5 ms·

Doing Your Best and Tips on Continuous Improvement

37 points by RBerenguel 16y ago

hashbrown7 16y ago
This is a very sound advice, probably the best in terms of where to spend your money. Don't get a cheap laptop, lousy pen or bad-looking notebook. If you follow this rule, you will be always using the best tools. Good article, but the best tools to get started are the tools that you have at hand regardless of cost.
- mashmac2 16y ago
  Seconded. Chase Jarvis (professional photographer) says much the same, and it's made me carry my camera around all the time. He even made a site for it- http://thebestcamera.com/ http://thebestcamera.com/
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
- RBerenguel 16y ago
  You are completely right. There are a lot of times when the best tools are the tools you have at hand. But at some point (when technique has surpassed the tools), you have to get the best, or at least the best for the moment and for your level. I enjoy a lot taking pictures, and loved my Canon Ixus 30 (small point and click), but I wanted a little more control. Buying a full blown reflex camera was out of option, I wanted something small. And I bought a Canon Powershot S90, which was the best tool after I wanted to do more things than my old camera (which I still own and carry around for quick pictures around the city) could not do.
michaelty 16y ago
"2. Learn one or two words of a new (or old) language, translate a phrase:" I wish more people did this. You'd amazed at what you could learn with such a small effort.
robertk 16y ago
Memorize an awesome passage. It will make you eloquent. Just last morning, I memorized the Carl Sagan story on our pale blue dot, and already I have subconsciously borrowed phrases from it twice in writing and conversation. “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” – Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
- wallflower 16y ago
  Not to pale upon one of my favorite PBS series' hosts (Carl Sagan), and here are two of my favorites. One serious, one brillig. Act 5 Scene 5: Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow (Spoken by Macbeth) Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Jabberwocky `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought -- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
wallflower 16y ago
> 6. Draw something you see on TV: If you want to improve your drawing, you have to draw daily. Just while you are idling in front of the TV, draw some scene that catches your eye. Repeat. I have entertained fantasies of being able to setup in the city park and do caricatures or portraits for free. I will start doing this! My art-school trained friends have tried explaining to me that art school is about learning to look. Anyone can draw squiggles. But you have to be trained (sometimes methodically, sometimes painfully, sometimes by rote) to see, to look, to observe. Before you can do something like: http://freekhand.blogspot.com/2010/12/barcelona-sketchcrawl-29-12.html http://freekhand.blogspot.com/2010/12/barcelona-sketchcrawl-...
weaksauce 16y ago
Going along with the buy the best tool thinking I have labored for a while to find the best mechanical pencil that I could find. The 0.3mm Alvin draft/matic pencil has so much to like. Cheap, balanced to the grip, substantial feel, not too thin, cushion tip (like the expensive cross ones) and best of all it leads to an incredible precision in writing. I LOVE this pencil. See a review of it here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1318182/review_alvin_draftmatic_dm03_03mm_automatic.html?cat=15 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1318182/review_alvi...
- pasbesoin 16y ago
  I've been looking to replace a lost Koh I Noor Rapidomatic about which I had (have) similar feelings. (The older, brass barrel ones are no longer available, even on eBay.) I'll give this a try, albeit perhaps in the 0.5 mm format.
  - weaksauce 16y ago
    I have the complete set from 0.3 to 0.9 and they are all equally well made. I got mine on amazon with prime and it was free shipping / no tax.
- Periodic 16y ago
  I've been in love with the Zebra M-402. I've had two of them now for a few years and they're still going strong. They have a very solid metal build, so they rarely break leads and the advancement mechanism hasn't failed me yet. I will look into those Alvin pencils.

37 points by RBerenguel 16y ago

This is a very sound advice, probably the best in terms of where to spend your money. Don't get a cheap laptop, lousy pen or bad-looking notebook. If you follow this rule, you will be always using the best tools. Good article, but the best tools to get started are the tools that you have at hand regardless of cost.

mashmac2 16y ago
Seconded. Chase Jarvis (professional photographer) says much the same, and it's made me carry my camera around all the time. He even made a site for it- http://thebestcamera.com/ http://thebestcamera.com/
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
RBerenguel 16y ago
You are completely right. There are a lot of times when the best tools are the tools you have at hand. But at some point (when technique has surpassed the tools), you have to get the best, or at least the best for the moment and for your level. I enjoy a lot taking pictures, and loved my Canon Ixus 30 (small point and click), but I wanted a little more control. Buying a full blown reflex camera was out of option, I wanted something small. And I bought a Canon Powershot S90, which was the best tool after I wanted to do more things than my old camera (which I still own and carry around for quick pictures around the city) could not do.

michaelty 16y ago

"2. Learn one or two words of a new (or old) language, translate a phrase:" I wish more people did this. You'd amazed at what you could learn with such a small effort.

robertk 16y ago

Memorize an awesome passage. It will make you eloquent. Just last morning, I memorized the Carl Sagan story on our pale blue dot, and already I have subconsciously borrowed phrases from it twice in writing and conversation. “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” – Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

wallflower 16y ago
Not to pale upon one of my favorite PBS series' hosts (Carl Sagan), and here are two of my favorites. One serious, one brillig. Act 5 Scene 5: Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow (Spoken by Macbeth) Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Jabberwocky `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought -- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

wallflower 16y ago

> 6. Draw something you see on TV: If you want to improve your drawing, you have to draw daily. Just while you are idling in front of the TV, draw some scene that catches your eye. Repeat. I have entertained fantasies of being able to setup in the city park and do caricatures or portraits for free. I will start doing this! My art-school trained friends have tried explaining to me that art school is about learning to look. Anyone can draw squiggles. But you have to be trained (sometimes methodically, sometimes painfully, sometimes by rote) to see, to look, to observe. Before you can do something like: http://freekhand.blogspot.com/2010/12/barcelona-sketchcrawl-29-12.html http://freekhand.blogspot.com/2010/12/barcelona-sketchcrawl-...

weaksauce 16y ago

Going along with the buy the best tool thinking I have labored for a while to find the best mechanical pencil that I could find. The 0.3mm Alvin draft/matic pencil has so much to like. Cheap, balanced to the grip, substantial feel, not too thin, cushion tip (like the expensive cross ones) and best of all it leads to an incredible precision in writing. I LOVE this pencil. See a review of it here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1318182/review_alvin_draftmatic_dm03_03mm_automatic.html?cat=15 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1318182/review_alvi...

pasbesoin 16y ago
I've been looking to replace a lost Koh I Noor Rapidomatic about which I had (have) similar feelings. (The older, brass barrel ones are no longer available, even on eBay.) I'll give this a try, albeit perhaps in the 0.5 mm format.
- weaksauce 16y ago
  I have the complete set from 0.3 to 0.9 and they are all equally well made. I got mine on amazon with prime and it was free shipping / no tax.
Periodic 16y ago
I've been in love with the Zebra M-402. I've had two of them now for a few years and they're still going strong. They have a very solid metal build, so they rarely break leads and the advancement mechanism hasn't failed me yet. I will look into those Alvin pencils.