Neko 005
Blog Posted by kitt at 20:55 on 4 May 2021My fifth of n watercolors of Neko Harbour. The image below was taken with dried paint and natural, but shaded, light.
I was not patient with this version. I realized I was avoiding starting the painting, so dove right in with it tonight. I am doing a good job at reversing the avoiding-starting trend, as well at trying different techniques, which is the point of these paintings.
To start this one, I washed the whole paper down, which is to say, I wiped the whole paper with water, waited a short bit for the paper to soak in the water, then started painting. Once wetted, I didn't rewet the paper, so different pigment spreads happened as I worked. The foreground shore was definitely watercolor pigment spread; the middle water was definitely post-drying, as the sections lack texture and gradients. The far shore was angled wrong, and I clearly used the wrong initial laydown of color for the far glacier.
I like that I worked quickly with this painting, even if it didn't turn out "better" than others of this series.
I've heard that these paintings appear to be abstracts, as I am not capturing the scenery depth. I'd like to work on that. This is what the scene is from a slightly greater distance.
Watercolor on paper, 3" x 2"
Previous versions: Reference 1 2 3 4
Finally with the Red
Daily Photo Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 20:43 on 3 May 2021
On my hike today, a successly lovely Zone 1 and Zone 2 hike, I had to stop to take a picture of these red flowers. I usually skip red anything in nature because the camera, any, all cameras, just doesn't capture reds well. This image is closer than most, I'm happy to say.
Multipliers
Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 14:22 on 30 April 2021, kitt created this:
This book was a women-in-tech book club book that I read, and missed the discussion about. I am disappointed I missed the discussion, as I really did not like this book. The basic premise of the book being that people in power positions (not going to say leader, because a lot of managers manage, they don't lead, and a lot of leaders don't lead, they manage, so let's call a duck a duck, and say people in power) are either diminishers or multipliers, either you cut down and reduce the productivity and usefulness of your subordinates, or you multiple the productivity and networks of your people.
And the two broad categories just don't work. I came to the book wanting to believe in this simplistic view, and just can't.
The first inclination of "eh.... your facts are incorrect" came with a tale of Apple:
For example, when Apple Inc. needed to achieve rapid growth with flat resources in one division, they didn’t expand their sales force. Instead, they gathered the key players across the various job functions, took a week to study the problem, and collaboratively developed a solution. They changed the sales model to utilize competency centers and better leverage their best salespeople and deep industry experts in the sales cycle. They achieved year-over-year growth in the double digits with virtually flat resources.
This is, quite frankly, complete and utter bullshit. A basic tenet of Apple culture is Harvard's definition of stress: accountability without authority. You are literally taught this in the new employee training classes. You are responsible for getting things done above and beyond any sort of reasonable expectations, and you are not given the resources or authority to get these tasks done, and you do it anyway. The whole "took a week to study the problem, and collaboratively developed a solution" is so far away from Apple culture that the Gell-Man Amnesia Effect punches you in the face. Twice.
So, keep reading. Soon, we come across the Shackleton tale of the newspaper ad:
In 1914, Ernest Shackleton, the venerated British explorer, embarked on an expedition to traverse Antarctica. His recruitment advertisement in The Times (London) read: Men wanted: For hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success. Surprisingly, hundreds of men applied. Shackleton, with the wisdom of an experienced captain, staffed his crew with men of a certain orientation—men who were attracted to adventure and recognition but who were also realistically prepared for the hardship they would face. No doubt Shackleton’s ability to attract the right team was one key factor in the survival of every member of the expedition.
The ad was never actually placed. It is a great element of the legend of Shackleton, widely told, and false.
So, if Wiseman is going to use this tall tale as an example of being a multiplier, and we refuse, again, to succumb to the Gell-Man Amnesia Effect, well, all of Wiseman's anecdotal evidence for the hypothesis of multipliers and diminishers becomes suspect.
Worse than either of these two tales, many of the examples of "diminishing" are actually full-on asshole behaviour. One doesn't need to think "diminisher" when experiencing assholes, one should think, "fuck off" and leave. In this case, The No Asshole Rule becomes a better book to recommend.
So, yeah, did not like this book, do not recommend this book. It is soft, it is impractical, and it is frustrating to read. A better read would be: "Be kind. Trust your people. Expect greatness. Have accountability. Don't borrow unhappiness."
Neko 004
Blog kitt decided around 20:31 on 28 April 2021 to publish this:My fourth of n watercolors of Neko Harbor, poorly lit. The image below was taken with the paint still wet, so the colors are different here than with the painting dry.
I started this one while on a call with Dad. He was talking. He's a Hodsden: when he manages a head of steam, he'll be talking for a more than a bit. Lord knows, I inherited that quality from him. Since he'd be talking for a while, I settled down at the table where I had my paints set up, and started painting. About half way through, he called me out on it. "You're distracted," he said. So, I explained to him what I was doing, and sent over the picture of Neko Harbour and my first two attempts. I sent over a picture of my in-progress picture, then received a lecture on how to learn to paint well. Dad said I should pick one technique and become very very good at it before moving on to the next technique. I countered, or try many, many, many variations of the same image and learn something new on every painting, because, let's be real: I don't need a mansplaining on how to paint from someone who has never tried to paint anything smaller than a house. I did laugh with Dad about it, when he admitted that no, he doesn't know how to paint, and that my suggestion was likely as good ( :\ ) as his.
Watercolor on paper, 3" x 2"
Previous versions: Reference 1 2 3
The Hidden Habits of Genius
Book Notes Posted by kitt at 15:59 on 28 April 2021
Near the beginning of this book, Wright asks his students, "Would you like to be a genius?" Given the school he was teaching at, many of the students raised their hands indicating yes. After the class on genius, most people realize that to be a genius, defined as a world changer not merely smart or have some arbitrarily high IQ, you kinda need to suffer: you're an asshole, or socially incompetent, or mentally off to the point of dysfunction, or some such. So, while actually being a genius might not be a goal worth attempting, some elements and characteristics of genius are worth the effort. Wright tells us those in this book.
What I can appreciate most about this book is the early chapter and direct callout of just how much women have been and are screwed in the areas of publishing, medicine, invention, politics, science, and, well, pretty much anything that isn't birthing babies and catering to the whims of men. Literally, the chapter is "Genius and Gender, the game is rigged." And it is. One can easily see that, "to be sure, the timeless stupidity of ignoring the intellectual potential of half of humanity is deeply embedded in our culture." Wright gives example after example of women screwed over by men. Just how stunningly fucked over Rosalind Franklin was by Watson and Crick and the "discovery" of the DNS helix, a discovery made by and with the research of Franklin, pisses me off stunningly even after reading the book. Like, because Franklin refused to be subservient to a less-gifted man, "Clearly Rosy had to go or be put in her place."
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Yeah, so, the biggest habit one can adopt to being a genius is clearly "be a guy."
The other habits are a bit easier to do, including the cases when you weren't born with a penis:
- Work hard.
- Avoid being a prodigy (or at least letting that prodigy shit go to your head)
- Maintain a child-like wonder (imagination) of the world
- Stay Curious (develop a lust for learning)
- Find your missing peace (or the journey IS the destination)
- Leverage your difference (if you're weird, go with it)
- Recognize being different (rebel, misfit, troublemakers) is the hard road, take it anyway
- Think the opposite (sorta the diffferent way of approaching problems
- Fail often and frequently, but keep going
- JFC, get lucky
And a couple more habits. I have to say I found the FB references more than a little offputting. Zuck is a horrible person on a number of levels, his criminal acts included. The FB parts of this book did not dissuade that fact. If one can endure those parts, this is a great book. Strongly recommended.