Learning Curve

woof. dervish is a VERY OLD PATCH. i am older and wiser now. but
it always makes me happy when people crack it open. what's funny is
that the executable won't even run under 10.4... i like that it's
frozen in time, abandonware, but with the keys to the kingdom extant.

thanks for the shout, greg.

On Apr 5, 2007, at 9:41 AM, Gregory Taylor wrote:

>
> There's a real-live card-carryinglearning curve. How steep and long
> the incline actually is may be related to some things we don't know
> about you. Those things will often be simple, and more general: how
> do you solve problems? How adept are you at searching for answers?
> Do you tend to approach a problem by imagining grand solutions or
> lots of humble little ones? Any piece of software - whether it's a
> programming environment like Max or an end-user application of some
> sort involves someone thinking about a way to generalize a kind of
> problem-solving technique. There are many ways of doing that, some
> of which may make a lot more sense to you than others.
>
> Those are all personal matters. I've used Max for a long time. I am
> certainly not the kind of person who operates at the skill level of
> many people here (stop snickering, you guys!), but I am able to do
> the things I have set myself the task of doing, and - to my
> continued amusement and frustration, sometimes - I still seem to be
> able to acquire new skills when I have no other choice
> smile>. As a software consumer, there's an interesting marketing
> dynamic afoot that works to sell you things by simultaneously
> telling you that everything is easy while implying that you are a
> creative genius who is kept from greatness only by not owning the
> easy thing someone wishes to sell you. In my limited experience, a
> *good* piece of software is one that explodes both of those myths
> by presenting you with the gift of coming to see how and why craft
> *matters* rather than remaining "easy", and by granting you the
> gift of humility in a quiet way - by allowing you to try out your gr!
> and schemes and discover that they may well be lame ideas (or the
> really wonderful moment where you can see a piece of something
> shiny and beautiful in your pile of formerly great ideas).
>
> Max will do that for you; turn you aside from your great ideas into
> new ideas that will nourish you, make you crazy at some points, and
> reward your intentions in ways you don't expect. Those are all
> gifts of time and attention. And effort - you learn by going where
> to go. For some people, that's the greatest fun one can have. For
> others, not so much.
>
> If your interest is VJ-type stuff, then I'd do what I usually do
> when I do Max workshops - suggest the virtues of starting small at
> first, while trying to show you some of what you could do. That
> would include the following examples, which are built using Max:
>
> * Joshua Goldberg's Dervish (http://www.goldbergs.com/dervish/),
> which comes with the source patch for you to tear apart and
> investigate. When I say you owe him a pint for this [quite apart
> from a voluntary PayPal pint's worth], I'm being polite.
>
> * On the "commercial"side of things, there are two very interesting
> end-user VJ applications built using Max (I'm listing them
> alphabetically, lest you assume that order implies endorsement).
> They are both amazing pieces of work - somewhat different in
> approach in terms of the way they concaptualize performance and
> workflow, but worthy of your attention nonetheless. It will um...
> be a while before you can do this, as I suggest to workshop
> students, but that's no reason not to look at them. In fact, they
> might do all the things you want to do as they are now. :-)
>
> Livid Union (http://www.lividinstruments.com/software_union.php)
> VDMX (http://www.vidvox.net/)
>
> Good luck. Here endeth the lesson.
> --
> knowledge is not enough/science is not enough/Love is dreaming this
> equation
>