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I am posting this as a benchmark, not because I think I'm playing very well yet.  The idea would be post a video every month for a ye...

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Knowing How



I don't know how to draw, but I developed a technique that consists of making marks on paper randomly until a drawing emerges, somehow, and then making it more drawing-like by emphasizing certain parts of it. Witness my pianissimo caveman.  

What does it even mean to say you cannot draw, though?  Standing by itself, it is a meaningless statement. Everyone can draw to some small degree at least. Some have large amounts of skill and at the extreme there are drawing geniuses, so to speak. All the rest of us range from beginners to intermediate. The least amount of effort possible makes one into an intermediate student. 

So how are people's beliefs about themselves structured? I believe I cannot play basketball, for example. I see at the gym people throwing up shots, without being guarded, and coming nowhere close to the rim. These people also cannot play, yet they are doing so, somehow. 

The belief in oneself as essentially unable to do something normal like this (cooking, drawing, singing) is a kind of protective belief to shield the ego from failure, perhaps. For this reason it is good to assume the position of the beginner or "intermediate" learner. 

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