What does Flash, a sophisticated software program for creating interactive websites and digital animations, have to do with with Go, the ancient board game that originated in China?
Read this blog post by Mindy McAdams, who holds the Knight Chair for journalist technologies and the democratic process at the University of Florida and is author of “Flash Journalism: How to Create Multimedia News Packages.” In it she compares her experience teaching Flash to her students to her attempts to master Go.
Two statements from her first Go teacher speak to those of us struggling to to master the tools of multimedia.
“Go is a hard game.”
“Go is a long game.”
While her focus is Flash, these Zen-like statements can be applied to any technology that put journalists in the uncomfortable position of replacing their competence as reporters, editors, photographers, and designers with a dismaying sense of incompetence.
I think we can take comfort in McAdams’ story; I certainly do as I return to photography for the first time in decades, try to learn audio recording and the editing software these technologies demand.
It’s a hard game.
It’s a long game,
It brings to mind the statement attributed to the 19th century French novelist, Gustave Flaubert, that has consoled me as I struggle to master the writing process.
“Talent is a long patience.”
“Just because something is hard and can take a long time to learn” McAdams says, “doesn’t mean you can’t learn it. But it’s not a quick or simple process. Hard things take time. Hard things offer great rewards. Learning a hard thing is more mind-expanding than learning an easy thing.”
Wise advice.
Image source: Detail of The Four Accomplishments, by Kano Eitoku. One of six folding screens: ink on paper. Shows people playing Go. Japan, Momoyama period, 16th century. On exhibit at the Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. Published under Wikipedia Commons.
