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Chasing novelty

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My daughter wakes up and goes straight for her new toys, which we bought the day before. It’s set of figurines of babies in cute costumes and their pet animals. She is eager to involve me into the game, while I am making her breakfast, so she lines up the animals at the edge of the table and makes a math problem for me: how many of them have tails? I am a little surprised at this initiative. Normally, it is my wife and I, who try to work little math questions into our games with our daughter.

I think what sparked her creativity is the fact these toys are new to her. She absolutely craves new things. Of course, this is not surprising, simply because she is human. I’ve read somewhere that the humans are programmed by evolution to favour new over old. A new object that enters the scope of our attention is getting more processing power of the brain dedicated to it, because there is potential danger and opportunity in the novelty.

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I think it was Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, who said recently that if you have a choice between being the best at doing something and being the first to have done something, choose being the first if you want to make a mark in history (or generally make a impact). Actually, I think it is a false dichotomy. You don’t have to choose, because in many situations you can be both first and, eventually, the best (or one of the best). But the point is generally correct – it is a powerful statement and an advantageous position to be the first, whether it is scoring the first point in a kendo match, publishing the first paper in a particular research area or being the first to apply a certain technique (either in science or in art).

Of course, being the first at something genuinely novel is difficult. One technique is to broaden the scope to include not only whatever you are doing, but also yourself. For example, Amilia Earhart is not known because she was the ninetieth (or so, depending on how you count the early flights) person to fly over the Atlantic, but because she was the first female to do it. We all have a combination of certain skills, and while we might not be the best in the world in any one of them, the intersection of these skills makes us quite unique.

So with the new toys for children, it is probably wise to maintain some balance. On the one hand, excessive dependance on external rewards or praise is not healthy. On the other hand, new toys, puzzles and books are clearly effective for stimulating thinking, because novelty sides with evolution.

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The preferred weapon

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Last Sunday, I had an excuse to put away my Sony a7R II, which I have been using almost exclusively for the last year, and to spend some time with my old Canon 1DX. Armando and I were covering the Cross-country National Championship at the Beacon Hill park. It was an intense day, both i terms of the race itself and in terms of shooting. Everybody hoped in vain that the cold, pouring rain that started just as the athletes began their warm-up runs would stop before the race. Instead, it continued on and off throughout the day.

On the positive side, rain makes action photos more interesting, at least for sports like running, soccer and rugby. I like how the fast shutter speed (I was shooting at 1/1000 s most of the time) freezes the out-of-focus rain drops between the subject and the camera.

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The cold rain is tough on the hardware, though, not to mention the athletes and the photographers. For example, I could not shoot with the Sony as much as I wanted to – it is not weather-proof enough.

The bulletproof feel of the 1DX, the autofocus speed, the framing rate, even the characteristic shutter sound of the high-speed bursts – these are the things I’ve been missing in my mirrorless camera. About the sound of 1Dx – I can recognize it in the crowd of photographers even on TV. It reminds me of an episode from “Heartbreak Ridge”, when Clint Eastwood’s character says to young marines: “This is the AK-47 assault rifle, the preferred weapon of your enemy, and it makes a very distinctive sound when fired at you, so remember it.”

For the rainy days, my preferred weapon is definitely a Canon.

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Learning from the master

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This is a tree that I see from my office window. I snapped a picture of it with my phone and did the drawing afterwards on an iPad.

I have been learning to draw from my six-year-old daughter. Not the technique per se, but to enjoy the drawing process itself. Children are masters of having fun, and my daughter’s drawing is a perfect example. She enjoys it so much that she goes right to her desk when she comes home, without even changing out of her school clothes. It doesn’t bother her at all that she might not have time to finish the picture, that she might get interrupted halfway through her project by us calling her to have dinner. In fact, she probably doesn’t view drawing in terms of projects at all. It is simply something to enjoy at the moment.

I find that emulating this attitude is not as easy at it sounds. The barriers that keep me from doing it are entirely imaginary. For example, when I was on sabbatical, I found time to sketch almost on a daily basis. I enjoyed it a lot and thought that it was a great exercise for developing observation skills. Now, when I am firmly back to my daily routine, I objectively don’t have any less time for sketching. In fact, I have even more opportunities – all my art supplies are right here in my house. Yet, somehow I hesitate to start something that I might not be able to finish, even though there is no external pressure to complete “the project” whatsoever.

So I am learning this child-like attitude from my daughter – taking action for the fun of it and not worrying about the result.

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Just doing it

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“If you feel you need permission to do all the reading and writing your little heart desires, however, consider it hereby granted by yours truly.”
— Stephen King, “On Writing“

A few days ago, I came across an article about different speech patterns in men and women, and what they reveal about confidence, stereotypes, etc. In particular, women tend to use the word “just” more often than men. It is a “permission word”, which people use to subtly, and often subconsciously, justify their right to talk about whatever the subject happens to be.

As I was reading the article, I realized that I also use “just” often, especially in emails. Also, I noticed that I use permission words more often when I write about photography than when I write about academic research. This happens because my photography work evolved from being a pure hobby, while the research has always been in the “job” category (so I take it more seriously). Similarly, new writers are often reluctant to view themselves as professionals, as Stephen King described in his fascinating and incredibly insightful book “On Writing”.

In fact, what determines whether one is doing something professionally is not the fraction of personal income that this activity generates. Instead, what makes a professional is her professional attitude. This includes:

1. Showing up to do the work every day. It is not the amount of work per se that is important, although quantity does matter, as well as quality. The important factor is regularity. Professionals do not make grand accomplishments their daily goal. Instead, they aim for continuing improvement.
2. Treating tools of the trade and the working environment with respect, but without making them cult objects. A perfect example of this how experienced kendoka, who practiced martial arts for a significant part of their lives treat their bogu and shinai. They don’t bow to the shinai every time they take it out of the bag, but they keep everything in good working condition.
3. Not using elitist excuses for not doing the work. Those excuses are related to the lack of resources (“proper” tools, ideal conditions, sufficiently long uninterrupted periods of time) that are apparently necessary for doing the activity. If I can’t do it perfectly, I won’t do it at all, an elitist would say. But the reality is never perfect, so a pro would say that a little bit of practice is better than none. And those little bits do accumulate over time. Yes, deep work requires large chunks of time and specific conditions, but not every time. In challenges, there are opportunities to practice certain aspects of the craft. In fact, limiting the choice of tools or media is a well-known artistic technique. Jigoro Kano said: “Derive meaning from the struggle”. Brandon Webb, a former US Navy SEAL sniper, puts the same thing less poetically: “Embrace the suck.”

In other words, professionals are just doing their craft, without needing justifications for it. This is exactly what Nike is inviting people to do in their famous slogan: to adopt a professional attitude towards running, even though, ironically, they do it using a permission word. Perhaps, once we give ourselves permission to be pros, we don’t need to subconsciously seek this permission from others by using “just” in our speech.

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Cookie-cutter projects

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Over the long weekend, my daughter and I finally finished the soapstone carving project that we started almost a year ago. We bought a kit that contained a block of stone cut out in a rough shape of an orca. It looked exactly as if it was done with a cookie-cutter. In fact, it was made by hand using a scroll saw. We talked to the sculptor, who made these kits. He said that it took he quite a bit of trial and error to find the right dimensions of the cutout. But once it was done, it was matter of rounding the edges and smoothing the surface to produce a rather neat carved figure of an orca. The success was practically guaranteed, and a 6-7 year-old kid could produce a carving in a matter of hours.

In our defence, the reason it took us so long was that we had to leave the figure unfinished while we went to Europe for most of the year. All that was left to be done was to wax and buff the surface. We used a hair dryer to heat the stone orca (it became so hot that I had to hold it with a towel!) and rubbed it with a piece of wax, which was also in the kit. When the stone cooled down, we buffed the surface with a piece of cloth.

I wonder if it is the key to a successful and enjoyable creative project for beginners in any field: having the most time-consuming part pre-completed (e.g. providing a pre-cut rough shape of a statue with correct proportions), while leaving some room for creativity in terms of small details and finishing touches.

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This principle worked in a similar way, when my wife and daughter baked chocolate muffins to celebrate our daughter’s birthday at school. Both enjoyed the baking, largely because they used a store-bought mix for the dough.

Probably, this idea of having the hard work done is behind the enduring popularity of colouring books. After all, the outline is already there, with the proportions and the composition taken care of. All that is left is to have fun colouring the details.

University students sometimes complain that the projects they are doing in the labs are “cookie-cutter experiments”, meaning that the outcomes are predetermined, and there is no element of scientific discovery in their work. Perhaps, the instructors, who design the projects, need to find a balance between guiding the students by having some of the preliminary work done beforehand, but allowing enough uncertainty in the remaining process to enable sometimes-surprising results.

Then again, at some point someone would have to learn how to do the entire project from scratch, starting from the metaphorical rough piece of stone and finishing with a polished sculpture. There is a great pleasure in creating your own paintings instead of colouring within the lines all the time.

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Well-forgotten old

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There is a saying: “New is well-forgotten old”. These days, as we are unpacking after returning from sabbatical, I am confirming that there is indeed a lot of truth in it.

We had so much luggage while travelling for seven months that it seemed that we were carrying the entire household with us. In reality, we had much more stuff packed in boxes while we are away.

When we came back, there are many logistical issues to take care of in order to put the school-work-other life routine back on track. It seems that whatever stuff we have brought in our suitcases is perfectly enough for us to function. It is tempting to think that the rest of it is simply not needed (which, technically, is the case).

It is actually a fairly unique chance to re-consider which objects “spark joy”, to borrow the term from Marie Kondo, and which ones can be thanked for their service and discarded. The killer, of course, is that the “konmari” organizing principle implies physically picking up each single item I own and engaging with it intellectually and emotionally. And I have too many socks to talk to.

On the other hand, our daughter is having a blast as we unpack the boxes, because she is uncovering her old toys that she has completely forgotten about. It literally seems like Christmas. Oh, and of course we are are re-confirming the well-known fact that the packing boxes often make much better toys than whatever gifts they contain.

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Arc of a hero (chihuahua)

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My daughter and I decided to make a new picture book based on the pretend-play that she does every day in the car on her way to school.

We made our first (still unpublished) book about a Girl and an Egg in a very unstructured way by sketching up new scenes as the story was progressing over the days, without a particular plan to begin with. It was a fun and pressure free way to make stuff up, but it was a bit challenging to wrap things up into a story that would make sense to anyone besides the two of us and my wife, who was literally playing an active role in all the reenactments.

Not only we had fun making the first book, but we gained some experience, and I wanted to put together some kind of an outline, so that we would have a structure to play within. So before even sketching the main character, I decided to make storyboard for the book.

I also noticed that in our games we might have a beginning of a hero’s journey type of a story, which is described in Joseph Campbell’s seminal book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. This is structure that has apparently been followed by many of my favourite books and movies from “Star Wars” to the “Wizard of Oz”.

So even though we are still at the blank canvas stage, we are potentially in a good company as far as stories go. Oh, and our main character is a pet chihuahua.

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The best part of ProD days

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Tim Ferriss recently posted a photo on Instagram showing a small hand-written note that he carried in his wallet as a reminder. It said: “Notice the best part.”

Today there was professional development day in my daughter’s school, so she had no classes. But my wife and I did have or lectures (luckily, not at the same time), so our daughter got to come to campus with us and spend some time “working” in our offices.

It would have been easy to view the ProD day as a pure inconvenience – another distraction in our already busy schedules. But in reality, I was catching myself thinking how great it was to be able to spend a day together with my daughter like this – a bit outside of our usual schoolday routine. That was the best part.

It turns out that my office is a pretty neat place to hang out for an artistically-minded six-years old. She told me, “You and mom are lucky because you have so many things for drawing and writing all to yourselves in your offices.” Clearly, I don’t notice the best part of my job often enough.

It reminded me how I used to come to work with my mom when I was about the same age as my daughter now. Those were certainly not the most exciting episodes of my childhood, but the memories are some of the most pleasant ones. I also thought that my mother was lucky to work at such a cool place (she was a schoolteacher). I could entertain myself for hours (at least that’s how I remember it) with the simplest office items. My favourite project was to fold a piece of paper several times, make holes in it randomly with a hole punch and see what kind of parents emerged after I would unfold the paper.

I wonder, what will my daughter remember of these visits to “dad’s work” when she grows up?

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Attention to detail

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I was watching “Whisper of the Heart” (耳をすませば) with my daughter. It was a rare case where she had seen the movie before, and I had not. So she was happy to give lots of spoilers: she would explain which character was good, which was evil, which two would fall in love together, etc.

It’s a great positive movie, and thought, what makes it so special and fun to watch? What makes all Miyazaki’s movies special? What makes Japanese things special, for that matter?

I think it’s attention to detail.

Studio Ghibli’s animation is decidedly not photo-realistic, but the details of the plot, of the characters’ interactions and of the drawings are incredibly intricate. “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “My Neighbor Totoro” are some of my daughter’s (and my) favourite movies. Sometimes, it seems that the details are all there is in these films – there is no clear overarching “moral of the story”. In “Totoro” in particular, it seems like nothing is happening in the plot. We are just looking over the shoulder of a family that is living its everyday life. But of course, this very everyday life of the two girls and their parents is full of magic. It’s just that the adults are not seeing it. So in these movies too, the magic is in the details that are right before our eyes.

For me personally, working on small details is the best part of any project. When I paint, take photos, practice kendo, teach or do research, nailing down the nuances is where fun is. Stages like overall initial planning and making sure the details fit together in the big picture are necessary, but they are not so enjoyable.

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What can you draw in 5 minutes?

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Today, my daughter made me an offer I could not refuse: “Let’s do an exchange: I’ll draw a picture for you, and you draw one for me.”

I thought it would be an interesting challenge: what could I draw in five minutes or less? (Because that’s about how long it takes her to draw one of pictures.)

One of my favourite ways to procrastinate is by not staring doing something because I would convince myself that I either don’t have enough time to do a proper job or don’t have the right tools/environment/fill-in-the-blank. This time, I had my iPad already open, so I thought, alright, game on.

I was given some creative direction, of course. My daughter wanted a picture of a she-wolf and her cub, “but not a scary one”.

The process and the result are below. I used ProCreate for iPad and Apple pencil.

An by the way, I did lose the challenge, because she made two picture in the time it took me to do one.