july

I had a Stone-masoning / stone carving teacher once (one semester) who told me about how he used to go to these stone masoninng conferences, and there were people who had the best tools and they'd parade around the tools they had, but didn't make anything. But they did have the tools and how that was cool for them.

Also this is the OS on the left and the computer on the right that George RR Martin uses to write Game of Thrones. I think he's been using it for years. It's a little bit crazy that he uses a DOS computer and a WordStar 4.0 word processor released in 1987, ~30 years ago. 

I think about this a lot.

creating and destroying; built flying cars & autonomous vehicles, now building /faust, more here: /july, web: july.rocks

"Do what you can with what you have.
Nothing more is needed and there are no excuses."
-Rick Rubin

Important for beginners. 

For example, I once saw a documentary about the photographer Jürgen Teller. He photographed a campaign for Vivian Westwood with disposable cameras. What was important was the composition of the image, the technical details (resolution, color, filter, …) were secondary. 

You don't need expensive tools in the beginning. Most tools and software today are free. 

Use your phone to take pictures, use Figma, use Inkscape, etc. 
There are actually good alternatives for most pro tools.

https://warpcast.com/maurice/0x55cbced1

also resonates with this

building /juicebox | product marketing & growth | prev. NounsDAO, RAW DAO | learning to code

Gains in gear is worldly pleasure
Gains in craft is an otherworldly experience

gear is finite, eventually you can get “the best” or at least approach it, whereas the craft itself is an asymptote and can never truly be completed.

much easier for the human mind to grapple with the gear than the craft itself, which is infinite.

This isn't entirely related, but maybe kind of:

I once heard somewhere that it's surprisingly challenging to automate masonry with robots. For a few reasons. But the one that stood out to me, was about mortar. Because it takes some human intuition and artistry, to just kinda FEEL out the mortaring. And I think about this a lot, when I hear people get all freaked out about AI and robots and stuff.

This was awhile back. And I don't follow this type of stuff closely. So maybe I'm wrong, and they've figured this out by now. But I still think about it a lot.

Every profession is susceptible to shiny object syndrome. I’ve seen this in pretty much every job I’ve ever had. Inevitably someone always conflates the equipment they spent a lot of money on as a substitute for experience and doing the work.

I always think about this with photography and how much my perspective has changed over time.  When I was young, I thought that if I had the same expensive tools as the veterans, I could create the same quality work.  As I age, I realize that tools are just that, tools.  It’s about what you do with them.  If I learn how to use the tools, but don’t apply what I’ve learned to create for myself, it’s not nearly as meaningful to me.

Can’t relate. Have never been to anything like this.

Ooh, I know that story! A similar situation with grief photographers who have a lot of expensive equipment, although they don't know how to use it at all. When they offer their commercial services, they do not show their portfolios, but a list of their equipment

"The master painter makes art with any brush."

you really really really should have left out the part ab semester. without context this would have added to the myth of july.