Working Through Consulting to Creative People
A blog by psychoanalyst Michael Jolkovski who looks at music ensembles, businesses & creative teams and other examples of human nature at work and play.
There is a common theme to all of this. I promise.
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On August 9th
In the age of social networking, we need finer gradations of the concept of friend. Here’s Kevin Kelly’s.
Mine is this: A friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a dead body. How often do you find that on Facebook?
On August 8th 1 Comment
Y Combinator is a Venture Capital group led by Paul Graham. It’s named after a mathematical function that I can’t come close to understanding. Something to do with recursion, I gather, probably an inside joke for LISP programmers. They provide seed money for tech startups — small amounts that allows them to do the initial work that will attract larger funding.
More importantly, they ask their sponsored groups move to Cambridge or the Bay Area for an intense 3-month sprint (they don’t like calling it a boot camp) where they receive lots of mentoring and work like their very lives depend on it. Read more »
On July 21st
I deal with people who have strong opinions about what they do. They are passionate experts. Some of them are musicians, some are programmers, some are something else. Some complain about being accused of being snobs about whatever their thing is — some wear it as a badge of honor. But truly, snobbery is destructive — it drives people away.
It’s the opposite of what the specialist needs to do, which is to share their love and enthusiasm for whatever their thing is, whether it’s modern chamber music, database design, or fine bicycles.
If you are deeply passionate about a thing and you have a refined appreciation for it that you are impelled to share, you are giving a great gift to your audience/customer base/community. If you’re derogatory towards the unwashed masses who aren’t connoisseurs like you, they will hate you and you deserve it. Read more »
On December 19th
In today’s Wired magazine site, David Byrne has written a small textbook on the recorded-music industry that summarizes the major approaches that are available today. The included audio clips of his interviews with innovators of different business models are well worth the time.
He sets out six models of recorded-music distribution, which he calls The Six Possibilities:
Where there was one, now there are six: Six possible music distribution models, ranging from one in which the artist is pretty much hands-off to one where the artist does nearly everything. Not surprisingly, the more involved the artist is, the more he or she can often make per unit sold. The totally DIY model is certainly not for everyone — but that’s the point. Now there’s choice. Read more »
On December 15th 1 Comment
Chart-topping Alex Ross reckons that this December 17 is the hundredth anniversary of atonality. Sez he:
Celebrate as you wish. On that date in 1907, Arnold Schoenberg sketched the song “Ich darf nicht dankend” (”I must not in gratitude [sink down before you]“), music in which conventional tonal harmonies grow exceedingly scarce.
But shouldn’t Alex recognize this as a day of a-tonement?
UPDATE: A Google search on “Schoenberg” brought up this ad. This proves something, I’m just not sure what.
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