Don’t wait for the breakthrough

Inspiration is a misunderstood concept.

Like most journalists, when I’m up against a deadline, I sometimes find myself blocked. Anything I start writing ends up going nowhere. I’ll read the news and try to come up with an idea, but when I’m blocked, it seems the harder I try, the worse my writing gets.

Now, while I’ve never pulled a George Costanza at the office, something curious happens when I step away from a project and sleep on it: I usually wake up with an idea.

Some might call it fate, and early in my career, I thought the key was just waiting for inspiration to strike. I’ve learned that’s not the case. All that reading and all those bad drafts add up. Sometimes they just need a little bit of time to fall into place. There are no shortcuts to inspiration; you must keep feeding that creative compost, and eventually, it will do the rest.

Fortunately for the residents of New York, the city finally decided to stop letting odor, pests and even rats pile up because of old waste bins. The city acted, and like all big ideas, it started with a simple contest back in 2018: redesign our old, ugly corner litter baskets. That first step culminated in what became a years-long changeover to a “Better Bin,” the name for its modern receptacle that’s leak-proof and rat-resistant.

Yes, there were challenges, and you can read all about them in our Waste Collection and Transfer feature. The COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to implementation, but that delay also allowed time for other improvements to be included.

The design was named one of Time’s Best Inventions of 2023, the same year New York began rolling them out citywide. It hopes to replace all of its roughly 23,000 wire-style litter buckets with the new design during the next several years. It estimates that about 5,000 of its public waste bins have been replaced since the rollout began.

New York isn’t the only city swapping out its public trash bins. Philadelphia and Baltimore partnered with their respective suppliers to launch similar citywide upgrades. The new waste bins have improved aesthetics, helped prevent overflowing trash and made collection more efficient for all three cities.

None of this would have been possible if any of these cities waited around for someone else to do something—because inspiration doesn’t strike like lightning; rather, it builds like a wave. You have to keep moving forward to reach that eventual breakthrough.