True genius does what it takes to succeed, which is why Michelangelo, old, tired, irritated at not being able to go home to Florence, went to a building site in Rome every day and talked to people who hated him about hauling stone and carving pillars. As well as everything else, Michelangelo turned out to be a late bloomer in the art of running a construction site. Everyone who loves architecture can still feel glad about that today.
– Henry Oliver
Even Michelangelo took on projects that he wanted to pass on. But when the Pope asks you to become the architect for the St Peter’s basilica “yes” is your only response.
Also, maybe architecture isn’t as glamorous a profession as depicted?
Read the article in it’s entirety here. It will reveal to you new sides of Michelangelo.
He has indeed made many different kinds of lines. An art historian could put together a chronology of his career just in terms of the multiplicity of diverse lines that he has produced. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, for example, there were the ultra-thin marks made by a kind of pen called a Rapidograph, with which he created drawings modelled with line alone — no shadows. Then, quite different, the works in coloured crayon and pencil of the early 1970s; the chunkier reed-pen strokes of portraits from the end of the decade, such as the poignant one of his mother done just after his father died in February 1979 ( not 1978, the date inscribed on the drawing); the later ones drawn with a brush, including watercolours from 2003; the extraordinary charcoal landscapes of the Arrival of Spring 2013; and on and on.
– Martin Gayford
A career life in lines sounds like a good one to aspire to.
Gayford, Martin, and Hockney, David. Spring Cannot Be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy. United Kingdom, Thames & Hudson, 2021. pp83
I like printing. I get a real kick out of it. I mean sometimes when I’m feeding the press, I forget that’s nothing but an old broken-down machine. I think to myself, that’s a black monster who’s going to snap off my fingers if I don’t keep him tame. You know what I mean?
MR. HEALY
I often have the same image myself.
THE BOY
When I go out on deliveries, I always wear my apron because I want everybody in the street to know I’m a printer.
MR. HEALY
Boy, I never met a linotyper who liked his job.
THE BOY
They like their job on payday, I bet you.
MR. HEALY
They sit all day, plunking keys. There’s no craft to it. There’s no pride.
THE BOY
Nowadays, I don’t know you have to be so proud. Mister Healy, I just figure there ain’t much future in being a compositor. I mean, what’s wrong with linotyping? If the didn’t have linotype machines, how would they print all the books in the thousands and thousands of copies?
MR. HEALY
Are there so many good books around? Are the authors any more clever?
THE BOY
How are you going to set up daily newspapers? You can’t supply the public demand for printed matter by hand setting.
MR. HEALY
Are the people any wiser than they were a hundred years ago? Are they happier? This is the great American disease, boy! This passion for machines. Everybody is always inventing labor-saving devices. What’s wrong with labor? A man’s work is the sweetest thing he owns. It would do us a lot better to invent some labor-making devices. We’ve gone mad, boy, with this mad chase for comfort, and it’s sure we’re losing the very juice of living. It’s a sad business, boy, when they sit a row of printers down in a line, and the machine clacks, and the mats flip, and when it comes out, the printer has about as much joy of creation as the delivery boy. There’s no joy in this kind of life, boy–no joy. It’s a very hard hundred dollars a week, I’ll tell you that!
Intriguing contrast in this scene. Mr. Healy doesn’t view The Boy’s work as craft, but the boy does. He take genuine pride in his work.
In a way both Mr. Healy and The Boy are both right. Reminds me of when Spike Lee mentioned drama is created when two opposing perspectives are right (paraphrasing).
I disagree with Mr. Healy though. We’re not inventing enough laborsaving devices…
Whatever the work is that you are doing, love it, and commit to it. – Zohar Atkins
“Love work” is different than “Love what you do”—for the injunction is less about finding the right work to love and more about finding any work to love. If romanticism suggests that there is only one thing that you can do and be happy, Shemaiah’s approach is closer to the logic behind arranged marriage: once you are prepared to love work your work becomes lovable. Meanwhile, the FOMO caused by wondering “Am I in the right line of work?” leads to restlessness. As the average time in any one job or company declines, one contributing factor may be the grass is always greener effect. A person who eschews status will not be as prone to this fallacy.
Read Zohar’s full piece here. And pair with Dorthy Sayers opening paragraph from her essay Why Work?
I have already, on a previous occasion, spoken at some length on the subject of Work and Vocation. What I urged then was a thoroughgoing revolution in our attitude to work. I asked that it should be looked upon, not as a necessary drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God. That it should, in fact be thought of as a creative activity undertaken for the love of work itself; and that man, made in God’s image, should make things, as God makes them, for the sake of doing well a thing that is well worth doing.
Sayers, Dorothy. Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2004.
I think both Dorthy and Zohar would agree on the idea that work is a noble pursuit on its own. But Dorthy takes the idea a step further, proposing the argument that work shouldn’t be taken on for only the purpose of earning money, but rather as an essential part of bringing glory to God.
Last week the blog Marginal Revolution celebrated it’s twentieth anniversary.
Can a blog change the direction of your life?
TABARROK: To see people who began reading us at a younger age and then turn into a Vitalik or something like that — that’s one of the biggest thrills Tyler and I can possibly have. I mean, it’s incredible. We’ve had students at George Mason who come and, “I’ve been reading you since I was 12.” Now they’re getting their PhDs. That’s mind-blowing.
– Alex Tabarrok
Yes.
What have I learned from Marginal Revolution?
Ambition is ok.
Have a moonshot. If your interested in an idea or subject, pursue it. Don’t wait for permission.
A little bit of work every day adds up.
The key word is “every day”. You have to do your work everyday. Ditto Paul Graham
What you do is more important than what you say.
Even after posting every day for twenty years, the example Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowen have lived out in their careers is probably as important, or more important than MR itself. Their list of projects is astounding: Emergent Ventures, Marginal Revolution University, Project Warp Speed, the textbooks, their moonshots. Fast grants. General teaching. Graduate student funding. Their work at the Mercatus Center…
They are without peer when it comes to setting the example of just do it. Don’t wait. Do it.
If you lack the ability to write your own epigrams, collect other people’s. What matters is knowing them, not writing them. Be thy own palace, said John Donne, or the world’s thy jail.
Keep a commonplace book or journal of quotes.
We live at one of the greatest periods of history. Only bitch about it as a prelude to doing something to improve the world. What starts as a joke ends up as a way of life. Aim to understand the world, not judge it.
Yes, your parents did tell you at age seven that when you grow up you should follow your dreams and be whatever you want to be — and yes, they are now telling you to be a lawyer, consultant, banker, dentist or engineer. It is less impressive than you think that you have spotted this little inconsistency, especially without realising that it was borne from the sheer bloody expense of bringing you up. Anyway, those are good jobs you should be proud to have.
These jobs may not have the prestige of the arts or entertainment, but they are valuable and worthy. Take pride in your “dull” job.
The forever optimist continues to gift his timely wisdom on his birthday. It’s a tradition that’s become a modern, once-a-year Tolstoy Calendar of Wisdom.
Here’s a few of our favorites from this year:
Ask anyone you admire: Their lucky breaks happened on a detour from their main goal. So embrace detours. Life is not a straight line for anyone.
Your best job will be one that you were unqualified for because it stretches you. In fact only apply to jobs you are unqualified for.
For a great payoff be especially curious about the things you are not interested in.
That last one though. We’re typically told to follow our interests, our natural curiosities. How does one become curious about a subject they care little for?
One approach could be finding someone who is manically obsessed with the subject and have a conversation with them. Say you hate trigonometry. Maybe you approach the best trigonometry professor in your area and straight up ask them, Why is trigonometry so interesting?
Floodlights and Goalposts 