I often wish that my blogs would lend themselves to more pictures. I’m not a bad photographer, and some blogs are full of sunsets, beach scenes, Grand Lake up in the Rockies, or whatever. Mine—not so much.
I’ve been going through some physical therapy for some old injuries. The therapy has actually worked better than a variety of drugs that have been prescribed in the past. However, for it to work, I need to be consistent in my follow through. It struck me, that if there’s a common theme in life, that’s it.
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice! Practice! Practice!
It’s true of music, physical fitness, painting, even math or science. (Do YOU remember how to solve a quadratic equation? We all learned how in high school.)
Calvin Coolidge was not one of our more noteworthy presidents, being known as “Silent Cal.” However, he did leave us with a great thought:
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Calvin Coolidge
30th president of US (1872 – 1933)
Practice! Practice! Practice!
sfnowak 
You fooled us, Steve. A few weeks back you said you didn’t have much to write about. Yet, a couple posts back you authored an insightful piece about font size and how you wished publishers would wake up and “see” the need to go up a point or two for the readability of their audiences. Most of us avid and ongoing newspaper and magazine readers agree. On the other hand, I personally am not caring too much for the quality of content these days–so I can take it or leave it.
Today you spoke to the need for more pictures–photo journalism perhaps. And you intertwined this theme with the art and science of practice via the examples of both math (quadratic equation) and art (Silent Cal’s well-spoken quote). Oh how I wish our early algebra teachers would have explained how and why we’d be using algebra in seeking “X” to solve for the unknown and uncertain when buying a home or even which girl to date—and that by utilizing an algorithmic mentality (like a computer) to perform similar tasks and repeat them over and over again would be a 21st century mindset.
We’d rethink a little bit about the role of contemporary math. That its transition from being something we extract and derive from the world–to something that actually starts to shape the world around us and the world inside us. It’s an inside job to developing our strengths, irrespective of eliminating our weaknesses.
As an addendum, the only thing I would add to President Coolidge’s wonderful words on the “problems of man” and “man as the problem”—is man’s fulfillment. I subscribe to the 80/20 Rule…with a twist: The “unfulfilled” say it means 20% of our resources brings us 80% of our gain. The “fulfilled” believe we use 20% of the things we have—like the clothes and shoes in our closet—and 80% we don’t.