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Be prolific

chrismytton.com

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Re: Be prolific

#81

Post by the_other »

ChrisRackauckas wrote: post #11

When teaching mathematics I like to always mention that the greats like Ramanujan, while it seems like they just knew everything from pure thought, they all actually did a ton of work by hand. Ramanujan in particular is known for his fastidious notebooks calculating thousands of digits numbers like pi. From writing out the calculations for hours and days, he'd come up with simplification formulas and develop new insi…

I’m pretty sure this is right.

However the kind of work you’re discussing doesn’t match my understanding of “busywork”. Busywork means unnecessary work done to give the appearance of actual work. Busywork doesn’t produce much value beyond appearances.

The work you’re discussing is “the work”. It’s the underpinnings, the research, the practice, the artist’s sketchbook, the exploration, the learning. None of that is “busywork”. If anything, it’s the opposite. Much of it will look like busywork (i.e. bringing little value), yet actually producing the highest value in the long run.

Re: Be prolific

#83

Post by wellpast »

You need both.

If you make a bunch of art but don’t try to make it quality, you’ll grow very little.

You need to try hard many times and fail, then you get to mastery and quality.

Re: Be prolific

#84

Post by hairofadog »

meheleventyone wrote: post #36
saberdancer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an anecdote which could be completely fabricated, I'd expect it is since the source seems to be a book where it is mentioned as story with no names. If anyone has some kind of study or more concrete example, I'd love to hear about it.

It should be obvious to most people that it's trivially true that practice helps you improve skills that require manual dexterity. I also think it's highly likely the anecdote is supposed to be illustrative rather than literal. IMO it's meant to be advice to students not to fret about how perfect their work is and that with time it will improve. It's just been distorted by the "one quick hack" culture of self improve…

I’ve heard this story lots of different ways and assumed it was a fictional allegory. If it’s true, I can’t help imagining some poor student in the “quality” group at the end of the class, after the big reveal, looking down at their inferior ceramic bowl and going, “well, that was a waste of time,” and then maybe there's a sad moment later where they give up their dreams of becoming a ceramicist.

Re: Be prolific

#87

Post by bachmeier »

When a junior colleague tells me a paper has been rejected, I respond that it's good they're getting the rejections out of the way so they can get to the publications. I'm sure they think I'm an idiot, but I'm completely serious. You can't learn what it takes to get a good publication until you've had some rejections. It's all part of the learning process.

I think that's the real message here. Be prolific in activities that can teach you something useful. Just pumping out a load of garbage won't help you any more than practicing bad shooting form will make you a good basketball player.

Re: Be prolific

#88

Post by ck425 »

chrisweekly wrote: post #70
ck425 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used EBEEBE before and it's a gorgeous tuning, using for the song 'Gold' from the film/musical Once. Also the variation EADGBF# is super interesting with open cords, though you do have to be very careful with tuning the top E string that high, easy to snap if you're not careful.

Thanks!! Looking fwd to playing w this one for the 1st time tonight! :) I remember that film; Glen Hansard's absurdly beat-up guitar (with effectively a second, larger soundhole) even featured in Fretboard Journal. "Falling Slowly" is the song that got all the attention (which IMHO it deserved; gorgeous song and harmonies) but I'll go dig up "Gold" and give it a listen... thanks again! :)

I forgot that the F# tuning is used in Come Alive by the Foo Fighters. Cracking song and where I originally learned it.

Re: Be prolific

#89

Post by jjtheblunt »

ChrisRackauckas wrote: post #11

When teaching mathematics I like to always mention that the greats like Ramanujan, while it seems like they just knew everything from pure thought, they all actually did a ton of work by hand. Ramanujan in particular is known for his fastidious notebooks calculating thousands of digits numbers like pi. From writing out the calculations for hours and days, he'd come up with simplification formulas and develop new insi…

perfectly said

Re: Be prolific

#90

Post by arthev »

ajuc wrote: post #17
saberdancer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an anecdote which could be completely fabricated, I'd expect it is since the source seems to be a book where it is mentioned as story with no names. If anyone has some kind of study or more concrete example, I'd love to hear about it.

Unix vs Multix. Plan 9 and GNU Herd vs Linux. Spring vs EJB. Rest vs Soap vs CORBA. C vs Algol. It's easier to do something simple and iterate on it than to do something perfect from the start.

Trivially leads to local optima only, though. You're intentionally making a stake somewhere with no reasonable expectation of high quality, after all.
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