It is well-known that taking notes while talking to someone is signalling to that person that you are paying attention to the conversation. However, the manner in which the notes are taken is important. Typing on a computer may seem intimidating or create an impression of distance between the conversation partners. On the other hand, writing in a notebook generally perceived very positively.
I often take pictures as a form of note-taking, particularly in museums or during tours of laboratories, etc. Perhaps, in these settings, the impression that I leave during the process of taking notes is less important, but in the spirit of being aware of what one looks like from the outside, it is good to be at least conscious about it. The note-taking process has other important aspects that not only streamlines the workflow, but also makes notes themselves more useful.
Phil Libin, the former CEO of Evernote, points out that it is crucial to process and catalogue the notes immediately after they have been taken, and to do it in the same geographical context. He is referring to the ability of various note-taking apps, Evernote in particular, to geo- and context-tag the notes, but I think this concept of processing and cataloguing the information soon after it has been acquired also applies to photography in general.
,” for example. It is important to be focussed on the task and the experience at hand, but it is also important to realize that the proverbial big picture includes ourselves in it.
lens on a 
body, which gave me ability to zoom in on details of particularly striking exhibits and to capture candid shots of other visitors. In Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, I used my iPhone to take photos of tourists enjoying some of the most striking works.
I came across another appealing reason for diversifying one’s areas of interest in an interview with Stanley McChrystal, a retired 4-star US Army general. He mentioned that being genuinely interested in physical conditioning provided him with an area that was sufficiently separated from what he did professionally, so that even in the face of a crisis situation at work, he was able to think, “the workout today was excellent,” which provided a certain sense of stability.
Jane McGonigal studies how skills and traits cultivated through gaming (particularly, computer gaming) can be applied to solve real-world problems. She uses the term “gameful mindset” to describe the state of anticipation of success at the task we engage in and our willingness to study and utilize our unique strengths, which are analogous to unique “
I personally see the grain of truth in the concept of doing the work for ourselves in the fact that doing something consistently, on the daily basis, and fully engaging in the activity (i.e. “showing up”) requires enthusiasm, and it is not possible to be genuinely enthusiastic about something without being interested in it. This echoes Richard Feynman’s story of how he re-discovered scientific research for himself after being burnt out during the work on Manhattan project. He said that decided to work on problems that were fun, without worrying about whether they were already solved by someone else or if they would potentially lead to important discoveries or applications.
Of course, asking a stranger to take a photo has disadvantages. For one, there is a psychological barrier of striking a conversation. Perhaps, more importantly, there is no control of how the person would compose a shot. In my experience, the chance of getting a reasonably good photo by asking a random tourist to take it is less than 50%. More often than not, my face would end up dead centre in the frame and/or out-of-focus.
The location of the castle in the middle of a modern metropolis is in sharp contrast to the deep moats, surrounding its high walls, the original purpose of which was clear – warfare. A man was throwing frisbee to his dog in the grass-covered moat, and I could not make up my mind what was more out-of-place – this peaceful scene or the stone cannonballs piled up in the moats. I think it’s the former; the calm of a modern city life and seemed like a superficial patina on the tough nature of the place.
