The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind

Convergence culture by Henry Jenkins

The economic Naturalist by Robert H. Frank

I really was looking forward to reading this book. I just finished Social Atom and I had great expectations about the title and its premise. Even though I am trying to take each book individually, so I can enjoy the merits away from comparison. The truth is, this book didn't impress me. Perhaps I am not its target, maybe I wasn't in the mood.

The author is a economics teacher and in his class he gives an assignment to use a principle or principles, discussed in the course to pose and answer an interesting question about some pattern of events or behavior that the students have observed.

But asides for a couple of revealing questions, the rest lack interest for me. Or I lack interest for them, which seems more accurate.

The book offers explanations based on cost benefit principle, (you should take an action if and only if the extra benefit from taking it is greater than the extra cost) and other economic theories. But coming from The Social Atom, it felt like all theories based on a rational interpretation of the human mind (which is the main approach used by modern economics to develop their theories) are flawed.

It was a quick read though and like it or not it tough me a good lesson; not everything is going to be equally enjoyable. But find joy equally in all things.

The Social Atom: Why the Rich Get Richer, Cheaters Get Caught, and Your Neighbor Usually Looks Like You

The premise is simple enough: We should think of people as if they were atoms or molecules following fairly simple rules and try to learn the patterns to which those rules lead.

Our actions as individuals feed into the social world around us and help create a reality that then acts back on us.

The most important lesson of modern physics is that it is often not the properties of the parts that matter most, but their organization, their pattern and form.
This is one of those thoughts that affects and confirms many of the thoughts you've had in your life. Why do you do better work in a specific environment? why some people bring the best of you? the book answers that this is due to patterns and organization. And based on my experience in the world, I agree with him.

First you have to understand the character of the social atom, then learn what happens when many such atoms interact.

Patterns reveal regularities that show how the seemingly complicated actually isn't so. The natural laws behind those patterns often then lead to the possibility of prediction.

Human beings are made of atoms and molecules. We are part of nature. In nature follows patterns that flow out natural laws, shouldn't we?
But humans are the most complex things that we know about in the universe.
Human science has to deal not only with individuals of near infinite complexity, but with many such individuals, all different from each other.
And to make things even more interesting; because free will gives us the ability to do unprecedented things, this alone is enough to rule out any predictions on the future of human history.

The cornerstone of received economic theory is the idea that human agents behave rationally.
But (1) sometimes we cannot be rational, (2) even when we can be rational, most of us, as a rule, aren't, and (3) is ok not be rational because we have other ways to make decisions.

the mind isn't an all purpose computer, its a specialized device for specific tasks.
the brain is a product of millions of years of evolution and bears, in its structure and function, the traces of all that history.

the adaptive atom.
Humans are not rational calculators but crafty gamblers.
we are adapter opportunist. the secret of our intelligence is our ability to follow simple steps and to adjust and learn.

the imitating atom.
the influence of imitation leads to regular patterns.
the social settings alters the perception of the world.
yet, imitation doesn't generate any new information, it only amplifies the consequences that a little bit of information can have, whether is real or not.
when people are free to do as they please they often imitate each other.

the cooperative atom.
our genes have their own interests, principally to reproduce copies of themselves in coming generations.

Eight hundred life spans can bridge more than 50,000 years. But of these 800 people, 650 spent their lives in caves or worse. Only the last 70 had any truly effective means of communicating with one another, only the last 6 ever saw a printed word, only the last 4 could measure time with any precision, only the last 2 used an electric motor, and the vast majority of the items that make up our material world were developed within the life span of the 800th person.

Our ancestors throughout virtually all of human history lived in small, isolated groups using the logic of reciprocal altruism.

teh way we are as individuals depends not so much on how our behavior helps us, as individuals, but on how it influences the collective behavior of the groups we are part of.
History is a long struggle between groups of greater or less cooperative skills, with the most skilled tending to win.

the internet in a nonequlibrium system because never settles into an unchanging state. the theory of nonequilibrium states that finding lawlike patterns in complex nonequilibrium systems genrally means taking a step back from the details, and focusing on the big picture.

prediction is the engine of science, we design the present, and observe the future so as to compare our theories with empirical reality.

the factor behind our dominace of this planet is our ability to cooperate and coordinate to do what none of us could ever acieve alone.

most important is our ability to manage interactions that support social cohesion and build the complex webs of relations that make our groups far more than the sum of their parts.

we live in a rich social world, and it is the richness that results of the combination of people and their ideas, the actions and reactions that matters most.

Its been an incredible learning journey reading thos book. And again, as it happened with other books before this one, I read it just when its impact is the strongest because of my recent involvement with social networks.

There is a lot to take away from the book, but a couple of thoughts are the ones I would like to remember;

Each atom and molecule have a specific composition, but the environment in which they "are",plays a significant role in their eventual "state of being".

and also, the notion that we are not rational beings, but we are adapting, imitating and cooparating beings. And that realy affects the way we must look at ourselves and our interactions. We must examine our decisions making process as it affects work, relationships and parenthood.

The beauty of any book is that you can apply what you took from its pages into real life and give it a purpose.

You can't ask for anything more than that. You can't wish for anything less.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

I have to admit that I underestimated this book. It wasn't anything about the author or the title or the topic. I just thought that I understood comics fine. I have been reading comics since I could read and I felt comfortably confident that I understood comics.

Thank god, I was wrong.

I think that this is one of the most fascinating books that I've ever read. It captivated me from page one, taking me chapter after chapter, through the worlds of symbols, writing, philosophy, literature, layouts, concepts, ideas and imagination.

I think that the ideas explaining the mechanism of comics are relevant for advertising, design, internet or any creative project that deals with images and and words.

First I had never spent any time thinking about a definition of comic.
But the book through the definition touches on a very important subject: Form and content.

The artform of the comic is the medium. The content is up to the artist.
For a creative, there are so many important concepts explored and explained in the book that I felt like I was reading Advertising 101; introduction to the basics of creative thinking.

The definition of comic:
Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.

I belong to a generation (born in 65 in Madrid, Spain) that assigns a subtle negativity to comics. That's why when the book makes the case for Aztec manuscripts being the first comics, part of me resisted the concept. Obviously McCloud is right and those early signs of self-expressions are comics. I guess that Tintin, Asterix and Donald were comics too. Even though I never really assigned them the word comic... they were cartoons. Or at least that's what my mother called them.

The vocabulary of comics.
Icons. Any image used to represent a person, place, thing or idea.

Cartoon is a form of amplification through simplification.
This is the very heart of thousands of the ideas we see in advertising everyday. We tend to magnified the qualities of a product or an emotion through the simplification of the details, we are, not eliminating details, we are FOCUSING on specific details.

At this point of the book I was like a kid seeing all the candy coming out of the piñata.
I can't believe that through the process of understanding comics, such an important concept of the idea process could be explained so clearly.
By stripping down an image of its essential meaning an artist can amplify that meaning.

I think that I could have worked 13 more years in advertising and I never would've heard such a good definition of the goal of ideation.

The power of comics is It's ability to focus our attention on the idea.

We humans are a selfcentered race. We see ourselves in everything (cars, cans, electric outlets) and we assign identities and emotions where none exist. And we make the world over in our image.
When we see a realistic drawing of a face, we see the face of another. When we enter the world of the cartoon you see yourself.

I don't know why this revelation is so significant to me. I guess I am excited about discovering new concepts and new ways of interpreting comics and its implications. This is the feeling I get often reading this book; to define the ideas and concepts that I use as a creative everyday in such an easy and smart way. Wow. I'm having so much fun going along, page after page, discovering what comics truly are, so complex, yet so simple.

Sometimes, our identification of the messenger keeps us from fully receiving the message. The closer we get to the cartoon, the easier it is to receive the full concept.

All the things we experience in life can be separated into two realms, the realm of the concept and the realm of the senses.

Our identities belong to the conceptual world. they are merely ideas. And everything else, belongs to the sensual world, the world outside of us.

Writing and drawing are seen as two different disciplines.
Pictures are received information. We need no formal education to get the message.
Writing is perceived information. It takes time and specialized knowledge to decode the abstract symbols of language.
when pictures are more abstracted from reality, they are more like words. When words are more direct, they require lower levels of perception and are received faster, like pictures.

All of us perceive the world as a whole through the experience of our senses. Yet, our senses can only reveal a world that is fragmented and incomplete. The phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole is called CLOSURE.

In comics the audience is a willing collaborator, and closure is the agent of change, time and motion. The space between the panels, the gutter plays host to the magic and mystery that are the very heart of the comics. The human imagination is the silent accomplice to the comic artist.

This concept of our imagination being an accomplice is the central piece on which good advertising is based.

By creating a sequence with two or more images we are endowing them with an overriding identity, and forcing the viewer to consider them as a whole.

The transitions between panels then becomes the invisible art of comics storytelling.

Traditional western art and literature don't wander much. They are goal oriented, but in the east, there is a rich tradition of cyclical and labyrinthine works of art, where they emphasize being there over getting there. In japan, comics are works of intervals. Elements omitted are as much part of the art as those included. (just like the silence in music)

The art of comics is as subtractive an art as it is additive.
Another key principle in creative advertising. How much is needed to understand an idea? how much is needed to engage the consumer? Understanding this balance is essential to developing good executions.

Its when our senses are not needed when all our senses are engaged.

This following paragraph is also one of the most important principles of creative advertising, the relationship with the consumer:

Several times on every page the reader is released, like a trapeze artist into the open air of imagination, then caught by the out stretched arms of the ever present next panel. Caught quickly so as not to left the reader fall into confusion or boredom. But is it possible that closure can be managed in some cases that the reader might learn to fly?

I believe that it's the responsibility of advertising to "teach" consumers to "fly, to use their imagination so often that they can feel comfortable when exposed to creative ideas, enabling the creative team to simplify more, to broaden the gutter.

Comics are a silent dance between the seen and the unseen, the visible and the invisible.

The way words and picture can combine.

Word specific.
Words illustrate but don't add to a largely complete text.
Picture specific.
Words do little more than add a soundtrack to a visually told sequence.
Duo-specific.
Both words and pictures send the same message.
Additive.
Where words amplify or elaborate on an image or vice versa.
Parallel.
Where words and pictures follow very different curses without intersecting.
Montage.
Where words are integral part of the picture.
Interdependent.
Where words and pictures go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey alone.

The more is said with words the more the pictures can be freed to go exploring and viceversa.

The last one, Interdependent is the type of combination desired by smart print advertising.
I think I'll be using this often with creative teams to illustrate creativity in print.

The creation of any work, in any medium always follows a certain path.

1. Idea/purpose. The content
   
2. form. A book? a chair? a comic? a drawing?
   
3. idiom. the school of art. the style, the genre.
   
4. structure. How to compose the work.
   
5. craft. the skills to getting it done.
   
6. surface. production values, finishing.
   

The idea is at the core of the apple.

If one focuses on form, one becomes an explorer. His goal is to discover all that the art form is capable of. Creators who take this path are often pioneers and revolutionaries, artist who want to shake things up, change the way people think, question the fundamental laws that govern their chosen art.

On the other hand, if one chooses Ideas, then the art becomes a tool, and the power fo the art, rely on the power of the idea within.

why am I doing this?
The question every artist must ask himself at one point or another. And I'll say every creative before working on any project. The question will give you purpose, and the purpose will focus you on the task.

A medium is a bridge between minds.

The idea we see in our mind will never be seen in their entirety by anyone else.
The mastery of one's medium is the degree to which the artist's idea survive the journey. (bridge)

The message found in the last pages of the book is to continue to explore. And it is through exploration that I opened the first page of this book. And few times I've ever been happier of such a small action, given me back such a big return; the discovery of a whole new world. The better understanding of concepts that I use everyday as a creative and the knowledge to communicate this concepts with people I work with in the daily basis.

I didn't mention yet the amazing use of the comic format used by McCloud to communicate all these concepts, which being as complex as they are, never felt difficult to understand.

This book open many, many doors of opportunities for me and I'm thankful for that.

A note to myself: please read this book again soon.

Annie Leibovitz at Work

Another great book about the creative process and how ideas come to find a place in the world. Another great chance to learn from one of the best photographers of our generation. Annie Leibovitz has lived an interesting life; she has been the photographer of celebrities and Queens, of war and Rock and Roll. But the insights that I enjoyed the most in the book were the ones when she spoke about her process, what made her chose a subject, the concept, portraits vs groups, etc.

The most compelling story for me was the one about Yoko Ono and John Lennon. Perhaps because she took a famous picture of them just a few hours before he was shot. But I was moved by the actual picture and the comment made by John (that the picture "capture" their relationship).

we all start from zero.
One concept that keeps appearing in these books is the "you learn as you work" idea. Like all these exceptional people didn't know what they were doing at the beginning. And I think that this is a very empowering idea to keep in mind and communicate to our kids. You are not born knowing. You can ask questions. You are only limited by your imagination.

In sports photography, if you see the picture through the viewfinder, you are too late. You need to rely on intuition and timing.
How interesting to think that when you are trying the hardest to capture something, it is because of that that you might miss it. Its ironic and full of important lessons. Sometimes things happen too fast. Sometimes you need to trust your instincts, and sometimes you need to focus on not missing the action as opposed to catch the action.

A photograph is just a tiny slice of a subject. A piece of them at that moment.
I think that most of the time I thought of photographs as a slice of a moment that would remind me of the entire experience later on. I had never thought of the object itself and whether or not the picture would capture the person's whole identity.

"smile for the camera"
I've never asked someone to smile. She feels like people don't like to be forced to smile for the camera, and she dislikes it too. It feels forced and and to ask for a smile is to ask people to do something false. So many time sin my life I've been asked to smile in pictures. And I have always felt weird about it. Not because I don;t like smiling, which I like, but because I feel like people are not satisfied with having memories of people not smiling.
If you are not smiling, you are not happy, seems to be the assumption. But I agree with Leibovitz here. "Smile for the camera" is from now on erased from my photography lingo.

There is no mystery involve.
things happen all the time that are unexpected, uncontrolled, unexplainable, even magical.The work prepares you for that moment.

Her advice.
Discover what is like to be intimate with a subject.
Take pictures of something that has meaning for you.
Ideas start with doing your homework.
Something is going to happen or its not going to happen. Its not going to sudenly turn into something else.
Photography is just an illustration of whats going on.
once the picture happens, it often a surprise.

This is another book that has landed on my hands at the right moment. Now that I am researching and learning about the creative process and idea innovation, and that I am trying to make photography a more serious hobby.

I enjoyed the lessons shared by Annie Leibovitz with greater appreciation for her thoughts and insights, making the experience even more rewarding.