14 Comments

I like this sentence "the act of accomplishing it is more than I am willing to invest". We've got limited time, so choose wisely. Thank you for another wonderful post!

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You mentioned you had to ask your partner to take you to buy more eggs. Related to your topic, do you drive? I don't drive and I feel I won't ever be able to. Somehow I can't cope with all details one needs to pay attention to while in traffic and ends up being an overwhelming mess. At same time, seems like everybody's driving these days and it's become so automatic to them, like walking...quite discouraging for me.

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I do drive, but that day I had a really bad headache, and don't drive when I have those. I consider it dangerous, so I avoid it.

Well, if things continue the direction they are going, you may not have to worry about it. Driverless cars are being more and more looked at as the future, so perhaps you will be able to simply press a button on your phone and have a car appear to take you wherever you need to go.

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Thank you, Athena, for your reply. I very much appreciate your writings and I think this blog is a very good initiative that you had, mainly for two reasons: 1. I like your interest, sharpness and good intentions in observing people and understanding how to deal with them; I think we all make observations generally but mostly unconsciously and we are not able to organize them in conclusions and then consciously decide to enact them in our responses; 2. Your diversity of interests -I find that too many people don't know what interests them and are rather falling only for a ,,consumption" life style as a way to feel their lives full.

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I agree that a lot of people seem to be looking to be fulfilled by the flashing lights of distraction.

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"A thing worth doing is worth doing well", we were told when very young. People absorb these dubious 'wisdoms'. I called bullshit. Plenty of things are worth doing badly, casually, haphazardly even. How much an achievement means to people, and how much effort to put into what, is something everyone needs to decide for themselves. Having a range of interests operating at varying skill levels, and into which one has put thoughtfully chosen degrees of effort, is a good thing.

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A fair observation

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Very relatable. Luckily, I know of a book that will help you prove that neuroscientist wrong:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FIwvukOdNMc&feature=youtu.be

The "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" method is perfect for a psychopathic brain structure, because it makes an extremely logical account of how to open up the areas of the brain that have atrophied from not being used. Well, luckily - neuroplasticity is a thing. Perfect practice makes perfect.

Read that book and you will learn how to draw logically while putting together a ongoing training routine that lets you build muscle memory in drawing shapes, and figuring out proportion, perspective, composition, tones, colors.

Make no mistake:

ANYONE who has learned how to write can learn how to draw, because it boils down to exactly the same thing - using a writing device to mark shapes on a piece of paper.

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I'm pretty well over the drawing thing. I tried everything during that year to try to get that part of my brain to function. After discussing it with the neuroscientist he was quite certain that there wasn't a way to create those pathways for me, and frankly, I'm fine with it. I only have so much time in the world, and putting more effort into something that I might be able to marginally improve at, when I could put it into something that I can learn as a real and usable skill, it seems the time is better spent on the skill that will have practical use for me.

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True that, life is RPG-like in that sense - with XP points and stats and skill trees.

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Letters are a limited set of shapes; drawing almost always involves interpreting new visual input on-the-fly... though many visual artists study their main sorts of subjects a ton. But still, I think there is an on-the-fly part of the process in there unless you want to learn one particular face, like a Snoopy face in one position etc.

That might not be worth directing one's inner determination on!

I had a difference from some other students back when I studied art a bit. I look at what I've done and modify it. I never was able to do the -- instant produce the right thing from the start - kind of art, like watercolors. You can't redo watercolors too well! The best folks get it done right the first time, with minimal strokes. With oils I could keep messing with it day after day. My writing has similarities; I work with what I have put down, over and over. Different brains!

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You're correct, asides from marking the shapes, the invisible side of drawing is learning how to *see* the shapes, and that's a right brain activity that Athena hasn't yet developed proficiency in.

The book I recommended has a ser of practical, concrete, specific exercises that will trick her left brain into learning to call up on her right brain when drawing ( ideally you'll want to use both, in tandem,)

From there it's a matter of practice in order to build a muscle memory, wire some new synapses and eventually reactivate the sections of the brain that haven't been used up until then.

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It was a good thing you had your SO there, so you would step back and take a look at the process.

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He definitely makes it a point to keep my best interests in sight.

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