Crisis Competence

Jan 1, ’21 5:54 PM

A surprise of the pandemic has been how well many older adults have adapted to the restrictions. “There’s crisis competence,” said Mark Brennan-Ing, a senior research scientist at Hunter College’s Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging. “As we get older, we get the sense that we’re going to be able to handle it, because we’ve been able to handle challenges in the past. You know you get past it. These things happen, but there’s an end to it, and there’s a life after that.”

“How the Oldest Old Can Endure Even This” – The New York Times

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Inaction.

Dec 30, ’20 7:05 PM

“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.” – Bill Gates

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Oscillations

Dec 23, ’20 1:14 AM
Eelke Kleijn - New Album "Oscillations"
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Wallace

Dec 22, ’20 8:33 PM

“He learned his lesson in third year, when, after he had passed his preliminary exams, Simone pulled him into her office to debrief. She sat behind her desk with her legs crossed, a beautiful winter day lying white and smooth behind her, all the way to the lake, that blue-white churn and the trees like delicate woodwork in a diorama. He felt good about himself. He felt, for the first time since coming to grad school, like he was finally doing what she always urged him to do — catching up — and he imagined that he saw pride in her eyes. He was excited. he was ready to begin in earnest — to really begin. And she asked, How do you think that went? And he said Oh, well, I thought it was okay. And she shook her head grimly. She said, You know, Wallace, that was … frankly, I was embarrassed for you. Had that been another student, it might have gone differently. You might not have passed. But we talked a long time about what was feasible for you, what was reasonable for your abilities, and we decided we’d pass you, but we are going to watch you, Wallace. No more of this. You need to get better. She spoke as though she was bestowing blessings. Bestowing beneficence. Bestowing irrefutable grace. She spoke as though she was saving him. What could he say? What could he do?”

Nothing. Except to work.“

Real Life, by Brandon Taylor

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2019-20

Nov 2, ’20 2:13 AM

“It is we in particular, those remorselessly skilled at not giving up, who need to hear a curious-sounding lesson in being a little less loyal. We need to hear that, surprisingly, some people just don’t change: that their characters have been bolted shut through trauma and there is no chance that they will ever – whatever they may say and however intensely they promise – display any evolution. We need to hear that surprisingly, some people aren’t entirely good and we aren’t necessarily the problem. We need to learn to blame and get annoyed with someone other than ourselves. We need to do something very strange: walk away. This is no sign of cowardice or weakness of character. It’s a sign that we have (finally) learnt to love ourselves and so place our needs where these should always have been: at the center of our considerations.”

The School of Life, The Capacity to Give up on People

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Bernard Herrmann

Oct 13, ’20 6:04 PM

“He was a genius at thinking of combinations of instruments to produce the effect that he wanted. I remember on ‘Twisted Nerve’ he showed me some of the score, there are like nine bass clarinets and three contrabassoons, and he said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I think it’s going to sound very dark.’ He says, ‘I want it to sound very dark.'”

“He was such a fierce proponent of people pursuing an individual style. He hated the idea of fads and fashions in music, from what I can gather, and in film that’s very often subject to fads and fashions, and you also have to really work and compromise with other people – so it’s really interesting that he found himself in film.”

“The easiest advice to give can be the hardest to follow. Lurking in the back of the mind of anyone making music will be a mental note to do their own thing and not follow the pack, but it takes strength to not be influenced by the greats, especially in an industry that, whatever sense of experiment it likes to pay lip service to, is often magnetically attracted to the tried and tested. Herrmann, whose emotions ran, like his music, on a romantic cocktail of agony and ectasy, had an honest need for acceptance, but he would never let that stop him going his own way, however lonely that path was.”

Spitfire Audio Annual, Issue 1

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Transdisciplinary

Oct 10, ’20 3:25 PM

“Seemingly contrasting fields, when brought together, inform each other through the collision of ideas, transform into a new dimension greater than each alone and transmute beyond any perceived expectations.”

Hiroshi ISHII / MIT Media Lab

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Atman Binstock

Oct 9, ’20 1:23 PM

“After all, if the technology was really ready, surely people more capable than me would figure it out. But Michael (Abrash) convinced me that this was basically the myth of technological inevitability: the idea that because technologies were possible, they would just naturally happen. Instead, the way technological revolutions actually happen involves smart people working very hard on the right problems at the right time. And if I wanted a revolution, and I thought I was capable of contributing, I should be actively pushing it forward.”

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Magnus Carlsen

Oct 8, ’20 1:13 PM

“There wasn’t any particular player I modeled my game after. I tried to learn from everyone and create my own style. I studied past players. Truth be told I never had a favorite player. It’s just not my nature to go around idolizing people. I just go try to learn.”

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Gerhard Richter

Oct 7, ’20 2:36 PM

Quite early on, you were described as “inconsistent’, because you were always swapping levels, both in your subject matter and, even more, in your style. You have described yourself as ‘uncertain’. Or is some of it about proving to yourself and to others that you can do anything?

No, it isn’t that. Painting a copy of a photograph is something that can be learned. And there are so many conceivable kinds of artistic statement that I haven’t made – I’m relatively limited – a bit one-sided, in fact. Never anything but oil painting.

Inconsistency is simply a consequence of uncertainty, which I certainly do tend to suffer from – but then I also regard it as inevitable and necessary.

So perhaps uncertainty is the overriding theme?

Maybe. At all events, uncertainty is part of me; it’s a basic premise of my work. After all, we have no objective justification for feeling certain about anything. Certainty is for fools, or liars.

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