写作与思考2018newstatesman.com
高级钢笔悖论：当作家和艺术家害怕自己的工具
The Posh Pen Paradox: when writers and artists fear their tools
导读
文章从“高级笔悖论”切入，讨论作家和艺术家为何会对精良工具产生畏惧：好笔、好材料让人舍不得用、怕用坏，反而可能抑制创作。HN 的讨论进一步说明，练手阶段用普通工具能把注意力放回技能本身，而熟悉感往往比器材升级更重要，值得写作者反思自己与工具的关系。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
练手阶段优先用便宜、普通甚至有点旧的工具，把注意力从器材转移到技能本身。
- 02
别把好纸、好笔留到“写杰作”那天；日常写作就使用它们，工具的价值来自高频使用而非供奉。
- 03
保留一套自己熟悉、用出磨损的写作工具或软件，熟悉感能降低启动成本，形成稳定创作惯性。
- 04
主动降低每次练笔的成本，允许自己大量写草稿和失败稿，试错越多越容易进步。
HN 评论精选
初学阶段用普通工具能把注意力放在技能上；高手则能适应并驾驭工具。
我注意到，在一个领域真正练出技能的人，最初发展技能时几乎总是用较差的工具和材料。反直觉的是，给对音乐感兴趣的孩子买一把全新吉他，可能是最糟的做法之一；一把有划痕、贴着贴纸的旧吉他，会把孩子的注意力推向自己的技能，而不是物件。虽然并非人人如此，但我也注意到，熟练者会以不损害性能的方式折腾昂贵工具，并且总能适应较差条件；如果经常无法控制环境，他们会建立适应方法。例如程序员会准备一个能随时 SSH 登录的 Linux 环境；厨师会随身带锅铲和精选香料，以便在旅途中也能做出有味道的菜。
3pt14159查看英文原文
I've noticed that the people that really develop skill in an area almost always use inferior instruments and material when they're first developing the skill. Paradoxically, getting a brand new guitar can be the worst thing to do for a child interested in music. A simple used one with scratches and stickers pushes the child's focus to their own skill, not to the object. Though it isn't true for everyone, I've also noticed that skilled practitioners beat up their high priced tools in ways that doesn't degrade their performance, and they're always able to compensate for inferior situations and build methods of adaptation if they frequently lack the ability to control the situation. For example, a programmer may set up a linux machine that they can always SSH into if they can't control the computer they're working on in order to have a familiar environment or a chef may keep a spatula and a carefully thought out pre-selected set of spices with them to always be able to make something flavourful while traveling.
换更好的工具不一定让作品更好，熟悉感反而影响创作状态。
我可以用相机经历印证。2012 年我买了一台入门级单反，约 500 美元，当时规格中档；按今天标准它很老旧，缺少很多功能。我用它拍过很棒的片子，也在五年多里学了很多摄影，大约拍了 6 万张。除技术功能外，它也缺少昂贵相机的防尘防水，机身是塑料而非镁合金，镜头质量也低一些。直到去年我买了 Canon 6D 并决定一次学会新相机，才意识到新工具不等于更好照片。那过程无聊又繁琐，我甚至想回到旧相机。后来照片开始变好，但新相机让我灵感更少；它有我想要的功能，却不像“我的相机”。
numbers查看英文原文
I can attest to doing this with a camera. In 2012, I bought an entry level dSLR, it’s about $500 and specs that were middle of the road at the time. By today’s standards, it is ancient and lacks a lot of cool features. I took some amazing shots with it and I also learned a lot about photography in the 5+ years I used it. For example, I took about 60k photos with it so thats a lot of mileage on the camera. Putting technical features aside, it also lacked a lot of nice to haves that more expensive cameras come with like dust proofing and water resistance. The body was made of plastic instead of a magnesium alloy with plastic. The lenses were a bit lower quality than you can buy for the full frame lenses. I wouldn’t have realized that new tools doesn’t mean new and better photos until last year I bought myself a Canon 6D and decided to learn a new camera all at once. It was boring and tedious, I wanted to go back to my old camera. Eventually the photos started looking better but I felt less inspired by the new camera. It had all the cool new features I wanted but it didn’t feel like my camera.
低成本、低风险的媒介允许大量试错，很适合练手。
学编程时很好的一点是，你可以做出东西，而不必担心误用纸、颜料之类的资源，可能只消耗时间。昨天我想看看能不能写一个检查单词是否回文的程序：打开文本编辑器、终端和浏览器，完成。
edjw查看英文原文
It's really nice when you're learning to program that you can make something without the fear of misusing some resource like paper or paint (other maybe than time). Yesterday I wanted to see if I could make a program that checks if a word is a palindrome. Open a text editor, a terminal and a browser. Done.
把好材料留到“杰作时刻”的心理很常见，但会妨碍日常使用和练习。
我某种程度上也有这种感觉。我一直以为这是想把最好的材料留给某种“杰作”，而不是浪费在日常工作上；我不觉得这完全不合理。我在非创作的事情上也这样：有几瓶很好的威士忌，但我不喝，留给懂威士忌的朋友来时一起享用；独处时则喝最差的那瓶。
twic查看英文原文
I perceive this in myself to an extent. I have always thought it was about wanting to save the best materials for some sort of magnum opus, rather than waste them on everyday work. I don't think that's entirely irrational. I do it with non-creative things too. I have some bottles of really nice whisky, but i don't drink them. I'm saving them for when a whisky-appreciating friend comes round, and we can enjoy them together. I drink the crappiest stuff i have when i'm on my own.
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