There's this unofficial concept research scientist invented as an excuse to perform ‘out of curiosity’ experiments. It illustrates two important things that creatives can learn from and replicate: the importance of play at work and the evidence that accidental discoveries can lead to impactful research.
Let me explain 👇
Friday afternoons are notoriously known as useless spaces in experimental research. It’s too late to start a big and meaningful experiment (unless you sign your weekend away) but it’s too early to call it quits and leave (and no one is really THAT audacious my friends).
No, instead the audacious scientist takes this window of opportunity to perform what we call the Friday Afternoon Experiment.
The timing is perfect: these are experiments that normally don’t take you more than a couple of hours. And it’s prime lab time because all the students will have already left for Friday drinks, meaning you have all the equipment available to yourself.
(I realize I am not selling this well but keep reading).
During this time, the motto is: quick and dirty. Or pipette fast and centrifuge harder. It’s the perfect moment to try out an idea that is highly risky, slightly unauthorized and almost always guaranteed to fail.
Except, sometimes, these ideas succeed.
During a Friday afternoon experiment in 2004, physicists Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov thought it would be a great idea to dig around the office supply drawer and use ordinary Scotch tape to peel of the layers of ordinary graphite (think of a pencil tip) and repeat this process to see how thin of a layer they can make.
And peeling they did.
Until they achieved a previously impossible to obtain, single, one atom thick layer of carbon, also known as graphene. This little ‘sticky tape experiment’ earned the scientists the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. And blessed us with faster smartphones.
But was that minimum effort experiment of an almost forgotten project really an accident? According to Prof. Novoselov, “accidents are important in science. But they never happen accidentally. You need to create an environment for these accidents to happen.”
He goes on to describe how the researchers made it a regular habit of dedicating Friday afternoons to side projects.
Can we replicate scientists' Friday afternoon play time, too?
Think of it like this: normally, Friday afternoons are the lowest point of productivity during the work week. But what if we could reframe it into something fun AND valuable?
Trying a different style to your usual social post. Share a story that doesn’t please the algorithm, but gives you incredible joy. Write a poem.
The beautiful thing about this experiment is that it is bound by time. It’s an experiment constricted to a specific calendar block: Friday afternoon. The thing you make has to fit in the time you’d otherwise spend doom-scrolling. Block that few hours in your agenda and let’s get to work.
Oh and another rule: try to stick to your available tools. Just like a scientist, the rule is to use what is available to you at that moment. No new course, no new book you first have to read, no new app you have to download. Work into your existing boundaries. Take out some post-its and (why not) sticky tape. Sharpen those pencils. Connect the keyboard. And just…create.
(Let me know if you try it?)
Kudos to Barry Fitzgerald for telling me the graphene story. He’s the guy if you ever need speaker coaching. Or an editor for your book. Or an actual entertaining host.
Keep up the audacity,
Laura
