Comments on: Short questions, short answers

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:26:04 +0000

John, what does it mean for the WGA if SAG gets a better deal than everyone else? I assume your thoughts on their possible strike are forthcoming.

Thanks

By: C.J.

C.J. — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:05:49 +0000

Hey, this is way off topic, forgive me, but I can’t seem to find where to ask a question on my inteface. Question: How did you, yourself, write the voice-overs in “Big FIsh”? Simultaneously while writing; or at the end when proofreading? Thanks…

C.J.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:38:28 +0000

There is a cool example of how beginner’s luck functions in a real sense in a discussion of the game Street Fighter at http://www.sirlin.net/Features/feature_Yomi.htm.

By: rick

rick — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:40:54 +0000

Yet another take on beginner’s luck is that it sometimes comes as a result of the beginner having no established bad-habits or preconceptions… “thinking outside the box”… or more to the point “thinking before you’re in the box at all”. Though I will concede that I think it’s a pretty rare phenomenon in this sense.

By: John Darko

John Darko — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:03:44 +0000

Another take on beginner’s luck can be speculated as the novice player’s disconnection from the pressure of the game. As they are normally regarded as inexperienced; we predict that they will not excel like the intermediate or professional players. For the novice there is no pressure to excel due to this speculation hence the lack of pressure the player feels to win the prize. Allowing the novice to concentrate more than a pressured veteran player.

By: Scott from Australia

Scott from Australia — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:56:00 +0000

There is a quote on the Wordplayer site that goes something like an artist succeeds on the first try more often because it is then when they are closest to the audience. I agree with that, when you are a writer, when you have not been affected by sales or deadlines or meetings or agents, you are more likely to really connect to an audience.

By: Paula Puryear

Paula Puryear — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:26:14 +0000

A single, early success is a different animal than sustained success over time. You could have enough talent or whatever to get going, but may not have the skill to keep it going, or enough insight into what led to that early success to duplicate the things that you did right.

By: Alex Andronov

Alex Andronov — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:38:08 +0000

Beginners luck has been shown to exist for gamblers. People who are lucky at the beginning tend to keep at it. And then always feel that they are less lucky than they were at the begining. Those who fail early tend to quit.

If you are lucky early it tends to make you a gambler. If you are unsucessful you quit. Therefore it's a self selecting falacy.

Some of this is talked about in the book Black Swan.