April 2012
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“Call it the “learning paradox”: the more you struggle and even fail while you’re...”
– Anne Murphy Paul: Why Floundering Makes Learning Better | TIME Ideas | TIME.com
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“These movies look great, but they look great in much the same way.”
– Are Indie Movies Getting Too Pretty? - Jason Bailey - Entertainment - The Atlantic
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Watch
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Thinking in a Foreign Language Makes Decisions... →
To judge a risk more clearly, it may help to consider it in a foreign language.
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“I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work 15 and 16 hours a...”
– Mario Cuomo
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“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from...”
– Stephen King
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Watchanother weekend project:
Making a Cyanotype Print (by Lauren Redniss)
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A Professional Self-Validates
An amateur lets the negative opinion of others unman him. He takes external criticism to heart, allowing it to trump his own belief in himself and his work. Resistance loves this.
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The professional cannot allow the actions of others to define his reality. Tomorrow morning the critic will be gone, but the writer will still be there facing the blank page. Nothing matters but that he keep...
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A Professional is Prepared
I’m not talking about craft; that goes without saying. The professional is prepared at a deeper level. He is prepared, each day, to confront his own self-sabotage.
The professional understands that Resistance is fertile and ingenious. It will throw stuff at him that he’s never seen before.
The professional prepares mentally to absorb blows and to deliver them. His aim is to take what...
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A Professional Demystifies
A pro views her work as craft, not art. Not because she believes art is devoid of a mystical dimension. On the contrary. She understands that all creative endeavor is holy, but she doesn’t dwell on it. She knows if she thinks about that too much, it will paralyze her. So she concentrates on technique. The professional masters how, and leaves what and why to the gods. Like Somerset Maugham...
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We're All Pros Already
All of us are pros in one area: our jobs.
We get a paycheck. We work for money. We are professionals.
Now: Are there principles we can take from what we’re already successfully doing in our workaday life and apply to our artisitic aspirations? What exactly are the qualities that define us as professionals?
We show up every day. We might do it only because we have to, to keep from...
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Resistance is Infallible
Like a magnetic needle floating on a surface of oil. Resistance will unfailingly point to true North - meaningt that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.
We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others.
Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our...
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