I might throw in some little caveats, though. In my opinion, you do need training with the tools of X. But it also needs to be recent training; higher levels of training fade quickly. You also need to enjoy it. In my opinion, people who dislike doing X can sit through hours and hours of training and not make much progress.
Oh, and confidence. It's amazing how many times I'm teaching / tutoring someone, and I realize that the problem isn't in their skill set or mental facility with the subject, it's simply that they don't believe they can solve the problem. If I can convince them that they can solve the problem, the answer comes to them.
Also, I agree entirely with the knowledge of the tools bit. Both the mental tools and the physical tools, really (with much hand waving as to the distinction). tropism has much facility with certain mental tools of the photographer; seeing as a camera, the ability to mentally switch through different settings and relative positions, and so forth. I have a great deal of facility with the mental tools of a programmer; all the different flow control and data manipulation options and how they can work together or against each other. I'd also bet we're pretty good with our physical tools. I often find myself hitting Control-X Control-S before I even think about saving a file. I'll bet that if tropism has a camera they've used for quite awhile, there are at least a few settings they set before they even realize they wanted to set them.
Give me a different editor, or tropism a camera they're unfamiliar with, and we'd still have all the training, mental facility and mental tools leaping to our aid. But it'd probably take us longer, and we'd get more and more pissed off about it. We'd have to deliberately stop doing all the little things that are instinctual plus figure out how to do every little thing.
As an aside, it's also ... amazing / amusing / horrifying ... how many intermediate-level people will suddenly obsess over the physical tools. When I played the trombone, it was the exact mouthpiece class and metallic composition of the horn. With programming, the Emacs vs. vi war. I'd assume that there are intermediate-level photographers who are unhealthily obsessed with the exact make and model of the camera. In all cases, though, as long as you have something roughly right, all you really need is to get really, really used to what you have.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 07:41 pm (UTC)I might throw in some little caveats, though. In my opinion, you do need training with the tools of X. But it also needs to be recent training; higher levels of training fade quickly. You also need to enjoy it. In my opinion, people who dislike doing X can sit through hours and hours of training and not make much progress.
Oh, and confidence. It's amazing how many times I'm teaching / tutoring someone, and I realize that the problem isn't in their skill set or mental facility with the subject, it's simply that they don't believe they can solve the problem. If I can convince them that they can solve the problem, the answer comes to them.
Also, I agree entirely with the knowledge of the tools bit. Both the mental tools and the physical tools, really (with much hand waving as to the distinction).
Give me a different editor, or
As an aside, it's also ... amazing / amusing / horrifying ... how many intermediate-level people will suddenly obsess over the physical tools. When I played the trombone, it was the exact mouthpiece class and metallic composition of the horn. With programming, the Emacs vs. vi war. I'd assume that there are intermediate-level photographers who are unhealthily obsessed with the exact make and model of the camera. In all cases, though, as long as you have something roughly right, all you really need is to get really, really used to what you have.