“SOMEONE HAS TO MAKE THE SCENE DRAMATIC. IT IS NOT THE ACTORS JOB (THE ACTORS JOB IS TO BE TRUTHFUL). IT IS NOT THE DIRECTORS JOB. HIS OR HER JOB IS TO FILM IT STRAIGHTFORWARDLY AND REMIND THE ACTORS TO TALK FAST. IT IS YOUR JOB.”
– David Mamet, from a must-read memo to the writers of The Unit.
I always figured I’d reached the pinnacle of something; I’d just previously been unsure of what.
[Via]
I kid, I kid.
It supersedes my Judaism most days.
Still, despite my inner leprechaun, no partying for me today. Back to the salt mines, and to cranking out work like my life depends on it.
I never forget a face.
I do, however, quickly forget from where I know that face. Which makes me, among other things, terrible at recognizing celebrities. Is that guy a minor star, or my old dry cleaner?
Jess, conversely, is nearly savant-like in her celeb-spotting. (And here, by ‘celeb’, I mean any actor, socialite, author, filmmaker, designer, journalist, editor, or musician, doing pretty much anything of note.) She’s not much impressed by her own ability, claiming she’s simply built up her encyclopedic knowledge by necessity – to excel at her job (consulting on the marketing and strategy side of fashion), she needs to recognize and know about all these people.
But, frankly, to excel at my job, I should really recognize and know about them, too. I just don’t.
I’d try to study up, but I’m pretty sure repeated exposure wouldn’t help. Last week, at a Vanity Fair / USA Network party, I even walked straight past my celebrity crush, Gabrielle Anwar, at least five times without realizing it. Admittedly, I’m really only smitten by the early 90’s, For Love or Money Gabrielle Anwar, rather than her current Burn Notice self. But, still.
The upside of my cluelessness, though, is that I’m wiling to talk with anyone. Even, unwittingly, celebs. Each time she takes me to a fashion party, Jess worries I’ll return from a loop of schmoozing saying, “I just met the nicest woman – I think her name was something like Ann Winters. Funny haircut.” At the Vanity Fair event, much to Jess’ amusement, I struck up a conversation with a lady I helped to flag down the bartender. Apparently, she’s a supermodel. I mainly noticed that she was about twice my height.
Still, even I can occasionally spot someone. Though usually only when I’m, literally, right next to them. That’s what happened at the same party, when I found myself standing next to actor Dule Hill. After seven seasons of West Wing obsession, even I could put the name to the face. And, it turns out, he’s a super nice guy – we’ve traded emails since, and he’s invited Jess and me to the well-reviewed off-Broadway play he’s producing, Extinction.
So, in short, I’m pretty sure I’m missing out on all kinds of other fun upsides the rest of the time by not having a clue who anyone is. Stupidity, it seems, has its price.
Recently, I stumbled back across a blog for students, called Study Hacks, that’s written by my friend Cal Newport. After getting sucked deep into the archives, I can definitively say it’s not only a great and well written site, but also one that’s genuinely and broadly useful for even those of us well out of college and into the ‘real world’. Go give it a read.
In particular, though, I’ve been thinking a lot about his Law of Action Planning: that no rigid rules or systems for figuring out “what to do when” can work effectively for more than a few weeks before becoming obsolete.
As Cal observes, (and as I have in the past) productivity largely boils down to two problems: capturing and organizing the stuff you have to do, than actually doing that stuff.
But, Cal goes on, while a simple system can solve that first ‘capture/organize’ problem for years and years with little change, it’s the second ‘do’ problem that constantly needs new solutions to keep up with the realities and demands of our lives.
Previously, I’d taken that as either a flaw inherent in a given system (like, say, David Allen’s Getting Things Done), or in myself. Now, I’m starting to see it’s perhaps just the way human brains are wired to work.
Admittedly, that doesn’t really change anything in terms of my actual productivity output. But it does, at very least, allow me to skip from one form of time management to another without all the mental angst. Don’t worry, I can tell myself; it’s a feature, not a bug.