Weekly I/O: Generative AI and photography have same impact on Art, Parkinson's Law, Parkinson's Law of Triviality
#68: Gen AI and Photography to Art, Parkinson's Law, Parkinson's Law of Triviality, Delete Most in Draft, Assemble Furniture Principle
Hi friends,
Greetings from Mountain View!
Last week I was busy revamping my personal website. Now you can visit all the inputs individually on the IO page. I might add search functionality or even a chatbot later. It's still in beta, so let me know what you think!
And here's your late weekly dose of I/O. I hope you enjoy it!
Output
Here's what I've published since the last time we met.
1. Paul Graham: How to Do Great Work
I translated PG's latest article into Traditional Chinese. Check out How to Do Great Work for the original English version. Highly recommend reading it!
Input
Here's a list of what I'm exploring and pondering on this week.
1. Generative AI is to digital art as photography was to traditional art. The value of having good ideas grows when new technology lowers the need for technical skills.
Thought
Photography revolutionized traditional art in the 19th century by surpassing painting's ability to capture reality with unmatched precision. It made certain art forms less relevant as the camera could achieve better results. Therefore, art forms like impressionism emerged, prioritizing ideas over realistic representation and blurring the line between artists and philosophers.
Likewise, generative AI can have a similar influence on digital artwork. When MidJourney first started gaining traction, I talked to Miguel about its impact on digital arts. With the new technology, the idea matters more than ever. The bottleneck in digital art creation transitions from mastering technical skills for implementation to conceiving the idea itself. The actualization of ideas becomes less significant.
However, this doesn't mean skills become irrelevant. Just as Mondrian had to learn to paint naturalistic landscapes before pioneering Neoplasticism with his iconic Composition with Red Blue and Yellow, skills serve as a foundation for transcending their limitations. You have to learn the rule before you can break it.
Photography and generative AI share other similarities too. Both faced skepticism when they first came out, questioning whether they could truly be considered 'art'. Yet, just as photography expanded art's definition, generative AI will push boundaries and offer new creative avenues.
2. Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. The more time we allot for a work, the more time it will take to finish it.
Article: Parkinson's law - Wikipedia
Parkinson's Law, as observed by historian C. Northcote Parkinson, states that the time required to complete a task will always expand to fill the entire allotted time, regardless of the actual workload. In simpler terms, whether you give a task 5 days or 5 weeks to complete, you will likely finish it right before the deadline in both cases.
Parkinson's Law is ubiquitous in time management. For instance, if I have to publish an article tomorrow, I usually spend about 4 hours writing it and will submit it at the last minute. However, if I have the same article to publish next week, it might take me 20 hours to complete.
And guess what, I would still submit it at the last minute, with no improvement in the article's quality. Despite investing an additional 16 hours, the time is often wasted due to procrastination and perfectionism, which also explains why quantity is the most predictable path to quality.
Parkinson's Law also has some interesting corollaries:
If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do. (from Stock–Sanford)
In ten hours a day, you have time to fall twice as far behind your commitments as in five hours a day. (from Asimov, who also has a corollary to Clarke's Three Laws)
Data expands to fill the space available for storage.
3. Parkinson's Law of Triviality: The time spent discussing various topics within an organization is usually inversely proportional to their level of importance.
Article: Law of triviality - Wikipedia
Parkinson's Law of Triviality is another observation from the historian C. Northcote Parkinson stating that people tend to devote a disproportionate amount of time and attention to trivial or minor issues while neglecting more significant and complex ones. Typically, the more important something is, the less time it is given attention or discussed.
Parkinson gave an example of a fictional finance council discussing three topics: the construction of a £10 million nuclear reactor, a £350 employee bicycle shed, and a proposal for a tea room costing £21 per year.
The £10 million nuclear reactor was passed after a two-and-a-half-minute discussion. Despite a member suggesting an alternative plan, no one wanted to abandon the progress made, and another member, who had concerns but struggled to explain them, eventually gave up.
On the other hand, the bicycle shed topic was within everyone's understanding and supported by various life experiences. Mr. Softleigh suggested using an aluminum roof, Mr. Holdfast proposed galvanized iron and Mr. Daring questioned the necessity of the shed. After 45 minutes of discussion, with the potential of saving £50, council members felt a sense of accomplishment.
The tea room topic, revolving around everyone's familiarity with tea, its preparation, and where to buy it, consumed an hour and fifteen minutes of the council members' time. However, due to time limitations, they asked the secretary for additional information and deferred the decision to the next meeting.
While important topics are usually complex and require domain knowledge, minor matters are often easier to comprehend. Everyone can join the discussion, leading to increased participation and debate on things with minimal impact compared to more important issues.
4. To write well, delete most of what you put on the page, as films often shoot 50 to 100 times more footage than what actually appears in the final cut.
Article: Editing – Moving Pictures
In the last century of Hollywood's Golden Age, feature films often shot 10 times more footage than necessary, known as a shooting ratio of 10:1. And the editors had to look at all of it, sorting through more than 10 hours of footage for every hour of film in the final cut. This included retakes, spoiled shots, multiple angles, and even scenes that would never make it into the final film.
Nowadays, with digital cinema, it's common for films to have 50 to 100 times more footage than the final cut. For example, the filmmakers behind Deadpool (2016) shot 555 hours of raw footage for a final film of just 108 minutes. That's a shooting ratio of 308:1.
Writing is a lot like video editing. You have to delete most of the content in your draft before hitting the publish button. You have to write 5x more but write 5x less and be able to kill your darlings.
5. When assembling furniture, start by tightening all the screws to 75%, then fully tighten them once all components fit together. This principle extends beyond furniture.
From David Perell:
"When building a piece of IKEA furniture, don’t tighten all the screws to 100% right away. Start by tightening each one to 75%, and only bring them up to 100% once all the screws fit nicely together. This principle applies beyond furniture too."
That's it. Thanks for reading. I'd appreciate it if you could share which input you found the most helpful or intriguing. Just reply to this email with a number—it's quick and easy!
And as always, feel free to send me any interesting ideas you came across recently!
Looking forward to learning from you.
Cheers,
Cheng-Wei