John Cage conceived How to Get Started almost as an afterthought -- a performance substituting for another that was previously planned in 1989 for delivery at "Sound Design: An Invitational Conference on the Uses of Sound for Radio Drama, Film, Video, Theater and Music" presented by Bay Area Radio Drama at Sprocket Systems, Skywalker Ranch, in Nicasio, California.
In his introduction, Cage talks about the difficulty of initiating the creative process, while exploring the usefulness of improvisation, a subject about which he had long been deeply ambivalent. He proposes a collaborative framework in which sound engineers capture and subsequently layer his extemporized monologue, which consisted of ten brief commentaries on topics then of interest. This amounted to an experiment having to do with thinking in public, before a live audience.
For more, read the introduction
John Cage Introduction
Listen to the recording (Parts 1-3 of 11, 11:55 min)