Some computer games can be categorized as either a first-person or a third-person type. In a first-person game, the player sees the virtual world through the eyes of the character and is not aware of what the character him-/herself looks like. In a third-person game, the player looks at the environment over the character’s shoulder or from above, but in any case, the character is a part of the picture tat the player sees. In other words, when we play a third-person game, we are aware of what we look like in the virtual environment.
Phil Libin, the former CEO of Evernote, mentioned in an interview with Tim Ferriss that different people tend to go through life in either a first-person or a third-person mode. According to him, there are advantages and disadvantages to being aware of one’s own image. I think that even if self-awareness can be distracting from the point of view of pure experience, having the ability to invoke the third-person mode at will is a tremendously useful skill. Taking photography as an example, it is not only important for the photographer to know what image he/she projects to the client, the models, etc., but it is also crucial to make the models aware of what they look like through the lens, so that they can adjust the pose, the makeup, etc.
I wonder what Velázquez, who included himself in the already busy composition of “Las Meninas
Being a “third-person shooter” is different from being a slave to the opinion of others, against which there are many warnings, including Hugh MacLeod’s “Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity
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.
Amazing thing about Gothic cathedrals is that they take enormous amounts of time to construct and require restoration immediately after being built. The amount of detail in their 
Also, paradoxically, a good photo can potentially engage the viewer more than a video would precisely because a photo contains less information (there is no sound, no physical movement, etc.) Therefore, the viewer has to rely on his/her own experience and imagination to fill in what is missing in a photo: e. g. how fast is the sprinter running? How strong is the wind? How hot is the weather? Perhaps, a good photo is a kind of collaboration between the photographer and the audience, and that is why it can be both produced and enjoyed with a limited time commitment from either side. 
One of my research projects involves impact of liquid droplets on various surfaces, which causes splashes – a photogenic phenomenon dominated by surface tension effects. Many photographers approach this subject from a purely aesthetic point of view, while the inherent motivation for engineers and physicists is analytic. Fluid mechanics of droplets, soap bubbles, smoke, clouds, etc. is fascinating from both the “classic” and “romantic” perspectives, to borrow the terminology from Robert Pirsig’s “
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I think it can be traced, at least in part, to the sheer number of hours he spends practicing his craft. He was there literally every night, with the uninterrupted stream of clients, who were eager to pay 25 euros or so for their portraits. This was definitely, a high-volume operation, as far as selling art was concerned. I have had a couple of experiences with selling photography that way (helping to cover sporting and performance events), and every time, I was left with a feeling of having wasted my time. The whole production process was so mechanical and emotionally draining, that it left no space for creativity. 
I bought a two-day ticket, which allowed admission to various sites, including the terraces on the rooftop of the cathedral. From there, one can see small statues nested int the niches of the spires that face away from the streets below.
, an international-level chess player and a martial artist, who studies learning processes, refers to this strategy of focussing on small details as “creating small circles.” Interestingly enough, his inspiration for this approach came from the book that I am currently reading – Robert Pirsig’s “
I am continually amazed that my three-year old daughter is enjoying some of the same cartoon characters that I grew up with, even though we came to know them in different cultural settings and in different countries. One particularly interesting character is Cheburashka, “an animal unknown to science,” who accidentally finds himself in Moscow and befriends a Crocodile, who works at the zoo as a crocodile. The animated movies about Cheburashka were originally made in Soviet Union in the 1960’s and 70’s and, after much copyright controversy, are currently produced by both South Korean and Japanese companies. 
I think one of the secrets of this character’s popularity and longevity is that the central theme of the stories about him is friendship. In Japan, the term moai refers to a small group of close friends outside of one’s work and family. Dan Buettner, in his book about world’s healthiest and happiest people called “