The beauty of simplicity. Such a simple concept, yet at the same time one of the most difficult things to achieve. People can strive to make the most simple, beautiful things, yet usually achieve just making something that is extremely complex and ugly. Why is that? What makes it difficult to think simple?
To address these questions we must first try and define simple. "Simple" is defined as: free from elaboration or figuration. When people usually try to make some work of simple art (I'm using myself as an indirect example), they often will try and annex more and more to their art to complete the intended goal. But when you add more, that work of art becomes more elaborate, thus going against the definition of Simple. Is the secret to create something simple, that only accomplishes simple things, and hope that it functions beautifully? I would assume that that is how it is done, but I don't know. I wish there was a handbook on how to create simplicity, because if that were a thing I wouldn't ever have to worry about making something impressive ever again. That's just a dream though, and I need to drink more water.
Monday, November 5, 2012
When presenting a WIP is just a WIP
So, considering I'm going to be using this period to type two blog posts, I decided I will first add in my two cents about our presentations. How do they benefit the presenter? How do they benefit the audience? How do they benefit the teacher? How do they benefit society? How do they not benefit(harm) the presenter/audience/teacher/society? Today we'll find out.
First off, the first question. From my point of view, when you present a WIP you have to first put the entire project into scale, instead of just the aspect that you were most recently working on. You have to conceptualize what you've been slaving away at and decide the best way to present it to an audience so that it looks like a proper project to present to a board of investors. This is good because it helps the presenter get feedback on his/her work and know how to improve on what he's just started. Yet, at the same time, this can also be bad for the presenter because they can get extremely embarrassed about presenting. Some people just don't have the courage to show their project until it's in a more formal state. Totally understandable. But instead of following the train of thought that I just lost, I think I'll just say, "It's a grade so you might as well present what you have and if you really have to, you can just ignore the suggestions you get from the audience".
How does someone presenting benefit the audience? The Audience benefits from these presentations by giving them different insight into different styles of thinking and methods of building a project and assessing each aspect. They CAN learn a lot from how someone else has learned and grown their infant into another infant with more features, like an arm that actually functions. But of course, the audience isn't guaranteed to learn if they don't want to learn; that is, if they see the presentations as a waste of VALUABLE work time, then most likely, they aren't going to absorb much from what the presenter is saying.
Alas, that's just my two cents (And I didn't even address 4 questions)
First off, the first question. From my point of view, when you present a WIP you have to first put the entire project into scale, instead of just the aspect that you were most recently working on. You have to conceptualize what you've been slaving away at and decide the best way to present it to an audience so that it looks like a proper project to present to a board of investors. This is good because it helps the presenter get feedback on his/her work and know how to improve on what he's just started. Yet, at the same time, this can also be bad for the presenter because they can get extremely embarrassed about presenting. Some people just don't have the courage to show their project until it's in a more formal state. Totally understandable. But instead of following the train of thought that I just lost, I think I'll just say, "It's a grade so you might as well present what you have and if you really have to, you can just ignore the suggestions you get from the audience".
How does someone presenting benefit the audience? The Audience benefits from these presentations by giving them different insight into different styles of thinking and methods of building a project and assessing each aspect. They CAN learn a lot from how someone else has learned and grown their infant into another infant with more features, like an arm that actually functions. But of course, the audience isn't guaranteed to learn if they don't want to learn; that is, if they see the presentations as a waste of VALUABLE work time, then most likely, they aren't going to absorb much from what the presenter is saying.
Alas, that's just my two cents (And I didn't even address 4 questions)
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