Skill, a little more

Skill gives you the wherewithal to execute whatever occurs to you. Without it, you are just a font of unfulfilled ideas. Skill is how you close the gap between what you can see in your mind's eye and what you can produce; the more skill you have, the more sophisticated and accomplished your ideas can be. With absolute skill comes absolute confidence, allowing you to dare to be simple.

Analyze your own skill set. See where you're strong and where you need dramatic improvement, and tackle those lagging skills first. It's harder than it sounds (most useful habits are), but it's the only way to improve. In A Book of Five Rings, the sixteenth-century Japanese swordfighter Miyamoto Musashi counselled, "Never have a favorite weapon." Warriors know they need to enlarge their arsenal of skills in order to avoid becoming predictable to their adversaries.

Some thoughts from Twyla Tharp on skill in her book, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, A Practical Guide. I bought this excellent book many years ago from the remainder bin outside a new age bookshop - don't ask :-)

Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings: The Real Art of Japanese Management is one of the few business books I've bought - although, strictly speaking, it isn't a business book. It was reprinted in paperback in 1982 with some commentary. Back then understanding what made Japanese companies so successful was all the rage, and since at the time I was enthralled with Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and quality, this book seemed like something I'd be interested in. It was. 

While not calling out skill specifically, the following passage from TBFR about the skill of selecting what to use where has stuck with me all these years.

In building a house, the lumber is sorted. Straight, gnarless lumber which is beautiful to behold is used for the external pillars; lumber with a few gnarls but which is straight and strong is used for inconspicuous pillars; lumber which may be a bit weak but which is gnarl-free and beautiful to behold is used for the threshold, lintel, doorways and shoji ("sliding panels"); lumber which is gnarled and slightly distorted but which is strong, is used in places appropriate for such lumber after careful study has been made for such places, thus resulting in a house which is solid and long lasting. There is also lumber which is heavily gnarled, distorted, and weak, and such lumber can be used for scaffolding and later as firewood.

When I had cable and watched its infinity of home reno shows it was clear that sort of skill wasn't a consideration. Demolition and replacement with new commercial materials was standard procedure - don't get me started about the hackneyed scenes of homeowners swinging sledge hammers :-) The above seems more applicable to a society where materials aren't abundant, but I think it's a good principle to always keep in mind. In scratchbuilding I've found it a useful principle for thinking about how to use my scrapbox and accumulated materials.