The Finest English Dictionary That You've Never Used

Via the Maker Mind newsletter, I was alerted to a James Somers article about the provenance of the Webster’s 1913 Dictionary, and how all modern dictionaries fall short of its penchant for finding the ineffable qualities of a word, as well as tracking down its provenance in a most succinct manner.

James on the value of a genuinely illuminating dictionary:

There’s an amazing thing that happens when you start using the right dictionary. Knowing that it’s there for you, you start looking up more words, including words you already know. And you develop an affection for even those, the plainest most everyday words, because you see them treated with the same respect awarded to the rare ones, the high-sounding ones.

More about how Noah Webster built the dictionary:

Dictionaries today are not written this way. In fact it’d be strange even to say that they’re written. They are built by a large team, less a work of art than of engineering. When you read an entry you don’t get the sense that a person labored at his desk, alone, trying to put the essence of that word into words. That is, you don’t get a sense, the way you do from a good novel, that there was another mind as alive as yours on the other side of the page.

Webster’s dictionary took him 26 years to finish. It ended up having 70,000 words. He wrote it all himself, including the etymologies, which required that he learn 28 languages, including Old English, Gothic, German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Welsh, Russian, Aramaic, Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit. He was plagued by debt to fund the project; he had to mortgage his home.

Let’s put the Webster’s 1913 Dictionary to the test with a word I used from the first paragraph: penchant. The current Merriam-Webster definition of penchant is this:

: a strong and continued inclination

broadly : LIKING

Interesting, but not enough to make me want to use penchant in a sentence when I could simply use inclination instead.

Here’s the definition of the same word in the Webster’s 1913 dictionary:

||Pen`chant" (?), n. (Card Playing) A game like bézique, or, in the game, any queen and jack of different suits held together.

||Pen`chant" (?), n. [F., fr. pencher to bend, fr. (assumed) LL. pendicare, L.pendere. See Pendant.] Inclination; decided taste; bias; as, a penchant for art.

Whoa. Here we have references to an obscure card game, French and Latin root words, and a type of jewellery in addition to its more traditional meaning. Embedded in the meaning of the word is the context from where it came into traditional usage.

So you can see where using the right kind of dictionary can re-animate your love of language. Having a sense of character, history, and context behind words can help you gain a brighter picture of what they are all about and prod you to look up more of them.

But that’s not all. You can also use the Webster’s 1913 dictionary on your Mac as part of its hard-wired dictionary functionality. James’ article is a little out of date with its source archive for installation, but Jonathan Buys’ directions on how to install it on your Mac are up to date.. For your iPhone there’s even a free iOS app with the entire dictionary.

This is the kind of discovery that might just cause you to dive into literature again, trusty dictionary in hand. Happy reading!

(Photo courtesy of Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash)

Thursday Morning Coffee Links

Projects are in development, the weather is improving, and each day presents its own challenges. However, a few quiet moments with the first coffee of the day can put everything into perspective.

Here are some coffee-related links to ponder on this Thursday morning:

1. A man who drinks 25 cups of coffee a day.

2. A look at the dark side of the coffee world.

3. Coffee labor shortages might be on the horizon.

4. Bix Frankonis’ switch from coffee to tea.

5. A short history of pourover coffee, with brewing tips.

6. Sameer Vasta’s idea of putting together friends from different social spheres together with a virtual coffee break.

Not Easily Replaceable

This 2017 quote from Yuval Noah Harari from a conversation with Nate Hopper has been in my notes folder for some time, and I stumbled upon it recently once again. How very relevant for these times.

Do you have advice for people for finding an occupation that cannot be easily replaced?

I think our best bet is to develop your emotional intelligence and your resilience, the ability to keep changing all the time. Previously in history, even in the 20th century, life was divided into two main parts: In the first part, you mostly learned, acquired knowledge and skills, and you built yourself a personal and a professional identity. In the second part, you mostly made use of those skills and those identities. The pace of change in the 21st century will be such that most of what you learn as a teenager will be completely irrelevant by the time you’re 40. If I were like in charge of education or a school or, I would try to crack that: How to educate people to be very resilient and to embrace change throughout their lives instead of to teach them coding or mathematics or whatever.

Towards a Studio Policy in the Era of COVID-19 Part 1

This week I’ll be revising my studio policy for the coming year. Every year, the process consists of iterating the document for the previous teaching year, making changes that involve rates, teachers, cancellation policies, and other small details (like parking on the correct side of the driveway and keeping your water bottle away from the piano).

But this year, it’s a completely different reality. Most of us have already made the transition to full online teaching, and we now have to navigate how to communicate to parents the policies and procedures for dealing with a tremendous amount of uncertainty regarding the progress and transmission of the disease in our local areas.

Below are a few issues I’m working on for the coming year’s Foley Music and Arts Studio policy (for reference, here is my current 2019-20 studio policy):

1. The rate issue. Don’t cut your rates unless you absolutely have to. Your value as a music teacher is more important than ever and you need to come across as a professional. The range of extra-curricular activities might be much smaller than before, especially without team sports or large ensembles. On the other hand, avoid raising your rate beyond a small amount lest people accuse you of price-gouging in a pandemic. We intend to keep our rates the same.

2. Equivalency of online and in-person lessons. In order to maintain stability of income and scheduling with your studio in the face of future risk, there needs to be a one-to-one correspondence between in-person and online lessons. They should be interchangeable.

3. Sickness policies. If students are sick, they should not get an in-person lesson. On the other hand, if they’re already comfortable with online lessons, they can continue in their regular lesson times online if they’re well enough and until they’re back to full health.

4. How to describe management of the transition back to in-person lessons. Each of us is hoping to be able to teach in-person by the fall. However, we must also account for the eventuality that there might be a second wave of the virus precipitating further lockdowns in your area.

5. Things you can and cannot bring into the studio space. One of my professional students has already laid out a policy that students need to bring their own soap and towel to wash their hands in the studio. On the other hand, I no longer feel comfortable with people bringing in stuff to the studio beyond their books and music.

6. Adherence to new health and safety procedures in the studio. Rebekah Maxner’s article on health-proofing your studio is the best article I’ve seen in this area. Distancing, use of masks, hand-washing, and limitations of in-studio touching all need to be considered.

7. What to mention in the studio policy and what to mention via email updates. One possibility is to mention health and safety procedures in a general sense, then elaborate on them via email as you get closer to the beginning of the teaching year. Then further update them through the year as the situation warrants.

Above all, communicate how to facilitate structured learning through a time of uncertainty. Stating clear policies with relevant updates can put you ahead of many other extra-curricular activities (and school districts).

I’ve already taken some heat for “perpetuating fear and anxiety” and “throwing tradition out the window” when talking about current realities of the piano studio (members of Facebook’s Piano Teacher Central can find the comments here). But it is vitally important that we communicate to our customer base how we intend to engage with health and safety issues in the coming year. Far from being disrespectful to the tradition of musical instruction, dealing with health issues in the middle of a global pandemic goes to the heart of our mission and professionalism.

Schumann’s Carnaval with Stay Home International Pianists

This international version of Robert Schumann’s Carnaval is put together by Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz as a tribute to frontline workers. Each of Schumann’s 21 short character pieces of Carnaval is played by a different pianist across the world. Here’s the complete lineup:

• Préambule ~ Adam Kent

• Pierrot ~ Anait Karpova

• Arlequin ~ Mariel Ilusorio

• Valse noble ~ Fabiana Biasini

• Eusebius ~ Jacqueline Leung

• Florestan ~ Allan Du Ma

• Coquette ~ Stefan Schmidt

• Réplique ~ Karen Sam

• Sphinxes ~ Alexa Tinky Cabanatan Cruz

• Papillons ~ Rica Manas-de Los Angeles

• A.S.C.H – S.C.H.A.: Lettres Dansantes ~ Geraldine Ong

• Chiarina ~ Denise See

• Chopin ~ Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz

• Estrella ~ Andrea Verzosa

• Reconnaissance ~ Ricardo Cabezas Abapo Junior

• Pantalon et Colombine ~ Martina Cukrov Jarrett

• Valse Allemande ~ JOE Ron NG

• Intermezzo: Paganini ~ Matthew Van Hoose

• Aveu ~ Derek Chiu

• Promenade ~ John Patrick Reyes

• Pause/Marche des Davidsbündlercontre les Philistins ~ Brian Berino

The Star Wars-like intro is corny but gives a moving account of SHIP’s mission. Each pianist also provides a short caption about what their segment is about, which helps to guide you through the piece. A special shoutout goes to my long-time friend and colleague Derek Chiu, who plays Aveu near the end.

On the Agenda

Morning standup meeting with espresso, birds, and our backyard maple tree. Then off to the day’s work.

Foley Music and Arts Newsletter: The Quarantine Edition

One of the back paths (and steep hills) in Oakville’s 16 Mile Creek watershed.

The latest issue of our newsletter is out! Feel free to subscribe if you would like (mostly) weekly updates sent to your inbox.

Radical Uncertainty

In my workshops with music teachers, I now emphasize the presence of uncertainty, and how our strategies, advertising, and studio policies need to be agile enough so that they can embrace a wide variety of outcomes by the fall when the next teaching year begins.

Mark Lilla describes the situation well in his NYT opinion piece::

At some level, people must be thinking that the more they learn about what is predetermined, the more control they will have. This is an illusion. Human beings want to feel that they are on a power walk into the future, when in fact we are always just tapping our canes on the pavement in the fog.

A dose of humility would do us good in the present moment. It might also help reconcile us to the radical uncertainty in which we are always living. Let us retire our prophets and augurs. And let us stop asking health specialists and public officials for confident projections they are in no position to make — and stop being disappointed when the ones we force out of them turn out to be wrong.

We can’t see into the future, but setting up our strategies now will increase our ability to react to how things might change.

(Image by Suliane Ferraz on Unsplash)

The Path of Curiosity, with Limited Downside

Why is it such a useful idea to spend inordinate amounts of time on projects that might have only a small impact? Salman Ansari answers this question after watching a Elizabeth Gilbert talk about creativity:

The first idea that really hit me was recognizing the cost of not sharing:

“Any talent, wisdom or insight you have that you don’t share becomes pain.”

When I first heard this, I thought of projects that never saw the light of day. I’d been thinking about some of these ideas for years.

I never considered the cost of carrying them around all this time.

It’s not just about lettings things go — we’re also freeing space for what comes next.

By alleviating the pain of not sharing your ideas, you open up the path of curiosity. Salman on the result of putting out a lot of ideas over time:

I have a lot of different interests, and have been exploring a wide range of topics in my writing. This gives me a lot of different ideas of what to write about, but it also keeps it fun.

My approach runs counter to popular advice for growth. It’s often suggested to pick a single niche, so that it’s clear to your audience the one thing you’re all about. I don’t think this approach is right for me, but a part of me is still worried I’m “doing it wrong”.

The best way to overcome our fear, Gilbert argues, is to embrace our curiosity. It can take yearsfor your true creative path to emerge, but it is the most sustainable and meaningful work you will ever do.

The end result of embracing the path of curiosity might not look like what we first envisioned, but feedback from ourselves and others can help to iterate our ideas into something that might just make sense, reach people, and make money.

The more articles, projects, or ideas that you put out into the open, the greater the chance of success. Anne-Laure Le Cunff:

By writing every day, I just increase the odds that something is going to be popular. That’s literally the only strategy that I’ve been having, I just write every day. I make sure to post it on Twitter, to post it on Hacker News, to post on Indie Hackers. I just make sure that people can find the content. It’s a bit like going fishing, where I just wait and I see and sometimes catch something.

There is an element of chance when we share content beyond our immediate social circle. We’re not in control of what people find the most meaningful or profitable from our output. We might ignored, or we might ignite someone’s imagination. And the more content you can put out, there greater the odds of success over time.

I’ve been blogging since 2005, and many of the opportunities that have opened up for me since then could not have occurred with any other traditional means of career advancement.

With technology, the opportunity cost of putting ideas out into the open can be measured in time rather than money. It only takes diligence to put out a large body of content, one small element of which might eventually have a massive impact.

Thomas Waschenfelder explains the concept of asymmetric outcomes:

This is why I try to seek out iterated asymmetric opportunities where the upside is massive - the larger the asymmetric outcome, the less the odds matter. Sure, it’s not likely that any of my bets will pay out. But if the payout is large enough, then as long as I can keep making iterated bets relatively quickly, the expected total is positive. 

I live in the world of classical music and music education. Here are some project ideas in these fields that could eventually result in asymmetric outcomes over time:

• studio website with online registration

• regular livestreams

• blog articles

• photos

• short, regularly spaced videos

• writing short compositions and selling them on your website

• mini-recitals

• subscription services

Put several these ideas together and you might be able to sell the the products or services that can allow you to make enough money to thrive, without gatekeepers, and while maintaining your own personal integrity.

It’s important carve out your own small piece of the web rather than only operating on FaceBook, Instagram, or Twitter. Being in quarantine can also be a highly useful time for professional development and deep learning.

(Image by Dorothea Aldani on Unsplash)

Some Thoughts on Stock and Flow

Via Tom Crichlow's post about digital gardens, I recently stumbled upon Robin Sloan’s idea of stock and flow in writing:

/ Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that reminds people you exist.

/ Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the content you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what people discover via search. It’s what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time.

Flow is the incessant rush of social media posts, likes, and comments, and it’s much too easy to get caught up in it. Stock is the body of work that you invest in over time, that doesn’t deliver that much in the moment, but produces a long tail of views and influence over time (also see the concept of stock and flow in economics).

Robin continues:

Flow is ascendant these days, for obvious reasons—but I think we neglect stock at our peril. I mean that both in terms of the health of an audience and, like, the health of a soul. Flow is a treadmill, and you can’t spend all of your time running on the treadmill. Well, you can. But then one day you’ll get off and look around and go: oh man. I’ve got nothing here.

I’m not saying you should ignore flow! This is no time to hole up and work in isolation, emerging after years with your work in hand. Everybody will go: huh? Who are you? And even if they don’t—even if your exquisite opus is the talk of the tumblrs for two whole days—if you don’t have flow to plug your new fans into, you’re suffering a huge (get ready for it!) opportunity cost. You’ll have to find those fans all over again next time you emerge from your cave.

Like almost everyone, I spend too much time on social media. Although I don’t bare my soul on Facebook the way many people do, I still spend way too much time going over every single like and comment in great detail. It provides a great hit at any time of the day whether positive or negative, and the addictive cycle is especially rewarding at times of great stress, as in the last two months.

But I miss the longer, quieter hours spent crafting blog posts, whether long or short. It seems that blog writing is one of the most fragile activities I engage in, and the times I’m able to get in a solid writing flow are the times that are the most susceptible to being cut out of my schedule by any sort of upheaval or change. Notice the lack of posts in the entire month of April.

A quick look at the top-performing blog posts both here and in the Collaborative Piano Blog shows that it’s not just the most recent posts that perform well, but stuff that I wrote a long time ago that people find useful time and again, such last year’s post on how I use My Music Staff with The Archive to write lesson notes.

On the Collaborative Piano Blog, this month’s most popular articles are ones I would consider to be out of date, but which are still bookmarked, linked, and served up by search engines:

• 10 Things You Need to Know About the 2015 Royal Conservatory Celebration Series and Syllabus (2015)

• 7 Free Faber Piano Adventures Resources (2007) [NB: Not one link on that article still works, which shows you the ephemeral nature of many resource locations on the web.]

• Two Tenors Talk About Jackie Evancho, Amira Willighagen, and the Child Singer Pheonomenon (2014) [NB: And there’s still a steady flow of very strongly felt comments on that post, both positive and negative]

• Degree and Diploma Programs in Collaborative Piano (2005)

• The Definitive Guide to Building and Maintaining a Repertoire List (2010)

Of the most-viewed Collaborative Piano Blog articles, only some of them were intended to become longstanding resources. The others were written on the spur of the moment.

We’re not entirely in control regarding which of our previous work becomes the most viewed or influential. But having a stock body of work and a place for others to find it can increase our ability to reach people for years after we create something.

(Image by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash)