- “Luck is not as important as people think” – The luck goes to the prepared. The harder you work, the more “luck” you will have. Amen.
- “Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest” – I wish I could convince many of my undergrad music majors of this when they are thinking of skipping out on practicing.
- “Become comfortable with ambiguity” – I have hammer this idea in my choral lit class when they want to know exactly whether this or that piece is a motet. Well, the answer is, a lot of the time, it depends on who you ask. Same with diction. Anyone here study English diction? If you have, you know what I mean.
- “Creativity requires focus” – Finding time to clear things away and focus on one thing can be hard. This is especially doing that over long periods of time.
- “Important work comes from important problems” – Hamming says, “If you do not work on an important problem, it’s unlikely you’ll do important work.” Yes. Absolutely.
- “Keep your door open” – This is hard, and counter to #4. But Steve Jobs thought the bathrooms were important.
- “Transform isolated problems into general problems” – I love this. Having problems with this student or this problem or finding this music. Find the answer, and allow the topic to open up into something new and broader.
- “Sell your results” – This is the thing we music folks do well. We pitch the why of what we do pretty well. Still, new ideas need to be sold.
Have a look at Cal’s discussion, as well as the orginal talk. And while you are at it, read about Steve Jobs’ obsession with the bathrooms at Pixar. It will give you somethign to think about for sure.
Richard Sparks says