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It has only occurred to me recently that I need to build my knowledge tree. The reason I have been procrastinating for so long is that I want to have a one tree that everything in my head can hang onto. Guess what, I haven’t found such big tree trunk that could rule them all. Then, I realize I can have many small trees in my garden! They are still great! I can merge them when my knowledge grows.

Here is some trees that are important to me:

1. Economics
2. Artistic knowledge
3. The knowledge of creating things, building things
4. Finance
5. Evolution biology
6. Investment
7. Sport
8. Psychology
9. Perfumery?

The list could go on, but I feel like I do need to consolidate some and find some common themes to merge some of the trees. It’s best for me to acquire and apply knowledge once I could find the common principles for many domains. It’s more efficient and effective to operate from a set of limited principles.

While I was eating dinner tonight I was thinking that all art draws inspirations from reality. I mean, it’s a cliché to use that phase, but my interpretation, or my take is that we don’t want to be slave to the reality, but we need to, and must, create artwork based on the reality.

For example, there are a lot of figurative drawings that have spot on accuracy, and perfect rendering, but often they don’t move me. Or they have this quietness to them that doesn’t make me feel much. It’s a great drawing, but they are a bit mechanical and too factual. There is no fire nor energy in the work. Does great drawings require this passion to be great? Not necessarily. Quiet drawings have tremendous power that could transform the viewer and the creator too. Even a technical drawing could move people sometimes. But for god’s sake please don’t make something without our heart in it. Great art demands the artist’s energy from the deepest level of the self.

I believe great artwork is based on reality, and transcends reality. That’s why I like Egon Schiele’s work. Not that I like his tormented sexuality stuff, but his ability to create energetic, and emotionally charged artwork that’s based on the human figures. Schiele has a good foundation in academic drawing, and human anatomy, and I believe that’s why he could manipulate the figures to support what he wants to say, through the human figure. Another cliché “you can make anything about anything” also applies to human figures too. Schiele use the figures to express who he is, which I believe is one of the major functions of what art is about.

It just hit me yesterday that I need to make something of quality. Probably it’s David Dornan’s teachings are taking effect in my brain, and somehow it resonates with me at a deep level.

The truth is, I felt like I haven’t made anything of quality for a long time. I need to leave something great in this world. A nice painting, a good website, some nice sculptures, or whatever. Quality is much more important than money, and I start to understand what quality means in the Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Quality is something beautiful and unique, and it has integrity, a life of its own, and it’s uncorrupted. It might have flaws, and it’s definitely not perfect, but it’s good and shines an energy that’s recognizable universally.

I need to make something of quality.

What should I do in those four days? I don’t think I am going to read any programming books. I probably will read some printmaking books, or maybe JB’s behavior books. Who knows.

I am excited to write a little parser using Python though, when I come back. It shouldn’t be too hard.

Maybe I should start thinking about the game while I am gone. Maybe I should dive into the creative side a bit more in those four days.

That sounds exciting, some game design!

One Yin/Yang dissection of printmaking is treat the image creation as the feminine, and the techniques as the masculine. Because the masculinity of printmaking is so unique, compared to other mediums, the images are predetermined to be different from those mediums.

There is a certain kind of femininity only goes well with certain kind of masculinity. Printmaking’s femininity has its own masculinity, and we need to be aware of that.

At the end of the day, why do I use printmaking to make an image? Why don’t I use painting to make the same image? Is there any differences?

Why am I in the printshop all the time, but not in the painting studio? We need to think about that.

Printmaking is a technology. It speeds up image creation and duplication dramatically. The invention of printers is another break through in image duplication, and in its essence is automation.

Automation is elimination of human intervention while speeding up the production. If you have a billion summations you need to calculate, but you can let the transistors do it, that’s a computer. We can also have a million humans do the same calculations, if everyone’s results are correct, the results are exactly the same, the speed is a lot slower though, haha. The magic of computer is that it’s fast and auto.

A huge part of printmaking is the involvement of technology. The nature of technology is automation and scalability. If we are looking at the technological aspect of printmaking, then we are talking about scale.

Then there is the artistic part of printmaking, which relies on technology, but technology is not what’s important. The art of printmaking is what we are really looking at.

1. They are small steps toward the big goal
2. They are scouts gathering important information for the real effort
3. They are small steps bringing down the dream, down to earth to make it a reality
4. They are exercises that help you prepare for the big effort
5. They are low cost
6. They are experiments
7. They give you pointers for things to avoid

Test Driven Development is Demand Driven Development in disguise. From the first test case written, we already pictured a great API or object with perfect methods waiting for us to be used. Along the way of our development, we can also picture a perfect class or methods that takes objects that we naturally created in the most convenient fashion and does all the magical things.

The implementation of these ideas sometimes might have to take some compromises, but that’s the negotiation between day-dreaming and one’s technical abilities. I believe as one’s ability improves, he can execute closer and closer to his imaginations.

Toyota’s just-in-time production system is another example of this demand driven development. They only produce when the pull is there. The pull is an external force from the customers. In design, or painting, or printmaking, the customer is the imagination in my head, which has certain demand, or requirements for the technical department to fulfill.

These demands could be translated into tests, which is a small step converting dreams into realities. The small step might seem trivial, but it’s a concerted effort towards the dream. It’s a small step, but it’s a meaningful step. This step is the first attempt to bring the dream down to earth and make it a reality. A truly zero to one moment. There might be many other problems this small step can’t solve, but, it does solve some problems and point the project into a concrete direction, because it actualize the dream through materials.

Small tests are not tests, they are small steps making the dream a reality.

Fear stops you from trying new things. Fear limits growth. Fear prevents discoveries. Fear makes you feel small. And the most scary thing about fear is that fear begets fear.

I am glad that there are already answers out there, but to put it simply, “feel the fear and do it anyway!” But on top of that, I want to add “and do it with violent confidence!” (I got that from a Seal buddy. Normally I would just so say do it confidently, but him being a Seal, I think execute with violent confidence is on point, and needed!)