Ojai Valley, California

 

I worked for a record producer who loved chaos. I’d get to the studio early to set up mics, music stands, and headphones, align the machine, and thread up a roll of tape. The preparation was my insurance policy for a smooth session. Musicians would filter in with everything calm and under control. Fifteen minutes after this producer arrived, the studio would be in turmoil. He said chaos made him feel productive. It made me crazy because I felt like he was working against me. Clean, calm, and orderly make some people uncomfortable—what a strange thing to realize. But maybe we were both right. “From order comes progress. From chaos comes innovation,” Simon Sinek.