09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Knowing Your Work isn't Good Enough
Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who d... 1 
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notes11 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
The Curse of the Gifted
When you were in college, did you ever meet bright kids who graduated
top of their class in high-school and then floundered freshman year
in college because they had never learned how to study? It's a common
trap. A friend of mine calls it "the curse of the gifted" -- a tendency
to lean on your native ability too much, because you've always been
rewarded for doing that and self-discipline would take actual work.
You are a brilliant implementor, more able than me and possibly (I say
this a...
2 Because some people grew on their own talent, they never learned to appreciate the reasons for overhead.
Eric S. Raymond writing to Linus Torvalds.
13 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Talent of Mechanics
Generally speaking, people have a very erroneous idea of the type of talent proper to the ideal mechanician. He is not a geometrician who, delving into the theory of movement and the categories of phenomena, formulates new mechanical principles or discovers unsuspected laws of nature.… In most other branches of science are to be found constant principles; a multitude of methods offer to the genius inexhaustible possibilities. If a scholar poses himself a new problem, he can attack it fortif... 1 notes
notesIt is highly intuitive and cannot be taught from a textbook. It sounds much like an art.
03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
There are Many Leonardo's Today
Many persons wonder why we do not have such men today. It is a
mistake to think we cannot. What happened at the time of Leonardo
and Galileo was that mathematics was so improved by the advent of
the zero that not only was much more scientific shipbuilding made
possible but also much more reliable navigation. Immediately
thereafter truly large-scale venturing on the world's oceans
commenced, and the strong sword-leader patrons as admirals put
their Leonardos to work, first in designing their n... 1 notes
notesA great observation, that Leonardo was an anomaly for his time, but he did solve problems that allow other to become Leonardos. A great example of this today would be the field of computer programming, where geniuses are commonplace, but so common and their work so unknown that they go unrecognized by our culture.
08 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Importance of Giants
What, then, is it in particular that can be learned from teachers of special distinction? Above all, what they teach is high standards. We measure everything, including ourselves, by comparisons; and in the absence of someone with outstanding ability there is a risk that we easily come to believe that we are excellent and much better than the next man. Mediocre people may appear big to themselves (and to others) if they are surrounded by small circumstances. By the same token, big people feel... 1 notes
notesThey make the above average feel dwarfed.
