Learning from other fields and cross-training

As I get older, I feel like scientists aren't really good at anything except science. Not that this is entirely surprising or that we should expect scientists to be amazing writers, speakers, etc. But if you're a scientist, you spend all your time immersed in the scientific community, thinking that the quality of writing or presentations that you see there are really the way things should be... well, you should go look at essays in the New Yorker or The Atlantic, or watch TED speakers or theatre performers or standup comics. The professionals of every field tend to have their strengths and weaknesses. If you want to shore up your weaknesses, go look for a field where that particular weakness is a strength, learn from those people, and use them as your inspiration. If you look outside your field, I think you'll have a huge leg up over others.

In sports, we call this cross-training. Athletes have no problem taking up yoga to help their hockey goaltending skills, for instance.

Why shoot film?

I was thinking the other day that I could really improve my photography skills if I tried shooting film. It's a well-known technique in creativity to try doing things different ways to sharpen your mind.

There are some strong technical reasons to shoot film. Film is "high resolution". It has a distinctive look that will make you standout when 99% of the other people are shooting digital. It has a huge dynamic range, though that requires that you have the dark room skills to manipulate your prints. (You don't have to worry about blowing highlights or overexposed skies when you shoot film.)

Another good reason to shoot film is that you're viewed as a hobbyist and not a pro. This is especially helpful if you're doing street photography, you're shooting strangers, and you don't want people to freak out about you being some kind of creep.

I'm more interested in how shooting film makes you a better photographer. So I looked around the web to see what other people thought. One woman mentions that since you only have a roll of 24-36 exposures, you have to make every shot count. You work slowly and patiently and really think about your composition and exposure settings. The fact that each exposure is precious and risky is more like real life, living moment to moment.

Eric Kim says that most of his film shots look great without any processing. Imagine all the perfectionist angst you'll avoid if you have to wait for your film to be developed and have no control over the development (assuming that you send your film to a lab and don't develop prints yourself.) You don't sit in front of the computer all day long. Eric says that the wait helps him look at his photos for objectively rather than get caught up in the emotions of the moment (which happens when you are chimping off the back of your digital SLR). You also appreciate your mistakes more. You find the beauty in incorrectly exposed shots.

Some more reasons: If you get a manual exposure, manual focus camera, you'll learn a lot more about photography. Learning how to focus manually is very handy, even for digital shooting. My friend, who used to be a pro photographer, told me that when he shoots sports, he always uses manual focus because he can get better results than the AF. Digital photos have this perfectionist, sterile look to them, whereas film has an inherent feeling of chaos, which is unique.

Thought of the day: Character is universal, plot is not

I realized today why the great actors do character driven stories.  It's because

Character is universal, plot is not.

All creative people strive to create something lasting that says something universal about the human condition or nature.  In the end, no one cares about tedious plot details.  Enough with the constant exposition and twists.  It's not that interesting.  Mysteries are so arbitrary; the audience is at the mercy of the writer.  That's why I get sick of TV shows like Lost, 24, and (the later seasons of) Alias.

OK, you need some plot, but just enough to make the story and characters work.

Unexpected conversations in the medical library

I had heard about a new exhibit in the medical library. It's based upon the collection of a famous American neurosurgeon who lived around the turn of the 20th century. I visited at the spur of the moment, since I had just finished a workshop in the same building. There were hundreds of jars containing brains and brain tumors, even a technical document by the architectural firm that designed the exhibit. When I was about to leave the exhibit, a woman approached me and asked me if she could answer questions about the exhibit. She had been giving a tour while I was looking around.

Looking back, it was a serendipitous conversation. I didn't expect to run into an artist who was working on the exhibit and who taught photography at the art school I had attended (she doesn't teach there anymore). She was an exceptional conversationalist. She was receptive, open-minded, and kept the focus of the conversation on me for the first ten minutes. Can you think of anyone who does that? I can't.

I asked her why put so much effort into this exhibit. She said that a lot of medical collections like this have been thrown away. So it's important to preserve this particular collection.

I also asked her a lot of questions about photography. She told me that if you are a good wet lab printer, you'll be a good digital printer. The terminology is the same. She showed me some prints she made for the exhibit and I couldn't tell the difference from the silver nitrate prints (the gold standard for film). The quality is that good.

She made some interesting remarks about art education. I told her about how frustrated I felt when learning how to draw. I always felt like my work wasn't very good. She said that her friends in art education find that even children are expressing the same "I'm-not-good-enough" attitude by fifth grade. She also mentioned that today's children are constantly presented with processed 2D images on a screen, to the point that they don't know how to think spatially before. Drawing is the process of observing a 3D scene, interpreting it, and rendering it on a 2D surface. This makes me think that more kids should learn drawing.

We spent a long time talking and I'm grateful that she took the time to enlighten me.

What I've learned about making photobooks

I recently completed by first photobook. I used Adoramapix's online Flash software and had the book printed by Adorama, but my discussion should apply to making any photobook.

I wasted a lot of time because I would process a photo, put it into the photobook, and then move on to the next photo and do the same. Then I would realize that I didn't want to use that photo or that it was cropped wrong or that there was a color cast. Then I'd have to go back and fix it.

You should start by cropping and throwing the photos into the book making software, without any further corrections. Then move the photos around, swap photos in and out. Then wait a week or two and come back to it. Spend some time re-arranging the photos, swapping photos, etc. When you are reasonably sure of your design and layout, THEN start playing with color balance and curves. If you have a group of photos taken in the same lighting situation, record and use the same color settings for all of them. Be especially careful to make colors consistent for photos on the same spread. From your rough layout, you should know what size your photos need to be for 300 dpi. Crop your photos to exactly 300 dpi or whatever resolution the printer claims to use. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of the booking software for resizing your photos.

Be careful what font you use. Frankly, most people, including myself, have no taste in typography. What looks good on the screen is usually not good for print. John Paul Caponigro has some advice on good fonts for photobooks.

Fountain pens

As if I needed another hobby. I love writing implements, so I guess it was an inevitability that I would discover fountain pens. Thanks to the awesome online store JetPens, I picked up a few items.

The first pen is the Lamy AL-Star. It's regarded as one of the best "cheap" fountain pens. The body is made out of shiny royal blue aluminum and it has a wonderful ergonomic grip. This pen came with the extra fine nib and I used the included ink cartridge (a pretty standard blue). The point was amazingly fine, but a little scratchy. The Lamy is definitely the classiest looking of the three pens.

Lamy AL-Star writing sample:


Lamy AL-Star closeup:


The second pen is the Platinum Preppy with the 03 fine nib. I used it as an eyedropper pen, so it's technically a fountain pen that has been converted. I got one of the Noodler's Ink kits from JetPens. It includes a bottle of Noodler's Ink (in this case, Polar Blue) and a Platinum Preppy modified to be an eyedropper pen. I really liked the color of the ink. It's blue, but not the typical disposable pen blue ink. Noodler's claims that the ink is waterproof and forge-proof. I loved writing with this pen. So smooth.

Platinum Preppy writing sample:


Platinum Preppy closeup:



The last pen I tried was the Kaweco Sport Classic. It was recommended by as a good fountain pen to convert into a eyedropper by Writer's Bloc. There is no size specification on the nib, but it seems like a medium point. It came with a blue ink cartridge, which I inserted. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting the ink to start. This pen seems the most "buggy" out of the three. I have to draw a bunch of test strokes before I can get the ink flowing reliably. I'm not sure if the pen is defective or if I have to try some tricks, but I find that I have to press down with the nib. Fountain pens are supposed to flow easily without pressure. The nice feature of the pen is that it's so small. I haven't tried converting it to an eyedropper yet.

Kaweco Sport Classic writing sample:


Kaweco Sport Classic closeup:


Here is a comparison of writing with all three pens.


My favorite pen thus far is the Platinum Preppy. Amazing for a $3 pen!

My favorite LaTeX font

My favorite LaTeX font is the so-called "palatino." Apparently, it's not really palatino, but a clone. Still, I use it on CVs and resumes to impress people. I especially love the "old style" numbers where the "6" and "8" are shifted up. It's hard to find information about this font. The only substantive page I found was from the LaTeX font catalogue.

Link of the day: The Atheon

I recently read about the erection of a "temple to science" called the Atheon in Berkeley, California. It sounds pretty cool. The artist used WMAP cosmological data in stained glass windows!

There is also an official site for the Atheon, but there isn't much information there yet.

High-tech Japan running out of engineers

This morning walking to work, I remembered reading an interesting New York Times article entitled "High-tech Japan running out of engineers." Japan running out of engineers? That seems impossible! Here are some reasons given in the article:

But according to educators, executives and young Japanese themselves, the young here are behaving more like Americans: choosing better-paying fields like finance and medicine, or more purely creative careers, like the arts, rather than following their salaryman fathers into the unglamorous world of manufacturing.

Later in the article:

Japan’s biggest problem may be the attitudes of affluence. Some young Japanese, products of a rich society, unfamiliar with the postwar hardships many of their parents and grandparents knew, do not see the value in slaving over plans and numbers when they could make money, have more contact with other people or have more fun.

And a little later in the article:

“Students today are more demanding and individualistic, like Westerners,” said Hitoshi Kawaguchi, senior vice president in charge of human resources at Nissan.

I would like to write a rejoinder that engineering is not worse than finance, medicine, and art as a career, but it's hard for me to say, since I know nothing about Japanese culture.

I must be really old-fashioned. I don't consider myself "demanding and individualistic." Still, if engineering is becoming as respected as plumbing, that doesn't bode well for scientific literacy in first world countries. It disturbs me how Asian culture is shifting towards Western values. I hope traditional Asian values like family, discipline, and respect for elders don't disappear.

Song of the day: "Beautiful" by Stephen Sondheim

A very poignant song about the nature of beauty.

From Sunday in the Park with George

OLD LADY:
Changing...
It keeps changing.
I see towers
Where there were trees.
Going,
All the stillness,
The solitude,
Georgie.
Sundays,
Disappearing
All the time,
When things were beautiful...

GEORGE:
All things are beautiful,
Mother,
All trees, all towers,
Beautiful.
That tower-
Beautiful, Mother,
See?
A perfect tree.

Pretty isn't beautiful, Mother,
Pretty is what changes.
What the eye arranges
Is what is beautiful.

OLD LADY:
Fading...

GEORGE:
I'm changing.
You're changing.

OLD LADY:
It keeps fading...

GEORGE:
I'll draw us now before we fade,
Mother.

OLD LADY:
It keeps melting
Before our eyes.

GEORGE:
You watch
While I revise the world.

OLD LADY:
Changing,
As we sit here-
Quick, draw it all,
Georgie...

BOTH:
Sundays-

OLD LADY:
Disappearing,
As we look-

GEORGE:
Look!... Look!...

OLD LADY:
You make it beautiful.
Oh, Georgie, how I long for the old view.

Song of the day: "Children and Art" by Stephen Sondheim

Another poignant song which reinforces the idea that children and art are the only things that really last in life. The song is especially poignant because the actress performing it has to do it in the fragile, tired voice of a 80+ year old person.

From Sunday in the Park with George

MARIE:
You would have liked him,
Mama, you would.
Mama, he makes things-
Mama, they're good.
Just as you said from the start:
Children and art...
Children and art...

He should be happy-
Mama, he's blue.
What do I do?

You should have seen it,
It was a sight?
Mama, I mean it-
All color and light-!
I don't understand what it was,
But, Mama, the things that he does-
They twinkle and shimmer and buzz-
You would have liked them...
It...
Him...

Henry... Henry?... Henry...

GEORGE:
It's George, Grandmother.

MARIE:
Of course it is. I thought you were your father for a moment.
Did I tell you who that was?

GEORGE:
Of course. That is your mother.

MARIE:
Isn't she beautiful?
There she is-
There she is, there she is, there she is-
Mama is everywhere,
He must have loved her so much...

GEORGE:
Is she really in all those places, Marie?

MARIE:
This is our family-
This is the lot.
After I go, this is
All that you've got, honey-
Wasn't she beautiful, though?

You would have liked her.
Mama did things
No one had done.
Mama was funny,
Mama was fun,
Mama spent money
When she had none.

Mama said, "Honey,
Mustn't be blue.
It's not so much do what you like
As it is that you like what you do:"
Mama said, "Darling,
Don't make such a drama,
A little less thinking,
A little more feeling-"
I'm just quoting Mama...
The child is so sweet...
And the girls are so rapturous...
Isn't it lovely how artists can capture us?

GEORGE:
Yes, it is, Marie.

MARIE:
You would have liked her-
Honey, I'm wrong,
You would have loved her.

Mama enjoyed things.
Mama was smart.
See how she shimmers
I mean from the heart.

I know, honey, you don't agree,
But this is our family tree.
Just wait till we're there, and you'll see-
Listen to me...
Mama was smart...
Listen to Mama...
Children and art...
Children and art...
Goodbye, Mama.

Song of the day: "Finishing the Hat" by Stephen Sondheim

Some people have called this Sondheim's most brilliant song. I'm not sure I agree, but it is beautiful and expresses the bittersweet nature of doing creative work. It's lonely and oppressive, but you have to keep working if you want to get anything done, even if it means shutting out the rest of the world.

From the musical Sunday in the Park with George

Mademoiselles...
You end me, pal...
Second bottle...
Ah, she looks for me...
Bonnet flapping...
Yapping...
Ruff!...
Chicken...
Pastry...
Yes, she looks for me-good.
Let her look for me to tell me why she left me-
As I always knew she would.
I had thought she understood.
They have never understood,
And no reason that they should.
But if anybody could...
Finishing the hat,
How you have to finish the hat.
How you watch the rest of the world
From a window
While you finish the hat.

Mapping out a sky.
What you feel like, planning a sky.
What you feel when voices that come
Through the window
Go
Until they distance and die,
Until there's nothing but sky
And how you're always turning back too late
From the grass or the stick
Or the dog or the light,
How the kind of woman willing to wait's
Not the kind that you want to find waiting
To return you to the night,
Dizzy from the height,
Coming from the hat,
Studying the hat,
Entering the world of the hat,
Reaching through the world of the hat
Like a window,
Back to this one from that.

Studying a face,
Stepping back to look at a face
Leaves a little space in the way like a window,
But to see-
It's the only way to see.

And when the woman that you wanted goes,
You can say to yourself, "Well, I give what I give."
But the women who won't wait for you knows
That, however you live,
There's a part of you always standing by,
Mapping out the sky,
Finishing a hat...
Starting on a hat..
Finishing a hat...
Look, I made a hat...
Where there never was a hat

Link of the day: Stanford commencement speech by Dana Gioia

Dana Gioia gave the 2007 Stanford commencement speech about the deteriorating importance of diverse and high quality culture in American society. This topic has interested me in the past; see the following posts on 17 June 2005 and 4 February 2005.

Gioia proposes:

There is an experiment I'd love to conduct. I'd like to survey a cross-section of Americans and ask them how many active NBA players, Major League Baseball players, and American Idol finalists they can name.

Then I'd ask them how many living American poets, playwrights, painters, sculptors, architects, classical musicians, conductors, and composers they can name.

I'd even like to ask how many living American scientists or social thinkers they can name.

So I'm going to take this test. (Note to make it fair, the athletes and American Idol finalists must also be living Americans.)

Active American NBA players: Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Dwayne Wade, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Stephon Marsbury, Steve Francis, Carmelo Anthony

Active American MLB players: Alex Rodriguez, Curt Schilling, Greg Maddux, Derek Jeter, Barry Bonds, Tim Linceum, Barry Zito, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Mike Piezza

American idol finalists: Fantasia

Living American poets: Allen Ginsburg, Robert Pinsky, (unfortunately T.S. Eliot is already dead)

Living American playwrights: (unfortunately August Wilson died and Tom Stoppard is not American)

Living American painters: ummm.... (I think Georgia O'Keefe and Jackson Pollack are dead already)

Living American sculptors: Maya Lin (there was this Guggenheim exhibit I went to featuring a sculptor but I can't remember his name)

Living American architects: I.M. Pei (Frank Lloyd Wright is long dead)

Living American classical musicians, conductors, composers: Michael Tilson Thomas, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, van Cliburn, Wynton Marsalis

Living American scientists: Barbara McClintock, Bruce Alberts, (can't think of any American chemists), physicists: Alan Guth, Sean Carroll, Kip Thorne, Edward "Rocky" Kolb, Frank Wilczek, Bob Jaffe, Washington Taylor IV, Ed Witten, Peter Fisher, John arris, John Joannopoulos, Matthew Fisher, Dan Fisher, Leon Balents, Phil Anderson, Steve Girvin, Doug Stone, Sohrab Ismail-Beigi, Eric Hudson, Don Eigler, Mike Crommie, Paul McEuen, Rob Schoelkopf, Dan Prober, Sean Barrett, Jack Harris, Dave DeMille, David Awschalom, Isaac Chuang, David Pritchard, Dan Kleppner

Living American social thinkers: (I guess Malcolm Gladwell is Canadian)

Total
20 active American NBA/MLB players and American Idol finalists
10 living American poets, playwrights, painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, conductors, composers
33 living American scientists

If you omit scientists (I'm just a little advantaged), I'm doing mediocre on my culture. I can explain this with several reasons. First, the high culture scene is much more international than the NBA/MLB or American (hullo) Idol. Also, I don't spend much time on modern (1960+) culture except for music. But Gioia is right that there is hardly any media coverage of arts in America.

Non-science daily reading

I try to maintain a balanced perspective on life, despite leading a demanding life in science. Most people I know, including myself, read the news. I favor the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The liberal tone of the New York Times balances with the pro-conservative flavor of the Wall Street Journal. In terms of depth, I spend extra time on sports (go San Jose Sharks!) and technology news. For some literature, I read the Writer's Almanac, which gives me a bite-sized amount of poetry and history (mostly leaning towards dead white people). Finally, I look at some photography blogs including David Kleinart (nature), Stuck in Customs (high dynamic range), and A Walk Through Durham Township. Looking at exotic images transports me to a new place.

Fonts for computer presentations

I prefer sans-serif fonts for presentations and I've been looking around for alternatives to the ubiquitous Arial. Here are two I like: Verdana (standard on most computers) and MgOpen Moderna (description, download).

Rob Gonsalves paintings

I found this link of M.C. Escher-like, surreal paintings via Ramit Sethi's finance blog. The artist is apparently Rob Gonsalves and many of the images in the link are from his two picture books, "Imagine a Day" and "Imagine a Night".

A commencement speech for artists and graphic designers

Spotted on Ian Ybarra's blog, a commencement speech for artists and graphic designers.

It's a pretty good speech and voices an unusual opinion -- that the future belongs to right-brained people. My favorite part is the three step process in a new job.

Peggy Noonan, who wrote speeches for President Reagan, said she had a three-stage reaction to working in the White House.

Stage One: I hope nobody figures out how stupid I am.

Stage Two, after few months in the White House: Hey, I'm as smart as everyone else.

Then a few months later came Stage Three: Oh my God, we're in charge?

Link of the day: Art of Science

And you thought art had nothing to do with science. Check out the Princeton Art of Science Competition webpage for some mind-blowing pictures.

Public art - Bottleproject

A friend of mine sent me a link to an interesting art project in Philadelphia. It's the work of a UPenn student.

The idea is to put messages in bottles and place the bottles around the city, then see what happens. There is an email address on the bottles so people can write back to say where they found the bottle.

Jack Frost Designs

One of my fascinations in life is with snow and ice. This morning, I came across a New York Times video about a man who takes pictures of ice formations on his greenhouse windows.