All posts by Steve Stern

Quantity is quality

Photography

There is a story in Art
And Fear that goes:

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.

I first heard this story in a photography class given by the authors of  Art and Fear, Ted Orland and David Bayles and it seems to go against everything I have heard about Art Photography. Art Photography, almost by definition, is shot with a big camera on a tripod – think the great Ansel Adams. (double click for full impact)

Ansel 

The upside is that these pictures can be blown up to huge sizes – like 30×40 inches; the problem is – using a big camera, even a 4×5 (inch negative) – the photographer gets very few pictures. That means the learning curve is pretty flat. With digital cameras, after the initial investment, the pictures are almost free. The photographer can take lots of pictures and, if the photographer is interested, the learning curve can be much steeper.

As the following photos from The Big Picture ( Boston.com), at a place and time like the Olympics, where there are lots of photographers shooting digital and paying attention, the results can be pronominal. If you are at all interested in photography, check it out. (Again, they get bigger if you double click.)

Luge

Skaters

Fall of Rome, ctd.

Uncategorized

Large_Iraq_US_Troops

Tom Ricks has an editorial in the New York Times – herein after called NYT – on why we should stay in Iraq

As a longtime critic of the American invasion of Iraq, I am not happy
about advocating a continued military presence there. Yet, to echo the
counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen, just because you invade a
country stupidly doesn’t mean you should leave it stupidly.

I like Ricks – alot – and read his blog on a fairly regular basis and I will readily admit that he know more about Iraq than I ever will but I think he is dead wrong. We should get out and let the chips fall where they might. It just seems to me that staying in Iraq because the Iraqis can not govern themselves smacks of the old time White Man's Burden. It is just plain chauvinistic.

Imagine how we would feel if Britain had used the Civil War as a reason to occupy the United States. About 625,000 soldiers were killed in the Civil War and an estimated additional 325,000 civilians in the lead up to the Civil War and the aftermath. That is probably more than have been killed in Iraq since 2003 and the US then and Iraq now are about comparable populations.Every pole I have seen – which I'll grant is not very many – says that the Iraqis want us gone.

But, more importantly to me, is that our being in Iraq is hurting us. Us as in the United States. We are spending money we don't have to be there.It seems to me that every country that has tried to do what we are trying to do – fight endless wars – destroys itself.

The cows are back

Americana, San Mateo County

Behind Stanford in the area known as The Dish, every winter, somebody brings in cows to graze. I have read in the local paper that the last people to graze their cows said It is impossible to make money
grazing. and quit – or, atleast threatened to quit. But, the cows are back. Usually, there are only trees, parallel cow trails along the steep hills and impossibly green grass. 

Cows are back

Cows are back-2

 But once again, there are seemingly very happy cows.

Cows are back-3

Watching the Olympics and thinking about New Stories

Evolution, Games, War

Afghan women

The other night, some friends came over for dinner and part of the conversation revolved around how our myths or stories no longer fit a new reality. Mankind – well, the USA and Russia for sure, and probably Britain, France, and China – have the ability to detonate enough nuclear weaponry to destroy mankind and yet we continue to act as if that were not the case..

I remember reading an article about two traditional Afghan villages getting in a Hatfield-McCoy fight sometime after the Afghans drove the, then, Soviets out of Afghanistan. The feud had been going on for many years in a cold war sort of way. To patch things up, the daughter of one family – let's say Delbar (meaning sweetheart) Durani – was married to the son of the other family – let's say Fariad (meaning outspoken) Mamadzai. 

A couple of months later, Delbar did something that pissed Fariad off and he beat her. Now Delbar, who had perhaps been too coddled as a child, did not like being beat up. The second time Fariad beat her, she snuck away and returned to her village. This put the Duranis in a bind, they either had to take Delbar in or return her. If they returned her, she would probably continue to be beat up; if they took her in, then the Mamadzais would be dissed.

They took her in and the feud was renewed. But this time, both families had AK47s and rocket grenade launchers. This time, the fight was short and lethal. The majority of the men of both villages were simply wiped out. The rules hadn't changed, the stories they built their lives around hadn't changed but the equipment had. The old ways no longer fit the new reality.

AFGHN-10083NF8

So, I sit here watching the Olympics and thinking about how every contest is a zero sum game. This high ideal – this lofty gathering is for somebody to win – for some nation to win. And that means somebody – some other nation – has to lose. And I thought how much that reflected almost everything in our modern world. 

Everything is about winning. I read recently that most people would prefer to make $100,000/year if everybody else was making $80,000/year compared to making $150,000/year with everybody else making $200,000/year. Think about it: we would prefer to make less – be able to buy less – if it was more than the next guy. 

And that led me to thinking about how much different it would be if the Olympics were about cooperation rather than conflict. What if cooperation were the ideal. What if everybody doing better were the ideal.

How about a bobsled contest in which a gold medal would only be awarded if the average time of all the competitors were were no more than 2% higher than the fastest competitor. In other words, to win a gold medal, the fastest guys would have to make sure the slowest guys went faster. How would that change our story of what a winner is?