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The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded
by ramblerman 10y ago
The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot -- albeit a perfect one -- to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes -- the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
-- From "Art and Fear"
- dredmorbius 10y agoSee also T.P. Wright's Law governing the rate of process improvement with the volume of production. This focuses on labour input, not quality output, but is on the order of 10-15% with each doubling of output. Good discussion and references here: http://tikalon.com/blog/blog.php?article=2013/technology_progress http://tikalon.com/blog/blog.php?article=2013/technology_pro... J. Doyne Farmer discusses this extensively in his work (referenced above).
- i000 10y agoAnother example is how patient outcomes improve with the size of the healthcare facility a.k.a patient volumes e.g. http://www.mexicobariatricsurgerycenters.com/analysis-bariatric-hospitals-surgeons.php http://www.mexicobariatricsurgerycenters.com/analysis-bariat...
- dredmorbius 10y agoInteresting. I'm familiar with the concept and have been for decades, though I don't know that I'd previously seen actual data. A sixfold difference in mortality outcomes strikes me as pretty significant. Usually you'd want to see a caseload severity index when comparing data such as these, though I suspect for elective surgery that isn't a major contributing factor. You're making me want to dig deeper into this area of study. Thanks.
- soperj 10y agoStill think it's a dumb example because the quantity group could produce 1 pot that's 50 pounds, and it'd be awful, but would get an A.
- smallnamespace 10y agoI think the point was that they didn't do that, even though they could have.
- d4nte 10y agoFrom someone who is reasonably adept with ceramics and just bought another 100 pounds of clay this morning (aka I know how much 50 pounds of clay weighs) because I'm making a six foot tall piece in an intermediate/advanced ceramics class that I'm taking for fun: 50 pounds of clay is actually a lot, and not everyone can make a pot that big. So if someone managed to make one 50 pound pot, it would still require quite a lot of work. Plus, there's the assumption that the majority of the people in the class are interested in learning, so they will be trying to make something good.
- soperj 10y agoMy mom has potted for over 40 years. We had a kiln and a wheel in our house throughout my childhood. I know a fair bit about it, even though I haven't done that much of it myself. At the end of the day, 50 pounds weights 50 pounds. it'd be hard to lift, but to make a crappy hugely thick base with something resembling a pot on top wouldn't take much effort. If university taught me anything, it's that most people don't seem to be just interested in learning.
- barry-cotter 10y agoCan someone with access to google please search gwern.net please find the page where Gwern shows there's no documentary trace of this actually happening and link it please? I'd find it myself but bing isn't up to the task and Google is blocked in China.
- telotortium 10y agoI tried looking for it with Google and couldn't find it, either on or off his site. I did find an interesting article about the obsolete practice of sanding floors to clean them: https://www.gwern.net/Sand https://www.gwern.net/Sand