#long-term projects

Right now, I am currently on a scale of about 8 months, because in March I finalized plans to go to Disneyworld.

8 months may not seem like a long-term goal, and I admit, I do have other long-term investments and plans in the works (retirement funds, house projects, things like that), but this sort of long-short goal I think is important to have so I want to talk about it.

I am going to call it a Long-Short goal, because one: Medium-Term goal seems awkward, and I think Long-Short gets the “feel” of it better: it is a short-term thing, that actively consumes a lengthy period of time.

How is it consuming?

I am actively saving more funds for the trip.

I am actively focused on short-term appearance goals (aka weight loss), at times to my detriment as I’ve learned, and had to adjust, reminding myself that 8 months is ABSOLUTELY enough time to slowly lose 20lbs in.

I am actively gathering items for “Disney Bounding” aka dress-up.

I am actively reading up on information for the trip.

I am actively re-immersing myself in Disney films and culture.

I am actively talking about it with my mother, who is going on the trip.

I have been proactive in getting the time from work off.

I am actively working with a Disney travel agent.

I am actively watching for flight tickets, as well as looking at Disneybands.

I am monitoring the COVID situation, and working on getting fully vaccinated.

As things get closer, I will actively be getting information on what souvenirs my friends may want.

I will begin to get reservations for restaurants and events (Like building a droid). My park reservations are already made and locked in.

Why do I outline this here? None of you care about my trip to Disney.

It’s to show you this kind of goal, for one. I think it’s important to have long-short goals, because they are usually very engaging, and they get you to really be excited for a moment. The feelings of bliss, excitement, anxiety, worry, fear, happiness, ecstasy, all come together in a way that planning for retirement, doesn’t quite make possible.

It’s not a passive goal, like waiting for a game release. While yes, that is engaging and fun in its own way, it involves two steps – buying the game, and playing the game. The build up to it may be there, but I don’t feel it involves the same amount of preparation, nor the same amount of engagement even when you have the game.

This is no diss on games. I am going to absolutely lose it when Elden Ring is finally released, mark my words, but there’s nothing to be done before then, and while the enjoyment of the game may last months of play time, I know it won’t stick with me the same way that this will.

I know because I’ve done something like this for the Star Wars Celebration in 2019. That was my first real experience of doing something like this – planning a trip further from home, for a particular event, and being engaged in a new environment.

Having a taste of that, I’ve come to realize a certain love of “long-short” goals, so I am already planning after Disney, to take a trip to Boston with my father, because he’s always wanted to see more of the Eastern USA, since he never got to when he was younger – he was mostly on the Western side of things.

I’ve already found an awesome hotel built in an old prison. Now it’s just determining a good time, gathering the funds, and making the plans – but that’s after Disney, and I’ll likely have a year cooldown.

These plans are useful though. They help you imagine a future, and not only that, it’s a future that truly feels like it can happen because you see progress towards it. You see payments. You see dates. You are engaged with other people going on the trip – or if it’s just yourself, you are engaged in looking at places to visit, things to taste, events to check out. You see other people being engaged or preparing for these events, too.

It feels real.

It makes the future real.

Sometimes, that can be hard to feel with death anxiety. Experiencing the excitement and seeing something coming together over a long period of time – being active in it for a long period of time – does help to make it feel real in a way that knowing I’m going to play video games next weekend, doesn’t.

So, if you’re able, try to make “long-short” plans, with yourself, or with those around you. It doesn’t need to be travel oriented, it could even just be an event in your town, or perhaps a project (sewing, art project, writing project, etc.), that engages you over time, requires investment of at least time, and that you can stay engaged with.

For me, I find this most accessible in travel plans.

For you, it may be an art project that depicts a series of events, feelings, or something.

It may be a long novel, where you work on it chapter by chapter, outlining it, and engaging it, bit by bit, and then editing it once it’s all done. Fanfiction counts in this, too!

The Ups and Downs of A Long-Term Project

Having a long-term project is so intimidating. I hate it when you’ve been working on something for such a long while and you suddenly go into that state of, “Oh shit…Is everything I’ve done so far just garbage?” I DESPISE those thoughts. I can fight them back, but I don’t do it in an aggressive way anymore where I’m beating myself up. I check in with the emotion: self-doubt. After addressing the…

You may have noticed that, since updating the WizFight source code earlier this month, I’ve been fairly silent. For the most part, I've been doing a lot of research. If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably seen my dozens of references to various programming languages that I've been looking into or somesuch. I've looked into quite a few programming languages.

Among others, I've installed the compiler/interpreter for and/or begun working with:

Agda

Algol 68 Genie

APL

Aya

BCPL

Cixl

Elm

Erlang

Forth (gForth and RetroForth)

Fortress

Futhark

Idris

Julia

J

K

Klong

MUMPS

Q'Nial 7

Ursala

...and so on and so forth. What am I going to do with all of these? I'm not sure yet. It's quite possible that many will never be used in any serious capacity. I was simply interested in working with them and, thus, began setting up a development environment for them.

The two languages that I have really begun to work with in recent times are Perl 6 and K. I've become quite fond of Perl 6, in particular, as the language really embodies the mindset of "there's more than one way to do it." It's one of the most flexible languages that I've ever worked with and I genuinely feel as if I've barely scratched the surface. I haven't even begun to use features such as its optional functional programming syntax, much less really internalized its builtin Bash-like functions. It's a great language and one that I highly suggest looking into. The Rakudo implementation is said to be ready for production use, granted you deploy to MoarVM, albeit the number of available libraries is fairly small for the time being.

K is a language that I'm learning in order to learn the ways of array programming languages. One of my goals is to learn at least one language from each major paradigm, if not for use of the languages in question, then for the added perspective that learning new paradigms will bring. Rather than start with functional programming, as many probably would, I started with array programming.

While I've yet to spend quite the amount of time that I'd like on learning K, I will say that, while array languages are quite different, and can be difficult to wrap your head around due to a combination of the focus on math over logic and their insanely terse syntaxes (this Project Euler problem 1 solution exemplifies both points), I can honestly say that, once you begin to figure the paradigm out, it is quite gratifying.

To reinforce my learning of various languages that I take an interest in, I have started two long-term projects that were chosen due to the ability to be repurposed for as many programming languages as I'd like:

A fork of Karan Goel's Mega Project List, which you can find here.

Ports of the games from David Ahl's 101 BASIC Computer Games, which you can find here.

I intend to slowly chip away at each of these in the coming months, as well as the problems on Project Euler. I've folded my Project Euler solutions into my fork of the Mega Project List, which is linked above.

So far, the 101 BASIC Computer Games ports have been a valuable experience. I had never worked with programs written in a dialect of BASIC that still primarily used line numbers and goto statements for control structures and the process of porting that logic to a modern language is a rather good exercise. Trying to keep track of the gotos for more complex algorithms, such as Amazing's maze generation algorithm, can be quite difficult, so I've actually started mapping the logic out on paper. Overall, I'm having quite a bit of fun with it.

USA. Fresno, California. 2014. Homeless camp. Fresno has a population of 494,665 and 24.8% live below the poverty level. Matt Black Homeless camp. Fresno, California, USA. 2014. © Matt Black | Magnum Photos

I progetti documentari possono svilupparsi su un arco temporale che può andare da pochi giorni a diversi anni e i progetti a lungo termine, sebbene appaganti nei dettagli e nello storytelling che ci presentano, richiedono un livello differente di impegno, pianificazione e approccio strategico rispetto ai progetti a breve termine.

Al fine di aiutare i fotografi con feedback e consigli pratici relativamente ai loro progetti a lungo termine, il fotografo di Magnum Matt Black ha tenuto una conferenza a S.Francisco. Black sottolinea l’importanza di completare un progetto fotografico a lungo termine che sia ben organizzato inoltre, secondo Black, i fotografi hanno una responsabilità nel raccontarci queste storie importanti. “Come fotografi avete l’obbligo morale di pubblicare il vostro lavoro e raggiungere più persone possibili”.

Di seguito illustriamo cinque trucchi imparati durante la conferenza di S.Francisco, illustrati da Matt Black e altri fotografi intervenuti alla conferenza.

USA. Alturas, California. 2016. Cattle auction. Alturas has a population of 2,827 and 29.3% live below the poverty level. Matt Black Cattle auction. Alturas, California. USA. 2016. © Matt Black | Magnum Photos

USA. Flint, Michigan. 2016. After a bath. “I’m not in health enough to carry water,” said Cynthia Grant, 57. “Cooking, washing, trying to tote water and all that.” Matt Black ReDonna Riggs bathes her grandson. Flint, Michigan. USA. 2016. © Matt Black | Magnum Photos

TRACCIA UN PROGRAMMA DI INTENTI

I progetti possono riguardare tutto e niente ma il motivo per impegnarsi in un progetto a lungo termine deve essere chiaro e dovete essere in grado di comunicare perchè sentite la necessità di raccontare quella storia, e soprattutto perchè quella storia debba essere raccontata ora.

Nella sua presentazione, Judy Walgren, Direttore Editoriale della media start-up ViewFind dice: “tutti coloro che vogliono raccontare una storia devono costantemente pensare perchè sono così coinvolti dalla storia e/o dal soggetto e devono fare attenzione sul come il loro sesso, orientamento politico/sessuale, culturale e il livello sociale possa influenzare il modo in cui percepiscono il mondo. Per questa ragione penso che sia importante per i fotografi essere capaci di spiegare effettivamente e in modo conciso il progetto, compreso il motivo per cui la storia è importante e perchè debba essere raccontata. La definizione del progetto è una parte critica del progetto stesso e del suo sviluppo e può fornire delle solide basi su cui costruire il lavoro”

Rana, 25, Tess, 19, and Vianca, 22, hang out in the laundromat parking lot on the hood of Tess’s station wagon that doubles as their home for long periods of time in Redway, California. By workshop participant Rachel Bujalski. © Rachel Bujalski

PONETEVI DOMANDE

Matt Black ci fornisce alcuni saggi consigli su come egli abbia lavorato a progetti a lui cari e a Km zero come, ad esempio Dry Land e The Black Okies, che ha realizzato nella Central Valley californiana, oppure il suo progetto a più lungo termine, The Geography pf poverty, che mappa la povertà dell’America contemporanea. Il suo modo di lavorare si fonda sul porsi domande come strumento per definire il punto cruciale della storia, per relazionarsi con i soggetti e comprenderne le problematiche. Lo sforzo costante di dare un senso al Mondo l’ha portato a chiedersi “Com’è possibile?” e l’ha aiutato a creare la sua prospettiva unica su questi problemi.

Workshop participant Amy Sacka’s project ‘Detroit Stories’ on the people and places of her home city. © Amy Sacka

Workshop participant Amy Sacka’s project ‘Detroit Stories’ on the people and places of her home city. © Amy Sacka

SII UN BUON PRODUTTORE

Quando si lavora a progetti a lungo termine, i fotografi non dovrebbero MAI sovrastimare l’importanza di una buona ricerca e produzione. Shannon Simon, Content Director e Director di Magnum per le Americhe spiega come l’accesso a una ricerca approfondita garantisca una buona produzione

“Avere un progetto ben strutturato, piuttosto che andare alla cieca, credo sia un valore aggiunto impagabile nella costruzione di una storia. Se si è più orientati alla creatività e senza vincoli di logistica, chiedete a un amico o un collega di aiutarvi. La perseveranza è ciò che vi porterà nel posto giusto a fare ciò che si vuole fare. E ricordate di essere grati per le possibilità di accesso che vi vengono fornite, poichè solitamente non c’è alcun beneficio per chi vi aiuta”

Workshop participant John Hall’s project ‘4am | Japan’ on his first wanderings around the foreign city. © John Hall

COLLABORATE

Le collaborazioni creative aiutano ad aumentare gli ambiti e la ricerca dei progetti. Il Direttore della Fotografia Jacqueline Bates e il Direttore Creativo Leo Jung del California Sunday Magazine, che hanno tenuto un discorso al Workshop Professional Pratice, essendo le due persone incaricate di realizzare la visione della rivista, spiegano come la combinazione di due persone, la combinazione della lor fotografia e del loro design abbia portato a un risultato differente a quello che si sarebbe ottenuto da un lavoro individuale da parte dei due professionisti.

La collaborazione di successo nella pubblicazione di un progetto a lungo termine è stata l’unione d’intenti tra Matt Black e Amy Pereira, Direttore della Fotogfrafia di MSBNC, che ha sostenuto il lavoro su The Geography of poverty, aiutando Black a concepire l’innovativo formato della mappa digitale usata per presentare il lavoro.

Shannon Simon ha detto “non sottovalutate l’importanza delle collaborazioni – lavorare con visionari o con professionisti, condividere le idee, creare relazioni e proporre il lavoro al mondo”

Workshop participant Scott Witt’s project ‘Lit by the Dark’, exploring his personal connection to darkness. © Scott Witt

Workshop participant Scott Witt’s project ‘Lit by the Dark’, exploring his personal connection to darkness. © Scott Witt

SIATE GIORNALISTI VERSATILI

Altre abilità giornalistiche, oltre alla sola fotografia, entrano in gioco quando si costruisce una storia. “L’interazione tra scrittura, foto e video aiuta ad ottenere l’idea centrale del progetto ed è d’aiuto poter usufruire di tutte queste possibilità”, dice Black. “Non siamo fotografi – non siamo più tecnici con la macchina fotografica – siamo autori. Il nostro ruolo nel raccontare storie non è solamente illustrarle, ma crearle”

Matt Black USA. Allensworth, California. 2001. Weeding cotton. © Matt Black | Magnum Photos

L’articolo è una traduzione dell’originale che potete leggere (in lingua inglese) a questo link: https://www.magnumphotos.com/theory-and-practice/tips-longterm-projects/

By Peter Bregman, HBR, February 9, 2012 I want to write a screenplay. I wanted to write one last year, but other work took more time than I expected, and I kept pushing "write screenplay" off my to-do list.

I know I'm not alone in struggling to make incremental progress on long-term projects or goals. How do you get started when you have "all the time in the world"?

Maybe you have a project with no deadline, like my screenplay. Or maybe you have a deadline that's months away--like preparing a speech, developing a business plan, or designing a training program. Perhaps you have a habit of procrastinating on projects with generous schedules until "next month" is "next week" and suddenly your long-term project has morphed into a panicky, short-term stress-inducing nightmare?

Doing something big and important is rarely as simple as just getting it done. Often we don't know how to start and, even when we do, we rarely already have all the knowledge and capability we need to see it through. Also, we almost always have more urgent things to do and so we push off long-term goals.

I know the basic advice: break the work into smaller, more manageable chunks, focus on the next small step that will move you forward, set intermediate deadlines.

It's good advice. But, in my experience, it's not enough.

Because, ultimately, the reason we procrastinate on a big, long-term project isn't just because we have too much time or don't know where to start. And it's certainly not because we think it's not important. In fact, it's the opposite.

We procrastinate on that big project precisely because it's important. So important, in fact, that we're too scared to work on it.

I've never written a screenplay. I don't know how to format it. I don't know how to structure the story. I don't even know the story I want to tell.

I'm afraid. Afraid that I'll fail. That I'll spend a lot of time on it--while other more immediate things don't get done--and it will be terrible, anyway.

I'm also afraid of the opposite: That I'll just dream about it but never actually work on it. Which, paradoxically, discourages me from starting it. If I'm never going to get it done, why start?

My screenplay isn't just mundane work; it's work I care deeply about. Almost all big projects fit into that category--even the report your boss asked for that you might think you don't care about. That's because a big project is a mirror. It reflects your thoughts and effort and even character. It has your signature on it. Failure in a long-term project isn't just a work issue; it's an identity issue. Is it any wonder that we procrastinate?

So what's the antidote?

Don't ignore your fear. Acknowledge it. As soon as you know you're going to give that speech or design that training program, take a quiet moment and experience the fear that comes with the importance of the project. Maybe you're afraid of getting up in front of all those people to give your speech. Maybe you're afraid of failing in your new business. Maybe you're afraid that your training design will expose how much you don't know. Maybe you're afraid of letting other people down.

Resist the temptation to minimize your anxiety. That's a false macho response and it lacks courage. It's also counterproductive; it gives power to the fear, almost guaranteeing that it will haunt you and prevent your progress.

Here's why acknowledging your fear works: You're scared because you expect a lot from yourself and you're afraid you'll underperform. When you acknowledge that fear, you're acknowledging that you might not have all that it takes to meet your expectations; you might not have all the tools, information, skills, etc. Admitting that, in turn, reduces your expectation of getting it perfect right off the bat.

And lowering your expectation of getting it right is the key to getting it started.

Acknowledging your fear also serves another, crucial purpose: it informs you. By recognizing that you don't have all the tools, information, skills, and support to see the project through, you're identifying your next, manageable step in getting started: rounding up the tools, information, skills, and support.

Even if it's not your choice (e.g., your boss committed you to do it)--commit yourself to it fully. Recognize that it will be a reflection of you and admit that you care about it. Even if you don't care about the project, you do care about your work and, in this moment, your work is the project. Make it one of your top five priorities. When you make the project one of your top five priorities, you're also--and just as importantly--choosing what's not a priority. If you have too many important things on which to focus, you'll never get to the big long term one. So slash your list until you're left with only five.

I use a six-box to-do list--each box represents one of my top five priorities and the sixth box, labeled the other 5%, is for everything else. That last box shouldn't take more than 5% of your time. One of my five boxes always represents a long-term priority, which, for this year, contains my screenplay.

Now you're ready for the standard advice: Break the work into smaller chunks and make sure you know how to do the first chunk. Set an intermediate deadline. If you need other people involved, get them involved early, as commitments to others helps you take your deadlines seriously.

Finally, decide when and where you're going to accomplish the first chunk and make an appointment with yourself in your calendar.

When you sit down to start your work, you may feel the resistance--fear--come up again. But now you know what it is. Acknowledge it and it'll be easier to move into the work.

There's one more thing. Share your fear. Some people may think you're a wimp. But that hasn't been my experience. Telling others you're intimidated by something you have to do gives them permission to feel--and maybe express--their own fear. I find that people are gracious, supportive, and empathetic.

And so I am changing my DV8 project to be a long-term study on my personal struggle with body image and self-conflict.