My Old man would be staring you in the face right now, Ash, and telling you straight.
"Don't try; do!"
and
"Think before you do anything - if you have time".
I hope you never applied the same philosophy when diagnosing a patient.
Cheers
Tom
Tom,
Your Dad had smarts, but there
is actually a pretty good background to the rule I was quoting!
That's where education and scientific tradition beats more common aphorisms. This advice, "Don't think, try!" has been taught to countless generations of physicians and scientists following its introduction by the surgeon John Hunter. It actually is the continuation of the science of investigation of Aristotle and direct observation by trying our ideas under rigorous testing situations. This has allowed the advances in medicine. We don't merely think about what's possible to save a patient with what everyone already knows but also try to save those who otherwise would be left to fail, succumb and die.
I was fortunate to be skilled at thinking up ways around what was "not doable" and assembling everything I could to put the patient on the path to success, not stopping where there was still doubt and uncertainty and tried and succeeded, risking my reputation, in rescuing people who otherwise would die. Many physicians do this every day, harnessing every iota of knowledge and skill and then taking
measured risks, they do not have to do, to convert a "thought process" on a solution to a successful all out "try" that in fact succeeds!
So that is why the phrase "don't think - try" and its variants have track proven record of enviable success.
But, also, your Dad is also right, don't just "try" - make sure you actually "land the plane", if you have taken the responsibility of being the "captain at the controls"!
In the case of photography, unless one makes mistakes one cannot make progress. Lee expressed a lot of hesitancy!
No one I know simply thought about pictures, studied great pictures and then went out and
immediately snapped winners. Progress, in almost all man's efforts, required learning from failure. "Fear of being humiliated" can prevent this path to success.
If one cannot withstand and pass through failure, I don't think progress in anything is possible!
Asher