On Deciding . . . Better 3.0

Golden Sands, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

Finally, I’ve picked up the Nikon again. It was cold. It was rainy. It was raw. But I’m going to be traveling to Europe next month and it will be my biggest opportunity for interesting image harvesting in a long time.

Its interesting how rapidly I can get back to where I left off. At least there was some light yesterday when I captured this image. With my current toolbox I can work around a lack of interesting illumination, its much better if I have something to work with to start.

I’m reading Geoff Colvin’s “Talent is Overrated” right now. It’s a great discussion of getting good at doing things by deliberate practice. Of course for me at 51, it comes too late. My kids should be reading it.

Whatever I’ve learned over the last two years is deeply ingrained at this point. According to the literature, if I work at this pace for another 15 years, I’ll be an expert. I’m developing vocabulary and technique slowly so that I don’t have to think so much about how to achieve a result, I can think more about whether the result was achieved.

Photography is like playing the piano in that its trivial to make an image or a sound with these instruments. Painting or playing cello has a longer learning period for producing anything.

I’ve started dabbling in making music over the last few months. It’s a scary feeling to be so adrift as complete novice. I don’t really intend to get very good, but its worthwhile exploring. I have a set of skills built over the years that helps in mastering completely new tasks that help, but the variety of choices that present themselves at every turn is truly bewildering.

What a pleasant way to transition out of winter. Alwin Hawkins has started his weblog back up again:

code:theWebSocket;: Arisen from the ashes…: “”

(Via .)

It’s a nostalgic day. I’m reading David Allen’s new book, “Making It All Work”. I had settled into a comfortable routine of capturing information and processing it, but reading his Getting Things Done roadmap has me thinking about kicking it up a notch again.

I don’t have a laptop tool for tracking projects like I had for my last job. Now I work on a shorter cycle time and projects are generally managed for me. My role is more reactive these days.

So I started up Tinderbox for the first time in years, finding that I was at version 3.5 and Mark Bernstein had moved all the way up to 4.6. I’ve downloaded the new version and will decide whether to pony up for the upgrade.