Week 2 Antos B(log) comments

Bryan's Blog entry:

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2011

Wk 2 Blog post: Art of Possibility 1-4
Reading the first chapter reminded me a lot of playing Mindtrap with my friends in middle school. It would pose questions like these:

Picture a bridge four kilometers long and strong enough to hold ten thousand kilograms, but no more. A loaded transport truck weighing exactly ten thousand kilograms drives onto the bridge. At the halfway point, a sparrow weighing 30 grams lands on the truck, yet the bridge doesn't collapse. How could this be?

The answer is:


The truck will have used up 30 grams of gasoline by the time it reached the halfway point.

Playing these games for hours upon end has helped me with lateral thinking and questioning what is presented in front you. But the sad thing about society is that from the moment you enter school, you are trained to be part of the group; to follow rules and not question. It continues into professional career as well. People rarely react negatively to conservatism and status quo, but present a radical idea and you suddenly have a lot of attention on yourself.

I don’t get why fierce competition is a terrible thing for musicians but the author is delighted some student had his heart broken. Both instances, losing a competition or a girlfriend, can be sources of creativity. Should the musician take up heavy drinking so he can use that experience in his music? Or kill a man in Reno, just to watch him die? I don’t see the causation of either. There’s a great Mr. Show sketch that has parents depriving their kid of affection as a baby so he would have confused feelings about love and grow up to be a famous playwright. Here’s the clip:

http://www.ifc.com/videos/mr-show-205-brightcove.php

I liked the idea of contribution. The problem with that – for me – is I know I cannot be that type of person when my own personal schedule is jam-packed. The author specifically mentioned this exact thing and how he went to speak to the old people anyway. I know that going to Full Sail has robbed me of some of generosity in the world. I’m a worse boyfriend. A worse friend. Worse at work. I’m just much more busy and stressed out. I know my limitations. But I did like the idea of this…
Posted by antosb at 9:08 AM

My comments:

Bryan,
I understand your comment regarding the radical idea and attention, I am constantly enjoying this attention at work, in fact I believe it's one of my primary duties at work to provide additional customer value and question the status quo. The decision to do so is definitely chancy, sometime I fall down, but then again if we don't take chances...we can never succeed and learn by our failures. Don't give up!
While I agree with most of our reading this week, I too wondered about the "suffering musician" syndrome. While the short term "craziness" of your current schedule may be some cause for concern, I too feel concern regarding what I have not accomplished, or simply a good fiction book I'd like to read, I have enjoyed my Full Sail experience. The end is in sight...