Creative Learning

I suspect I have spent just about exactly as much time actually writing as the average person my age has spent watching television, and that, as much as anything, may be the real secret here. William Gibson

Find that via his website (not found anymore…) or Serendipity35

Ira Glass advice to creatives

Robert Roriguez in 10 Minute Film School says “You want to be a film maker? Wrong. You are a film maker.” “You’ll learn more by picking up a camera and making your own mistakes.”

Or consider this, from David Bayles and Ted Orlund.

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.
David Bayles and Ted Orlund, Art & Fear

To learn: Do. The rest will follow.

Think not? Consider this advice JK Rowling wishes she’d been given.

WARNING: quote what you link. The internet if ephemeral.

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