Gearheads don't get it
37signals.com
37signals.com
She had photos hanging in galleries and cafes taken with a disposable camera.
Edit: If you downmod me, please explain why. I've played guitar for many years and know what I said is a fact.
In the interest of educating everyone: Tone is more like turning the bass and treble up or down on an equalizer. Contrast this with hearing an original version of a song and then someone else covering it and you'll have a good idea of how style is different from tone.
Equipment is precisely how you change tone, though there are possibilities for tone changes with existing equipment.
That does not, in the slightest bit, make it any less true. Whatever you want to call it, a persons personal ability has a very real impact on how they performa a specific task, independent of any equipment they use.
The point is to find the thing you are passionate about and DO THAT. Don't get caught up in trying to figure out the specifics of it. If you are good at it, none of that matters.
My reaction (which I suppressed at the the time, since I was rehearsing my talk yet again) was that not everyone is out to get you when they ask about this. Not everyone expects to be able to do what you do just by picking up the same tools. Many people may just be asking out of interest, looking for alternatives to the applications they currently use, trying to improve processes.
Personally, I'm happy to evangelize the tools I use. I think they improve my productivity, and in general the more people using something, the better the community around and support for it.
What's more, she's outlasted everyone in the group and is now in charge of the entire application!
A good camera, guitar, text editor, IDE, sports car, etc won't make someone with little skill better, but it will let someone who is excellent at what they do express themselves without fighting it.
Yeah.
I know.
But that's pretty well-understood. I don't think anyone ever thought that. No one really thinks, "Good tools==success". And so we are again faced with the typical 37signals blog entry, the shtick of which is to state humdrum truisms to a galley of fawning fanboys, who litter the comment section with love unlimited. But, as usual, they somehow still manage to deviate from more strongly stated opinions,
What do hackers want? Like all craftsmen, hackers like good tools. In fact, that's an understatement. Good hackers find it unbearable to use bad tools. They'll simply refuse to work on projects with the wrong infrastructure.
True, yes? All craftsmen demand the best tools, and there's no harm in having them, or refining them, or arguing over their merits.
The best scalpel in the world won't make you a good surgeon. Or, at least, it won't make me a good surgeon. I don't about you.
I'd prefer that over being operated on by a monkey in a fully stocked OR.
The surgeon will probably know enough to correctly weigh the risk of doing surgery with poor tools against not doing surgery at all.
A surgeon with a steak knife is preferable to me with a scalpel but not a medical student with a scalpel.
But I guess the point is scalpels are usually easier to get then surgeons (or med students). And their quality scale is more finite.
The point of this article is only valid in a fantasy world where one doesn't look too hard at the details.
You'd think as geeks we'd understand better the importance of killer-apps/killer-features and technical innovations for the world of the creative.
Not that there's any contradiction here. It is true that your skill transcends any particular tool, but it is also true that skilled people often become quite picky about tools. I doubt that Eddie Van Halen owns only one guitar.
The mistake is not caring about the tools, or taking trouble to find - or build - the tool that suits you. The mistake is attributing too much power to the tool and not enough to the user.
I think this also extends to software tools.
As a personal example, I became a better photographer when I bought a good (but used) Nikon, because I know it's built to take some abuse (people photograph wars with these) so I happily take photos in wild places and never worry that it's going to get damaged.
Dead on.