Category Archives: Tips

Reclaim Your Mornings With An Automated Wardrobe

It can take my girlfriend 20 minutes to decide what she’s going to wear on a given morning.  That’s 20 minutes not spent enjoying breakfast, or the news, or sportcenter, or working out, or extra working time, or whatever it … Continue reading

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How To Be Creative

Sebastian Marshall was kind enough to let me guest post about how to be creative over on his blog.  It’s a technique I’ve used successfully for many years, and I imagine many other luminaries and creatives have used this, or … Continue reading

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How to E-mail

E-mail is the single greatest time-waster in modern life. –Tim Ferris Tim Ferris, of Four-Hour Workweek and Four-Hour Body fame, is on a one-man mission against e-mail.  Check out some of the results for a search of “Tim Ferris e-mail”: … Continue reading

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Being Frugal Makes You A Loser

I’m all for saving money.  I get as much pleasure watching my bank account grow as I do from buying things or taking trips.  But, people often take frugality too far.  I don’t care if you’re poor, and if you’re … Continue reading

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Understanding Exposure, pt. Practice

If you want to learn to take good photographs, you need to understand how cameras work.  See my super-simple explanation here: Understanding Exposure. If you want to actually take good photographs, you need to put that understanding into practice.  I’ve … Continue reading

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Deadlines Force Creativity

Inspiration and work ethic, they ride right next to each other. When I was an upholsterer, sometimes you’re not inspired to reupholster and old chair. Sometimes it’s just work and you just do it because you’re supposed to. And maybe … Continue reading

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Enjoying Museums

I visited the Leopold Museum by myself yesterday, because no one wanted to join me.  The museum was very nice, and absolutely worth a visit if you’re in Vienna.  It houses the largest collection of Egon Schiele’s work in the … Continue reading

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Pay Enough or Don’t Pay At All

Why might you get worse performance out of someone you’re paying than out of someone who’s doing the job for free?  If you put on your economist’s hat, you’d say this is plainly irrational.  If someone is willing to do … Continue reading

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Understanding Exposure

Proper exposure is the single most important feature of any photograph. It’s also the foundation of photography. You can be at the right place at the right time, but if you can’t properly expose the shot, you’ve got nothing. Today’s cameras do a pretty decent job of automatically selecting the proper exposure in most situations, but if you’ve spent any time shooting in the ‘auto’ mode, you know the camera rarely behaves exactly as you want it to. This article will teach you everything you need to know about exposure so that you can bend your camera to your will, making it do exactly what you want, when you want.

The first step in learning how to properly expose a shot is to learn what an exposure is, and how an exposure is made. Unfortunately, many looking to get into photography, and a surprising number of those who are producing very solid work, can be intimidated and confused when first learning about exposure due to the jargon photographers use to describe it. Luckily, exposure is an exceeding simple concept. Continue reading

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Clarity

I just read this article this New York Times opinion piece that really struck a chord with me.  It’s not particularly interesting or insightful.  In fact, it’s really not that good.  But the author sure does use some fancy words, … Continue reading

Posted in Aesthetics, Art, Creativity, Inspiration, Photography, Style, Tips | 1 Comment

How To Negotiate

(Note: this post attempts to outline the material covered in a 200 page book, a semester long class, and a 6 day seminar in 2500 words.  It can’t possibly cover everything, but it covers a lot.  I’ve tried to bold … Continue reading

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How to Learn Faster

My good friend works full time for a nice little financial planning and tax advice business.  He also loves going to football and basketball games, traveling, hanging out with friends, taking care of his mom, and drinking.  He’s a busy … Continue reading

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How Equipment Affects Creativity

The Luminous Landscape just published a very thoughtful essay by Mark Dubovoy about whether equipment affects creativity.  In short, his answer was it absolutely does. I agree with him, but I have some additional points below, which are applicable beyond … Continue reading

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