in one's mind a picture, something that does not exist but may be brought into existence by some creative process. . . a development, by means of contemplation . . .
Idea -- The formulation of an idea comes from within and is at first only a vision. It can be a dream, inspired by an experience or action. The idea is the first element in the formulation of a creative process.
Drive -- The insatiable desire to accomplish something.
Knowledge -- Knowledge is that which one gains about a process by either studying first hand or second hand information. First hand information is something that is gained by experiment, by physical action. Second hand knowledge is that which is gained by watching a process or studying someone else's experiences with a process or investigation. Knowledge is a factual issue and deals with those things that one may write down, quantify, convey through numbers, words, and / or drawings.
Experience -- Experience is more than knowledge in that one gains, by all senses, a memory of being physically involved in a process. The experience of cutting padouk, an exotic hardwood mainly from west Africa, involves feeling the texture of the end grain, the rough sawn and the sanded surface, smelling the aroma of its oils when it is cut, smelling it burn under the heat of a router bit as it dulls, and feeling how much it resists the carbide teeth of a 10", 1hp table saw while ripping a piece of 8/4 stock. These "experiences" are something that cannot be fully explained in words or even with photographs or sketches. These are things in which one must be physically involved, with all senses, in order to be understood.
Memory -- Memory is possibly the most important aspect of confidence. One's memory of the process of realizing a vision gives rise to knowledge and experience. First hand knowledge and experience is very difficult to dispute and is the foremost element in the continuation of the creative process. Because of memory one is able to learn what about a process works well for cretain issues and what parts or processes do not work as well in the process of manifesting something.
—M Calvino 1999
