Save yourself • The legend of the hairy arms

I don't remember who I was talking to about signing up for the humor writing class, but I do remember that a crowd of students begin to gather around us in the hallway. While I'd heard that people who had taken the class were unhappy, the teacher was well-known and I was interested in the topic.

As students tried to talk me out of taking the class, the crowd grew. They said the teacher was crazy; that the formula he taught didn't make sense; that no one could succeed in his class and that some of the program's best students had became so frustrated that they cried in class.

Then someone said passionately, "Don't take the class. Save yourself! I waited until the next year and took the class from someone else. I wish I could've taken both; there's something to learn from everyone.

The last essay I posted mentioned a professor who had found a way to control who took his class. As the class began he ranted and swore; students lined up to drop the class.

Then, when it was too late in the semester to add or drop classes he revealed his true teaching style.

The class size was reduced; the students who remained trusted him even when he didn't make sense. He also know that at the end of the semester they would fill in a survey about him and the class. The instructor had found a brilliant way to save himself.

Creative people also use techniques to protect themselves.

After work one day I was listening to public radio in the car. That day a designer was featured; the interview was about hairy arms.

The designer had heard the legend of the hairy arms while she was studying design, and often used it in her work.

She said that to save time many years ago, cartoonists from Disney knew that the company strongly disliked cartoon characters (animals) with hairy arms. Because the cartoonists wanted to protect the work they had done, they added hairy arms to the animal characters. When their work was reviewed, the response would often be, "the story is fine but GET RID of the HAIRY ARMS!" If they hadn't added hair on the arms, they knew from past experience that the people reviewing their work would begin to tamper with the story itself.

The designer gave an example about how she used the hairy arms technique successfully. She had designed a logo for a band and she knew they didn't like a specific color. She had created a strong design and wanted to protect it, so she added hairy arms to one of the logos. She used the color they didn't like (hairy arms) in one of the mockups of the logo.

While a quick web search returns many versions of the hairy arms story, I'd never heard about it and neither had my colleagues. I'm convinced that many creatives use the technique whether or not they've heard the story. I have to smile when it's used on me; now that I know the story it's obvious.

It's easy to think changes are easy to make. But creative people make hundreds of choices as they develop projects.

I remember a  director who told us that the only reason he began to direct was to protect his vision and the integrity of his work; Director Irvin Kershner often told stories about how he protected his work from intense actors and concerned studio executives.

There's also procrastination -- waiting until there's no time to make major changes before starting to work on the project.

What are other techniques creatives use to complete projects for clients that will exceed their goals while protecting their creative vision?