The three step program

[mangosteen]

Richard Feynman had the following algorithm for solving problems:

1. Write down the question.
2. Think really hard.
3. Write down the answer.

I was wondering how to apply this to my daily life, because it happens fairly often that step 2 gets omitted for the sake of saving time. Keep this in mind. It's important later.

So, one of the consqeuences of joining an a cappella group was buying an electronic keyboard, as it makes practicing on one's own a lot easier. Nothing fancy, but good enough that it's actually enjoyable to play as a piano.

Oh yeah, I should mention. I play piano. Well, actually, I kind of play near piano. As in, "In the proximity thereof." The kind of playing that would suggest that I probably learned to play a long time ago, but never really "applied myself", whatever that may mean.

Never applied myself. No application. I never applied myself... to the piano. Like there was some way to mentally stick myself onto it and play through the scales with my mind.

Anyway. I never applied myself. I tried for a few years, but it never took, per se. The best I managed was successfully stumbling through a few bars of particularly complex note phrases in selected songs by Billy Joel, mostly because it was interesting. Yes, Billy Joel. I lived on Long Island. It's what you do. Moving on....

So, I never learned how to play. Not well, and arguably not at all. I learned how to play notes, but not how to play songs.

Fast forward to several days ago. The morning after the a capella group rehearsal was at my house. The electronic keyboard sits in the living room, looking at me with its beady little...... keyboard. Taunting me like a taunting thing (with a beady little keyboard). Projecting the guilt and shame of 17 years of not quite being able to play piano in one focused beam onto my recently-filled-with-cereal-and-blueberries abdominal region. It made me most unsettled, as one might expect from such a thing.

So, I bellied up to the keyboard, and started going through the scales. But (see above), I started to pound through them with the same rote knowledge and lack of finesse that I did oh those many years ago. I must say, it still sounded pretty damn mediocre.

But then, then I remembered something.

I was forgetting Step 2. In fact, one could argue that I was adding Step 2 because I never had it and was merely inserting it where it belonged. Either way, I now had Step 2.

So I played through the scales. Very slowly. Placing every finger where it should be, and not placing them where they should not be. Thinking really hard about the most efficient location for each of my digits.

One, two, three, cross, one, two, three, four, five.
Five, four, three, two, one, cross, three, two, one.

(Except for the F scale, but not much to be done about that.)

And I played them again. Up and down the scales. Faster and faster. Fingers doing the mambo of competence across the keyboard that taunted me so. All was forgiven and forgotten (as I suppose anthropomorphized keyboards might do).

I went through sections of Billy Joel's Root Beer Rag, focusing on the chords behind the notes. Descending arpeggios never sounded so good. Just spray "think really hard" scent on the keyboard! Amazing!

But more importantly, and possibly most important of all the important things in this little adventure, is that Step 2 has a hidden meaning. That meaning that I speak of is "give a damn." In this case? It's about the music. Not showing off. Not competing. Not proving something unprovable to someone who doesn't particularly care if it's proven or not. There are notes that represent music. There is an instrument that plays them. Bring them together. Make it sing. Give a damn.

And so, my very patient friends, that's what I did. I wrote down the problem, I thought really hard (and gave a damn), and wrote down the answer.

And now, if you don't mind, I have a date with a keyboard.

Comments

[wolfkitn.livejournal.com]

*very* cool! i have more to say, but it doesn't sound right to type it out -- perhaps we'll run into each other sometime before arisia '06 and i'll remember what it is that i want to say. :)

[abilouise.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed at your perseverance. I thought what one did on long island was ride the carousel at Nunley's. But maybe I applied myself even less than you did.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

So that's how I can learn to program! Okay.

This is like how I do things at work. Customer asks something loony. I type the meat's words into a text editor as fast as possible. I stare at what I typed as a story. What part of the plot doesn't make sense? Ask more questions about that. Figure out the character (customer). I think about why the character is a nut and what would end that. I look some things up. I develop a preliminary answer -- enough to get the meat off the phone for a while. Then I get an email in a couple hours telling me I was right and the problem is solved.

Thank you, Feynman. You've influenced my thinking in so many ways already. This augments it. As he once said, "The goys have proven the following theorem." I guess I'm just the goy to prove it.

Thank you, Mango. Your positive mind is so good for me.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

Or was that quote from Von Neumann? According to someone's reapeated use of the phrase as a sigline, it may be. However, it's showing up only on the archives of listservs and not in a useful format.

[xeger.livejournal.com]

"Live mindfully"