How could I have forgotten this? How could I have missed this demonstration? I saw, and saw again, this film in the cinema. I analyzed it, dissected it, during my university studies. And I forgot.

And then Jérôme shoved it back in my face. You know, like De Funès with his nose: bam, baaam! But of course, damn it. Because this excerpt (graciously sped up by Jérôme, the entire film is a marvel that I recommend) is a very good illustration of emergent design dear to agile (or if you prefer, to any project/product realization in a complex, unpredictable, modern world).

Picasso is going to paint on a glass pane, and Clouzot is going to film from the other side. There are ellipses to pace the film (but I remind you that in the excerpt below Jérôme has sped up the pace even more). We discover therefore, before our amazed eyes, the entire creative process of the great painter.

This excerpt highlights the pursuit of a “vision” of an objective, and also the discovery of value as things progress. Picasso knows what he wants to do (a bull and a bullfighter), but he’s going to discover new veins and innovate as things progress, without losing sight of the meaning of his project. This is the lesson of the Marshmallow Challenge: prototyping, improvement, new ideas, prototyping, etc.

This excerpt echoes Jeff Patton’s article on iterative or incremental development (with his very good use of the Mona Lisa). And Jérôme tells me that this use of the excerpt from Clouzot’s film comes from this presentation by Derek Sivers.

Thanks Jérôme in any case for bringing it back to my attention.