You know the goop they cram into your mouth at the dentist when they need to get impressions of your teeth? They mix up this nasty tasting paste in a bowl, stick it into this plastic thing that covers your teeth, and then they stick that thing into your mouth. It feels like the stuff is oozing into the back of your throat, so your gag reflex goes bonkers, and all the while the dental hygienist is saying, "Don't worry, it just feels like it's sliding down your throat. Relax."

Fortunately, the pasty junk solidifies in your mouth in a couple of minutes at most, at which point it's mercifully removed. The last time this was done to me, I got to thinking about a post I read by the wise Kathy Sierra about how speed helps creativity. Not an unreasonable deadline put forth by your boss to finish a project where you pull an all-nighter fueled by pizza and cheap coffee, but having to come up with something quickly. It activates different parts of your brain. Removing the leisure aspect of creating, oddly enough, helps you to create in a lot of situations.

The putty drying is the perfect deadline. Why don't artists try to sculpt with that kind of putty? Instead of clay, which lets you constantly redo and refine what you're creating, you've got two minutes to make something out of the goop. That's it. Once you hit the two-minute mark, you take what you've got as finished. You're either happy with it, or you get to start the whole process over again.

I'm sure this so-called "Speed Putty" exists, but I couldn't find it doing a simple Google search.