Back

The Greatest are the Fastest

11th July 2024

  1. I recently watched the Vincent van Gogh movie “At Eternity's Gate”. I rarely take notes while watching a movie but I did exception in this case because there were some great quotes.
  2. Vincent van Gogh painted a lot. He did more than 2,000 artworks during his life and he died when he was only 37. He spent only days on most of his famous paintings and drawings.
  3. “The painters I like all paint fast in one clear gesture” - At Eternity's Gate
  4. I'm personally a big believer of quality coming out of quantity. It doesn't apply to everything but in most things it's better to do a lot to create something truly remarkable. If Alice spends 100 hours building a chair it's not as good as Bob's who spends 100 hours building 10 chairs.
  5. Why this works? I believe it's two things:
    1. 80/20 rule
      1. 80% of work is always the easiest part but then the final 20% takes a lot of effort. Often (not always) this can be skipped. Many people who don't work fast, do the final 20% every time. Based on my experience, the best know when to do it and when to not do it.
      2. Focusing to small details often makes remarkable work and that's why Leonardo da Vinci's paintings are so good. Even he had a lot of repetition because he had a lot of paintings he painted the same time.
    2. More actual work
      1. When the goal is to create one painting in a year, a painter doesn't have urge to work on it daily. Even if he dedicates the time every day, he spends a lot of time thinking and honing some small details which doesn't teach as much as painting new paintings from scratch.
  6. “The faster I paint, the better I feel” - At Eternity's Gate
  7. I think it's also fun to move quickly. Progress motivates. Interval running is straight forward when you just run as fast as you can for short time and don't need to psyche yourself to run slightly more.