1. Volume of ads on TV: Ever notice how the volume suddenly shoots up when a commercial starts playing on television? There I am watching my favourite show at a nice soft volume and all of a sudden the volume shoots up.......it feels like Billy Mays has suddenly walked into my living room. Why do they do this? Do they think that by shouting at me I will buy their product? What I do not understand is why my television's volume control does not attenuate the spikes in volume from the TV signal.
2. Junk mail from credit card companies: I get at least two offers from different banks asking me to sign up for a new credit card every week. Who is giving them my address? How do get I off this mailing list? Just how many credit cards does one man need anyway?
3. Designer Jeans: When you buy a 50,000 dollar car, you get something for that money: speed, luxury, safety, curb appeal. What exactly do a pair of jeans that cost 200$ do for you? They are just a pair of denim trousers! How different can they be than the ones in Costco?? What's the use of spending all that money when there is no easy way to tell them apart from the 20$ ones. I suggest that anybody wearing designer jeans has to wear them with a t-shirt that clearly states the maker and the cost. Something like "Denim Alert- 500$ Jeans below!"
4. Mattress ads on radio: Just what is up with those mattress ads on the radio? Sleep train/Sealy/That number bed.......I should not be knowing so much about mattresses! How often do people need to change mattresses anyway? Where I come from we never change mattresses; you use the same one till you die (or the flees asked you to leave). The mattresses in this country are built like tanks. What could possibly happen to a mattress like that? 800$ for a mattress!!! Are you kidding me?
5. License plate frames telling us which school you graduated from: Why do people have licence plate frames that have the names of their schools on them? Why, Sir, have you put that on your car? Is it to let us all know how smart and special you are that you went to this college? Are we supposed to assume that having a "Stanford Alum" frame means you are smarter than the rest of us? Do not tell me its out of pride for your Alma Mater. I do not see folks from Modesto Community College doing this. Are they not proud of the school they went to? Here's the rule: if you want to flaunt which "top-rated" school you went to, you need to be driving a S-class at the minimum. Makes no sense telling the world how special you are while you drive around in your 8 year old Honda Accord!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Its all been done!
A couple of years ago a young author, Kavya Vishwanathan, had her book pulled from the shelves because it turned out that certain passages of her book were almost identical to passages from some other author's books. Unfortunately, being charged with plagiarism can spell the end of an author's career.
This begs the question: How does one define "original" work? What characteristics does this work need to have to be considered truly original? Can anything be truly original? Take a look around and you will see many examples of new work being done that has more than a trace of some earlier work. The music industry is littered with examples of hit songs that have had parts of other songs. I have yet to hear of a singer or a band having their career destroyed because they wrote a hit song that sounded like another hit song!
Show me your favorite piece of software and I guarantee you that it has parts that have been re-used from other software. Just a small portion of any software is the secret sauce; the rest is just standard plumbing that is re-used again and again.
It is acceptable in certain professions to have your influences clearly visible in your work. Painters, fashion designers, architects and composers have all borrowed ideas from their influences to create new work and we never accuse them of plagiarism. Why is it so different with books? If I used a word-processor to cut and paste from 50 books to come up with my own original story, would that be stealing? Yes, you would find similar sentences and phrases but would that take away from the fact that I have created something new?
The fact of the matter is that very little around us is totally new. Its all been done before albeit in a slightly different form.
There is a famous story of an artist who took another artist's painting and created his own work by erasing parts of the original. Would this qualify as new art? Would creating a dish with leftovers from last night qualify as a new dish? Would it make a difference if the leftovers were made by me or were from a restaurant?
I am not condoning passing of somebody else's work as your own. All I am saying is that if you look real closely, almost all new work will have traces of something from the past.
The link below is a YouTube video created by taking clips from other existing videos on YouTube and creating a new piece of music. Take a look!
http://tinyurl.com/c9b4th
This begs the question: How does one define "original" work? What characteristics does this work need to have to be considered truly original? Can anything be truly original? Take a look around and you will see many examples of new work being done that has more than a trace of some earlier work. The music industry is littered with examples of hit songs that have had parts of other songs. I have yet to hear of a singer or a band having their career destroyed because they wrote a hit song that sounded like another hit song!
Show me your favorite piece of software and I guarantee you that it has parts that have been re-used from other software. Just a small portion of any software is the secret sauce; the rest is just standard plumbing that is re-used again and again.
It is acceptable in certain professions to have your influences clearly visible in your work. Painters, fashion designers, architects and composers have all borrowed ideas from their influences to create new work and we never accuse them of plagiarism. Why is it so different with books? If I used a word-processor to cut and paste from 50 books to come up with my own original story, would that be stealing? Yes, you would find similar sentences and phrases but would that take away from the fact that I have created something new?
The fact of the matter is that very little around us is totally new. Its all been done before albeit in a slightly different form.
There is a famous story of an artist who took another artist's painting and created his own work by erasing parts of the original. Would this qualify as new art? Would creating a dish with leftovers from last night qualify as a new dish? Would it make a difference if the leftovers were made by me or were from a restaurant?
I am not condoning passing of somebody else's work as your own. All I am saying is that if you look real closely, almost all new work will have traces of something from the past.
The link below is a YouTube video created by taking clips from other existing videos on YouTube and creating a new piece of music. Take a look!
http://tinyurl.com/c9b4th
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Practice! Practice! Practice!
I recently read an article about Jerry Rice (the legendary NFL wide receiver) which talks about how he has re-dedicated his life to trying to become a full-time professional golfer. He will be playing in a Nationwide tour event next year and hopes to make the cut.
Studies have shown that to be really great at something, a person has to spend close to 10,000 hours perfecting it. This means that if somebody were to practice 2 hours a day, every day of the week, it would take close to 14 years to reach their goal! Please keep in mind that all that this means is that you will get really good at something. It does not guarantee fame and fortune.
We all have a list of things we would like to take up. Somebody wants to learn the guitar while somebody else wants to paint. Some of us might even make an effort to join a class or two for a few months only to quit. Sometimes we quit because life intervenes( kids/job/career....) and sometimes we quit because we realise that this new activity actually requires a certain amount of dedication and practice! Take up any new activity and after the honeymoon period is over comes a time when things get tough. This first uphill climb is where most people question if this is really what they want to do. Some actually make it through only to encounter the next climb which is steeper!
Most of us will not be able to give 10,000 hours to something but the fact of the matter is that if you want to be good at anything, it requires dedication and hard work. Keep in mind that many of us have already been in our respective fields for over 14 years. How many of us can truly say that we are world class in our respective fields?
We live in an age where everybody expects instant gratification. Many of us have seen commercials on television describing a product that will give instant results. Exercise equipment manufactures will claim that you will see results within a couple of weeks. A software product will claim to teach a new language in weeks and a book will claim to be able to teach you a computer language in 21 days!
I was once told by a well known drummer that if I treated music like a mistress all I would get in return would be some decent sex but if I treated music like a lover then I would get a relationship that will last a lifetime. Never having had a mistress, I cannot confirm his theory but his point is well taken: We get back from our endeavours what we put in.
So while I sit around making up excuses as to why I cannot make time to practice, I will be watching Mr. Rice closely over the next few months and rooting for him.
Studies have shown that to be really great at something, a person has to spend close to 10,000 hours perfecting it. This means that if somebody were to practice 2 hours a day, every day of the week, it would take close to 14 years to reach their goal! Please keep in mind that all that this means is that you will get really good at something. It does not guarantee fame and fortune.
We all have a list of things we would like to take up. Somebody wants to learn the guitar while somebody else wants to paint. Some of us might even make an effort to join a class or two for a few months only to quit. Sometimes we quit because life intervenes( kids/job/career....) and sometimes we quit because we realise that this new activity actually requires a certain amount of dedication and practice! Take up any new activity and after the honeymoon period is over comes a time when things get tough. This first uphill climb is where most people question if this is really what they want to do. Some actually make it through only to encounter the next climb which is steeper!
Most of us will not be able to give 10,000 hours to something but the fact of the matter is that if you want to be good at anything, it requires dedication and hard work. Keep in mind that many of us have already been in our respective fields for over 14 years. How many of us can truly say that we are world class in our respective fields?
We live in an age where everybody expects instant gratification. Many of us have seen commercials on television describing a product that will give instant results. Exercise equipment manufactures will claim that you will see results within a couple of weeks. A software product will claim to teach a new language in weeks and a book will claim to be able to teach you a computer language in 21 days!
I was once told by a well known drummer that if I treated music like a mistress all I would get in return would be some decent sex but if I treated music like a lover then I would get a relationship that will last a lifetime. Never having had a mistress, I cannot confirm his theory but his point is well taken: We get back from our endeavours what we put in.
So while I sit around making up excuses as to why I cannot make time to practice, I will be watching Mr. Rice closely over the next few months and rooting for him.
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