a layman's eye

[cris]

It speaks to, perhaps, a certain sense of jadedness and a very specific sense of disconnection, when one is watching one's friends spin balls of flame or enact some sort of aerial ballet and one realizes that they should be more impressed than they are. Or when one is hanging out with friends and one of them says, "yeah, I'm kind of tired of

Comments

[cris]

I tend to think with any endeavor it's a combination of skill, experience\practice\drive, and inspiration\love; and it might be that what I'm thinking about with skill v. inspiration is what you think about with talent. One of the reasons why I split skill and inspiration, though, is that I think one can be objectively evaluated on a level of skill, but inspiration is inherently subjective and varies between performer and audience.

I'm also thinking of an article that I was reading about how tech companies struggle with making good apps because so often those apps are developed in a bubble of like minded developers who just assume that everyone is like them. So, how do you take yourself out of that bubble? One perhaps sees similarities amongst performers who spend a lot of time with peers and focus so much on craft that a connection with the audience is lost.

I also see it sometimes when watching adventure films at Banff ... there are only so many ways that one can watch kayakers run so many rapids or go off so many waterfalls, that it all feels the same, but I'm sure to an avid kayaker it's all good stuff. But then I remember seeing, a couple of years ago, a gorgeous movie about fly fishing, and while I never had an interest, I had such a good time watching it that I remember walking away from the film and thinking, "ok, yeah, I get why people love that." Instant connection.

[ayun]

That article is weird. Why is it such a shock that smartphone app and expensive gadget prdoucts don't capture the market of poor people who may not even have reliable access to the internet?

(I know, I know, Clay Christensen, etc. But let's assume that these companies aren't disruptive innovation uber alles types. Most aren't.)