The biggest problem that has been occupying me in Paris is the construction of sets and the inter-dependence between individual pictures. I wrote an essay earlier on the slow building up of symbols and feelings that I’ve been attempting for the twilight set. In these pictures I’m trying something more obvious, just a straight, simple narrative. The light was good and I figured out a way to isolate my head in the apartment today. I didn’t make any noise.

• heads
• practice
• self portraits
• sets

Posted 2 years ago

One of the key mistakes made in art is the disregard for measuring things. The reason is obvious: the ultimate judgement of art is qualitative rather than quantitative. But research around expertise and the concepts of deliberate practice has shown us that the actual processes and methods and practice of art can and should be measured and tracked so that we can see where we stand, set goals, and know when we have achieved those goals. I’m not saying that the art should be measured with numbers, but the the acts in making art can be.

The goal is to systematically find and improve my photography through data driven, statistical techniques along with the usual methods I’ve used so far, such as studying other photographers.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll detail the problems I currently have around:

1. Technical aspects of shooting, such as focus issues, exposure etc.
2. The content of the photography: the ideas I want to explore, the way to get access, editing etc
3. Distribution and presentation of the stories

and propose solutions and how improvement can be measured.

• deliberate
• practice
• statistics
• method
• beginning

Posted 2 years ago

A key part of deliberate practice is building strong, expansive mental models of your domain space, and to do that experts are very effective at using their long term memories. Here are some tips on how this can be done (from helpguide.org) with some comments on how I currently go about things:

1. Pay attention. It’s pretty amazing how little attention you pay to things you come across during the day. For example, I didn’t encode the tips that Colvin lays out in his article that I mention in the previous post at all and can’t recall them without looking them up. Having the motivation to pay careful attention (at least 8 seconds is required apparently) is crucial.
2. Memorise using the method that best for you. I am, likely the vast majority of people a visual/textual and experiential learner.
3. Use as many senses as possible. The more, and more different senses that you can use like saying something out aloud, writing it down as well as looking at it, the better chance of it being retained.
4. Connect new information to things you already know. It makes the information more vivid and understandable and easier to remember. I suspect I do this already on a very rudimentary level. Also, the benefits from this would accrue, as the better your memory, the more easily you can connect old information to new.
5. Structure information into organised sections, by categorising, writing down, modelling, connecting etc. This ties in with the next point:
6. Really understand the underlying ideas of complex topics. Don’t concentrate on the huge amount of details, but the core concepts and be able to explain these principles to someone else. Really understand the issues.
7. Learn things repeatedly over a long period of time. Come back and relearn things. Learn things beyond when you can already recite it back.
8. Stay positive and motivated.
9. Learn some mnemonics and other strategies.

• deliberate
• practice
• memory
• expertise

Posted 2 years ago

Geoff Colvin, author of a book on deliberate practice, has written a well known article on deliberate practice in Fortune. He is very good on explaining the basics:

“It’s activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don’t get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that’s deliberate practice.

Consistency is crucial. As Ericsson notes, ‘Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends.’ “

He also offers some decent tips for doing deliberate practice:

1. “Approach each critical task with an explicit goal of getting much better at it.
2. As you do the task, focus on what’s happening and why you’re doing it the way you are.
3. After the task, get feedback on your performance from multiple sources. Make changes in your behavior as necessary.
4. Continually build mental models of your situation - your industry, your company, your career. Enlarge the models to encompass more factors.
5. Do those steps regularly, not sporadically. Occasional practice does not work.”

The article is business focused but a key criticism that others have made of Colvin’s work is that it tends to ignore the influence of great coaching as a source of motivation, constant and constructive feedback, and source of inspiration. I guess that’s not such a possibility for managers in their 40s.

• colvin
• geoff
• deliberate
• practice
• expertise

Posted 2 years ago

What we now know is that people learn to become very good at something by intense deliberate practice of relevant tasks consistently over a long period of time; two sessions of an hour and half, everyday, for at least ten years (main paper by Ericsson et al (pdf), softer read in the HBR). Deliberate practice is quite different to other domain tasks such as an actual performance, research, play, networking etc. Quite simply, exceptional performers work longer, smarter, and harder than others who are merely good (p.379 in Ericsson paper (pdf)):

Deliberate practice involves structured activities that are targeted at solely improving performance. It is often repetitive, narrowly focused, and feedback is readily available so that corrections to technique can be made quickly. An example would be the drills that top tier sports stars often commit themselves to. These are discrete tasks like putting systematically from 2 meters, then 4, then 8 meters away from the hole in golf. 
The challenge is to think about how to begin a course of deliberate practice in photography. To do that you need to:

1. identify the key tasks that drive successful photos and photostories,
2. work out a schedule for practice,
3. and be able to measure improvements and achieve concrete goals.

I better get a move on (p.387 in Ericsson paper (pdf)):

• deliberate
• practice
• ericsson
• expertise

Posted 2 years ago