I can relate to this. I was “bad” at math as a child, and was so bored by its basics or at least how they were taught. I never had a good foundation and so never got to takeTrig or Calculus in high school. Later, during my PHD studies, I discovered I was great at set theory, and went on to learn programming. I realized I was never “bad” at math. I was poorly taught. As a result, I had trouble holding numbers in my head to work with them.Now that I am “good” at math, I find this much easier.
I bore/regale/tell/tormwnt everyone I talk with about anything math related, that mathematics and calculation (with numbers) is entirely different abilities. I do this because I've heard so many stories similar to your about people thinking they are bad at math where the only issue turns out to be the digits, numbers, and holding them in you head. Which, quite frankly is not something very relevant to most of mathematics, and as you relate, when you get at ease with the actual math, dealing with numbers usually gets a bit easier.
If not, there exists specific training that helps a significant fraction of people to get better at handling the actual numbers, training which also is completely unrelated to maths.
I can say that Bandcamp made this release possible... it just got released this week! and this is a record that waited years to come out and is a big band featuring some of the best/most interesting jazz musicians in NYC - the compositions are incredible— https://andrew-dangelo.bandcamp.com/
An artist is always fundamentally speaking about themselves— they have no choice in this. Herzog’s self applied to various subjects is just really compelling.
Interesting piece. Two things:
1. How do these few absolutely spectacular developers blossom into such impressive specimens of the lot? Why not get them before this happens and help them over the greatness threshold?
2. Isn’t there a kind of giant group of buried truffles that don’t fit the trad idea of what a great dev smells like? — so much so that you could identify this set with a couple of simple queries— a kind of sifting activity that would yield lots of truffles per square foot?
1 is why large companies have massive cohorts of interns. They don't expect to get much/any useful work out of them, they just fill up the interns on Kool-Aid, identify the ones that aren't completely hopeless, and hire them full-time as junior devs.
Right, but then every company would just grow uberdevs and be chock full of awesome at some point, but it seems like that isn’t happening w these interns as often as would make the intern thing “worth it” for identifying future wonderdevs.
A hypothesis could be that these great developers became what they are due to an extreme internal drive at a young age; they already have tons of experience and the right attitudes/thinking patterns when joining the work force. If they continue learning (and why shouldn’t they, given their internal drive), how can anyone compete with them?
This intrinsic motivation implies that companies really can’t “grow” great developers, nor “pick them before they’ve blossomed”; what they can do is step aside and not create obstacles.
Wait...does anybody care about writing skills anymore? ——outside—or even inside—journalism? I wish they did. Writing seems to be treated like a 20th century skill of the uber-affluent layabout these days. I jump for joy when I stumble upon some great writing on the internet.
Yes. Try consulting. Information security consulting to be precise our work product is a written report. We have to communicate nuanced and complex topics to a variety of audiences. Writing well, even technical writing, is hard and it’s not as obvious as code when it is not quite right. We care deeply about it. Writing clean proposals, white papers, blog posts etc. It all matters to us. Sure your average coding job doesn’t require it, but plenty of work does. And I do believe having communication skills at a high level in a written form is a competitive advantage. It’s hard to see, but in the long run people who can eloquently write their ideas have an advantage on the less articulate.
The number of people in this thread breezily dismissing the value of effective writing is taking my breath away. I don't think these confident declarations we're getting in this thread paint a remotely accurate portrayal of skills that actually help career advancement. I think everyone's kind of playing a game where it's treated as a trick question and they're looking to emphasize the exceptions as much as possible.
Any sort of work, in say, nonprofits, or public relations, or marketing, or consulting, or any institution where you're at a level of management where your job is to present plans and preside over their progress while being accountable to oversight, and these are examples of the top of my head where I have at least some sort of familiarity, are places where strong writing is an asset. And I'm sure I'm just pointing to a small slice that I know from my own experience. These aren't special exceptions. These are the norm. The counterexamples make me wonder what, if any, actual career experience people are actually drawing from to claim otherwise, or whether they have the perspective to understand how representative those counter-examples actually are.
Throughout grad school, I worked as a writing tutor to support my humanities habit. Each new class of high school seniors was less skilled —and even less interested— in writing than the last. These were kids with 3.9 GPAs who went to Dalton, Horace Mann, Brearly, Choate and similar. I think great writing is a valuable life skill. I wish I could see more real-life evidence that employers care about it in the real world. (hiring and advancement)
I literally just gave three or four entire industries where I feel it's almost certainly an important career skill based on my career contact with those fields.
The lack of responsiveness comments have to one other on the internet is disorienting to me, because I would have thought that this would merit acknowledgement. Your anecdote may as well have dropped out of the sky in response to basically any comment in this thread.
Shoot. I was trying to be supportive/positive. I have worked in many non-profits. I agree, writing virtuosity would be a tremendous asset in some of the jobs you mentioned. I have not yet encountered such skill in these realms. I’m all for bringing back literacy! Beautiful! But... unless one is employed at Harper’s or Granta, expect a less than orgasmic response to your stylish articulations. I’m still a fan of great writers.
Classical/Lyrical/MT (what is MT?musical theater??)styles do not require "more" technique. They require different techniques that have a long pedagogical history. The style is not harder to teach. Classical music has many styles (Renaissance, Classical, Romantic, Chanson, Bel Canto...) and they are all as teachable as popular styles. I guess this bothered me because there is this incorrect hierarchy people ascribe to classical- like it's a higher art or something. This is misleading. I'm a classical musician. If anything, the "training" makes people think they need to ask permission for everything and keeps them chained to someone else's ideas and removes a lot of their own confidence. Then, they spend the rest of their life trying to undo this damage while they try to sing show tunes with some kind of relaxation "of the street" and without constant judging of themselves. See: Dawn Upshaw's popular musical recordings or Renee Flemming's.
Paul, this absolutely breaks my heart. Anyone can learn to sing in tune. I’ve taught kids and adults who are “tone deaf” to listen and sing/play in tune in weeks to months. It isn’t a magic trick, just listening and singing and listening and singing. Like algorithms- you break it down. There is no such thing as a bad voice— the best voice is when you sound like yourself: natural. No one is born knowing how to sing. we, all of us learn to sing by listening and imitating and singing a long—- its hours of practice. We are not born knowing how to talk either. Please try to sing again and don’t let the haters get you down.
So you have taught someone to change the tone/quality of the voice they were given to the point where ppl pay to hear them sing?
A great To distinct singing voice like Kelly Clarkson, Norah Jones, Karen Carpenter, Louis Armstrong, Barbara Streisand, Robert Plant, Allison Kraus, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and many other popular singers is a innate or god given talent. No vocal coach is going to change that...they can help your pitch and breathe but they can't change your tone/quality of voice that compels people to want and or pay you to hear you sing!
I'm with you on "born with": Karen Carpenter, Barbara Streisand and Whitney... we will never have another of any of these ever again. But Louis Armstrong?-- a great great singer and incredible, towering musician by any measure-- doesn't have a naturally "beautiful" voice like them-- he basically plays a kind of voice trumpet using his vocal chords-- which is his personal, developed style- and it is SO compelling and multi-textured. That is practice, baby! That is being comfortable with your instrument and your own stylistic ideas and making stuff up within a style and context. Robert Plant? That is all about the gut of it- the raw impulse. The rock n roll. It's his commitment to the story and the song, but I won't at all agree that he was born with a gorgeous or even naturally interesting voice-- but he has developed a very clear artistic one-- developed-- practiced and imagined. Bob Dylan? He compels a lot of people to buy records and tickets. Tom Waits? Great singing is stylistic and conceptual artistry like Picasso or Sophie Calle. Most important thing about the singing: being comfortable with yourself and accepting who you actually are and loving the imperfections. That is so difficult, I know - it is what we all practice all the time. Once you feel comfortable- it is all about being vulnerable (being totally cool with making mistakes and being imperfect and unbeautiful) in front of many people and making them feel like you trust them with your mistakes and your imperfections and your story. That's the whole thing and the hardest part.
Incidentally, no matter how beautiful the "born with" part, some of those who are most "born with" that impossibly gorgeous tone quality have a much harder time than the rest of us with the accepting of themselves and their imperfections (few, if any in the vocal department) and being vulnerable and ok with who they are. In fact, in the case of Carpenter and Whitney- it killed them —they were unable to sustain this vulnerability.
To your question: "So you have taught someone to change the tone/quality of the voice they were given to the point where ppl pay to hear them sing?" Well, not to change it fundamentally, but to embody it and learn to enhance it and present it with skill and generosity so that others (collaborators, audience members) will be compelled/motivated/helped by its vulnerability, truth, intention and whatever it's about-- this is essentially my job as a teacher of music. Just an FYI--- music is not about who pays to hear it- that is not the mark of its power or greatness. Does it change your life? That's it! (People pay for some crazy bad stuff.)
If you have rockstar And or making living off of being a singer go dream but with reality in mind. You either have that gift that compels people to stop/drop (also pay to)and listen to you or not.
Also, Louis Armstrong has a very distinct voice and no one I've heard sings a Wonderful World better.
I pursued my dream as a kid I started to hear songs in my head I hadn't heard before. That led me to Nashville to finish college and pursue my Songwriting dream. There you have to be the best of the best and many of those don't make it as they didn't get their break. While pursuing my dream I played/performed in many guitar circles amongst 5 to 10 songwriters. People will let you know if they want to hear you again vs. the next guy or my girlfriend at the time who usually was the best in each circle we played in. That doesn't mean I don't write Or perform anymore and enjoy it..I'm always just a realistic person.
You don’t need a teacher. Seriously. The teacher thing is not the mindset you seek. Or rather, your best teachers are the great musicians you listen to over and over and admire from recordings and from your life. Jerry Reed had his own very strange way of playing guitar- it was so cool, Elvis hired him to play guitar on a record because he could not reproduce it.
Find a group ( or start one!) that likes similar music or all types and sit in a room ( or zoom?) and play these songs together- everyone goes around the room taking solos, singing the tune, or whatever they want to do one time through the form. You will get comfortable with that, and you will learn new tunes!
