Tag: skills

So the astronomers soul

August 31st, 2025

Diligence and attention soon gave him the knack of it, and he strode down the street with his mouth full of harmony and his soul full of gratitude. He felt much as an astronomer feels who has discovered a new planet–no doubt, as far as strong, deep, unalloyed pleasure is concerned, the advantage was with the boy, not the astronomer.

As read from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

The “knack” is typically a trait linked with natural ability, not diligence and attention.

In the movie “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” Ricky Baker and his foster uncle, Hec get lost in the New Zealand bush. They split up to find food. The boy, raised in the city can’t catch a thing worth eating. Hec, played by Sam Neill catches a catfish with ease.

They eat.

They sit by the fire.

Ricky Baker asks Hec: “How did you catch that fish?” Hec replies. “I don’t know, I have the knack.” (all paraphrased.)

Don’t dismiss the “knack”.

Don’t dismiss diligence and attention.
One skill at a time – catching

March 24th, 2025

Pai had a system for teaching us baseball. He introduced one skill at a time, making sure we mastered it before moving on to the next. First, he taught us how to catch a ball. For days and weeks, we did nothing but play catch. Two hands. Get in front of the ball. He didn’t yell. He talked. He was loose and comfortable. He talked more in one afternoon on the baseball field than in a week at home.

These passages alone are worth the cover price.

Pai breaking down the complex game of baseball to one skill at a time. T

The Bengie Molina method reminds me of Jiro Dreams of Sushi – rice first. You master the rice first before moving on to the next skill.

Bengie Molina and Joan Ryan, Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015). pg 20
Build quick. Outline.

June 20th, 2024

Outlining is a fundamental of building.

Planning is a fundamental of doing, and outlining is a fundamental of planning.

– dnbt777

Eager to test this methodology out. Read the article in full below:

How to Build Anything Extremely Quickly
Akira Kurosawa’s cinematic skills. An exhaustive list

November 15th, 2023

In this, Kurosawa-tenno was really something of an emperor among directors, seemingly born for the role. A single defining trait as a great film craftsman would be impossible to pinpoint — Kurosawa was one of the all-time greats at blocking, one of the all time greats at pulling powerful performances from actors. At shooting in color, at shooting in black and white; at vertical compositions in Academy ratio and at perfectly balanced framings in anamorphic widescreen. At quick cutting, at holding a long take, at movement, at stillness. At using score, at sourcing music, at choosing and mixing sound. At deeply researched period pieces, at portraits of modern life; at using complex sets, at finding stunning locations. At wrangling even the weather itself, his constant bane and frequent boon — his scenes are set by wind-whipping grass, muddy cloudbursts, volcanic steam and eldritch ice-mists, heatstruck streets and frostbitten hinterlands, lung-spasmingly brisk autumn air. What he couldn’t find, he made. What he couldn’t make, he waited for.

Not to mention he wrote or cowrote every one of his movie’s screenplays. The list of required skills for a director is endless, but Kurosawa is maybe the closest to filling every bubble.

Wilford, Lauren, and Stevenson, Ryan. The Wes Anderson Collection: Isle of Dogs. United States, ABRAMS, 2018. pp26
My favorite sentences from The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

October 19th, 2023

1.

For the first time in his life he was throwing himself into something with genuine enthusiasm. And the progress he made was remarkable.
pp139

2.

Was it not possible that the process he had gone through in order to acquire yoga powers had completely changed his outlook on life?

Certainly it was possible.
pp154

3.

John Winston told me everything he knew. He showed me the original dark-blue notebook written by Dr. John Cartwright in Bombay in 1934 about Imhrat Khan, and I copied it out word for word.

“Henry always carried it with him,” John Winston said.

“In the end, he knew the whole thing by heart.“
pp168

It could be an early morning thought hallucination, but The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar suggests the idea that focusing on one thing, over an extended period of time, with sustained enthusiasm, can impact many lives.

What begins as Henry’s single focus then expands to other opportunities. First Henry aims to master concentrating only on the image of his face for five and a half minutes. He masters it. Then he moves to mastering visualizing the reverse side of a playing card within twenty seconds. This then develops to strategic gambling, establishing a non-profit, and leaving behind a clandestine legacy of generosity.

But it all began with a single focus.

From: Dahl Roald. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. New York: Viking, 1977.
Alan Jacob’s marginalia skillz

December 29th, 2022

I think reading and annotating books is thing I do best – it’s my most sharply honed skill. But that in itself has no market value, even though it has great value to me personally. And I find that difference interesting.
Jacobs, Alan. Homebound Symphony, my skillz. December 13, 2022.

I’d argue reading and annotating books does have market value. It’s the soil that allows all the other “market value” skills to grow from.

To be a professor, writer, and observer, one must read and capture thoughts in the margins well. Honing this skill must lead to new, important insights, no?
Soccer in Random Places: The Dangerous Book for Boys and the joy of practice

April 8th, 2020

With libraries and bookstores closed I’ve returned to my own shelves. During a session of pull-any-book-off-the-shelf and read game, I stumbled on this excerpt from The Dangerous Book for Boys.

Titled: The Rules of Soccer, it reminded me of the joys of practice.

Soccer is the example, but the idea of practice, daily practice, applies to any discipline:

It’s an old, old phrase, but “practice makes perfect” is as true today as it was hundreds of years ago. Natural-born skill is all very well, but it will only take you so far against someone who has practiced every day at something he loves.

Further reading:

How I practice at what I do – by Tyler Cowen

People who have not yet succeeded but maybe they will – by henryeoliver

Learn Like an Athlete – by David Perell