Life Lessons From Benjamin Franklin
Here are some great life lessons from Benjamin Franklin on getting what you want in life.
http://www.businessinsider.com/14-action-inducing-lessons-from-benjamin-franklin-2012-4
Preparing for Pilot Season 2013
“If you want to have a real pilot season next year, here are three questions you need to start asking yourself right now…” (via Shirley B)
10 Signs It’s Time to Let Go
Preach.
http://www.marcandangel.com/2012/04/02/10-signs-its-time-to-let-go/
Pilot Season Recastings
‘After taking up to nine months to develop their pilot scripts, the networks rush to make as many as 90 pilots in three months, all at the same time. The window for casting those pilots has shrunk significantly over the years — from 10 weeks, which had been the standard for decades, to roughly 4-to-5 weeks now. “The process is so flawed,” one insider said, “it’s actually surprising that so few mistakes are made.”’
Near-Miss Casting
Check out this article from Hollywood Reporter via Saku E. on castings that could have been.
Runner Featured in BORN TO RUN Dies
Saku E turned me on to the amazing book BORN TO RUN last year. I was devastated when Justice L sent me this notice. http://m.apnews.mobi/ap/db_6776/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=E8bKYDRM. If you read the book and fell for Caballo Blanco like I did, it’s a very sad day. We love you, Micah True!
Crappy First Drafts of Great Books
If you struggle to find inspiration and churn out a lot of crap before you get to the good stuff, you’re in good company.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-storytelling-animal/201203/crappy-first-drafts-great-books
The Science Behind the Choke
Check out this great New York Times article via Doug S. on how overthinking is sure to make you choke.
http://onpar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/when-golfers-overthink-the-science-behind-the-choke/
“It is not the pressure in a pressure situation that distracts us into performing poorly,” Beilock said. “The pressure makes us worry and want to control our actions too much. And you cannot think your way through a routine, practiced action, like making a 3-foot putt.
“Compare it to quickly shuffling down a flight of stairs. You could do that without thought. But if I asked you to do it, and at the same time think about how much you bend your knee each time or what part of your foot is touching the stair, you would probably fall on your face. That’s what happens when people choke. They try to think their way through the action.”
“…one group of golfers practiced putting alone in a room and another group practiced putting in front of an audience. That’s mild pressure for the second group. There was no money on the putts, no punishment or penalty for missing. But Beilock saw on the fMRI readouts that the golfers with an audience were feeling the scrutiny.
“When the two groups were combined to compete in front of an audience, the players who practiced alone did much worse.
‘It happens very subtly, but understanding how your body is going to feel under pressure and learning to handle it is a skill in itself,’ Beilock said.”
“Practice under pressure doesn’t make perfect. It does appear to hardwire the brain for better performance. Or as Sam Snead said prophetically many years ago, “Practice puts brains in your muscles.”
Change Is the Rule, Not the Exception
Our belief that life isn’t change isn’t so much a delusion, however, as it is a misconception. For if we were to broaden our perspective and consider the frequency of change throughout humankind’s history—or better yet, throughout the history of the cosmos—it would quickly become clear that change is the rule, not the exception.
The point then is to take a lesson from history and cosmology: change is common, not rare. And inevitable. The only thing we really get to influence about change is its direction. But if we approach change reluctantly, refusing to acknowledge it as life’s basic rhythm, and instead foolishly devote our energies to trying to prevent change, we’ll miss the opportunity to influence the shape of things to come.
The key, I believe, is embracing change as exciting. Sometimes this is easy (when the way things currently stand is bad). Other times, however, we resist change because we like things the way they are and presume that changing them will inevitably lead to something worse. But our vision is limited and we’re often surprised by just how much better already-good things can become. Though sometimes we’re right and we end up longing for how good things once were, the solution to that conundrum lies in the making of a simple determination (simple in theory, at least): to enjoy what there is to enjoy, and to surrender it when it’s over.
The Illusion Of Permanence
http://my.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201203/the-illusion-permanence
It Doesn’t Really Matter What Estragon Had For Breakfast
Nice story in this weekend’s LAT about Alan Mandell and Barry McGovern about playing in Godot. I liked what McGovern had to say about his approach to Beckett (underline is mine): Mark S.
“I don’t approach a Beckett play differently than any other play. Of course there are styles. If you’re doing an absolute kitchen comedy that’s very naturalistic and so on, that’s different from Ionesco and absurdism. I don’t find Beckett absurd at all, I find him very real, but it doesn’t really matter what Estragon had for breakfast. All that matters is what’s on the page.”
