The urgent email fallacy is a cognitive bias that results from an overestimation of the efficacy of email. The urgency of an email is determined by the receiver, not the sender.
As an example: Do you email the fire department when your house is on fire?
Probably not.
However, if you were to receive an email from the fire department with the subject "Your House is on Fire" but without the word "URGENT" in it, you would probably still find the timing of that email quite pressing and would spring into action.
The person receiving the email determines how urgent it is. If the person sending the email is important (such as your boss, or your boss' boss), then it will be urgent to you.
Technology has a tendency to be fragile. It doesn't always work, and there is no confirmation that a person received the email (unless it's a corporate network with "Read receipts"). When you email someone with "urgent" in the subject you put yourself in a vulnerable position, whereby every passing moment where no action is taken on the part of the receiver, you become weaker. If something is urgent it's probably best to use a method of communication further down the hierarchy.
It may make sense to write an "Urgent" email at a late hour, but even then the idea of urgency may be based on a 6 or 12-hour timeline. If you need something in five minutes perhaps there is a better method of communication that could be utilized.
In conveying a specific message to a specific person, there is a spectrum. One end is: "this is a very good way to convey information" (ie. this is important), and the other end represents "this is not a good way to convey information" (ie. this is not important). It looks something like this:
Face-to-face interaction -> Video chat -> Phone call -> Text message -> Email -> Social media -> Letter by snail mail -> Homing pigeons -> Message in a bottle in the ocean
Email is essentially one step above Tweeting at someone, and four steps away from going to that person.
28 July 2017
Canon iP100 Printer
I went through seven portable printers last year while traveling. They kept breaking. It was a struggle to fit them in my Pelican so they could withstand getting tossed around by TSA or whatever local cargo company was handling our gear. The key to fitting was TrekPak. My Pelican 1510 is highly organized and TrekPak is the left-brainer's guide to right-angle compartmentalization of gear or office supplies. But that's for another post.
I assiduously sussed printers. I needed one that wouldn't break but that was also portable and functional.
The Canon iP100 printer is the best portable printer out there today. It has two highly functional accessories that make it truly portable and wireless: a battery and bluetooth connectivity. For moderate printing, you can charge it once a week and the battery holds up. The bluetooth connectivity function works everytime. Here's a beacon of simplicity and grace: a portable printer with no cords, that you take out of a pelican, push one button and it works.
The printer is no longer on the market as it was discontinued a couple of years ago and replaced by the "improved" Canon iP110. You can still purchase the iP100 new on Amazon, but it's twice the price as there is limited supply. The printer evidently has a number of loyal fans who would rather pay $250 for the older model than $120 for the new and "improved" model.
Why?
The answer * I think * is that the iP110 has a fatal flaw. Canon replaced bluetooth connectivity with wifi connectivity for the wireless printing feature.
The iP100 can print wirelessly from your computer via bluetooth. The iP110 uses wifi, which means you connect the printer to the same wifi as your computer and voilà.
Sounds ok in spirit. Sounds like an improvement. But it's R&D tinkering gone wrong.
The idea of portable is that it is able to be moved easily. Yes the printer will be moved from place to place on a daily basis. However, wireless networks and passwords differ from place to place. So each time you move the printer to a new place it requires connecting to a new network.
This wouldn't be much of an issue if connecting the printer to a new network was easy, but it's not. It's difficult. Reading the instructions in the manual is like reading a surreptitiously deceitful mind-game. First off, the manual is 427 pages long. So prepare to sit and engage in this process for a few minutes. At least 15 minutes. I spent several hours over the course of a year reading and re-reading the instructions each time I needed to connect.
Let's compare that to ... say ... the iPhone (the peak of consumer inventions). Did you ever read the manual to an iPhone? You can give an iPhone to a child or a grandmother and he or she can get pretty far in terms of using the device. Hand a Canon iP110 to a child and ask him to print wirelessly and see how far he gets.
Let's recap Einstein's 5 ascending levels of intelligence:
I see on page 21 I can "connect wirelessly". Great let's scroll to page 21:
This is all that's on page 21, it's just a description of the capability of "access point mode". So let's go back to the Table of Contents to investigate further.
It appears there are instructions for some wireless printing options including "Google Cloud Print", "AirPrint", "Android Print", and on page 82 it cryptically lists instructions for connecting via a "Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)". I remember that verbiage "Access Point Mode" from page 21 so let's scroll there.
Luckily there are only 3 steps: Change the setting, Connect and Print!
First change the setting:
Ok, when I held the WI-FI button it blinked 3 times but that was including it going blank, THEN flashing 3 times. I think that's correct from looking at the picture included. Because what Canon doesn't tell you here is that if the button blinks 4 times or 2 times it will put the printer into a different function and you will have changed it do a different connectivity setting.
Next step, Connect the Printer:
Ok this isn't difficult to follow. Looking at Step 3 here I see that I need to look on the back of the printer to get a Password. That's easy however on my printer I use the battery attachment. This presents a problem as the battery is covering up the label with the serial number on it.
So now I need to remove the battery which requires a Philips screwdriver. Ok not the end of the world. So I will lose power to the printer and need to start over the process. Still not that big of a deal.
It's important to note here that when you do this, you should write down the password as it's a 9-digit alphanumeric code that isn't easily remembered. So to prevent having to remove the battery each time you want to connect, it's better to write the code on a piece of tape and stick it on the printer.
Ok, so I got the password, so now I will connect to the network: "XXXXXX-iP110series" and enter the password. Boom. Now I can print wirelessly. But wait, now my computer doesn't have internet because I just disconnected my computer to connect to the network the printer was transmitting. I lost internet on my computer and now can't use the internet until I disconnect the printer. But when I disconnect I'll lose wireless printing capability. So that's rather useless.
So let's look at the instructions again. I see that next on the next page of the manual (p. 84) there are instructions for "Changing Printer Setting to Use Wireless LAN via Wireless LAN Router". I scroll back up to see how that is different than what I just did. The instructions from the section I just completed were: "Connecting Computer or Smartphone to Printer Directly via Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)". Hmmm ... yes I guess I do want to connect through a LAN router. I must have inferred in the first set of instructions that "... via Wireless LAN" means my router, but evidently the "Wirless LAN" the manual was referring to is a network that the printer itself produces. Not a big deal, lets read on.
The instructions for this section start out the same, except this time we see we want the POWER button to flash 4 times instead of 3, which will put it into a different mode.
Ok that's not hard, lets move on to the next page in the manual.
Except that the next page is a completely new section. It's as if the instructions above were truncated. Actually it's not as if they were truncated, they are actually truncated. I enjoy a good non sequitur in conversation, but a non sequitur in an instruction manual seems like a cruel maneuver. Again with the surreptitious mind games ...
The next page looks like this:
Ok I quite literally don't know what to do next. So I go back to page 84: "Changing Printer Setting to Use Wirless LAN via Wirless LAN Router." Ok let's scroll back to the Table of Contents and see if I can find a continuation of instructions.
The next thing I see in the TOC that has any linguistic relation to what I am trying to do is here: On page 168 I see "Changing the Printer Operation Mode". That seems to be down the line of what I'm trying to do. I also note that directly underneath that is "Connecting Computer or Smartphone to Printer Directly via Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)", which is listed on page 82. Now, let's take a brief moment to note the flow of the Table of Contents here. The page numbers go: ... 166, 168, 82, 172, 173. Which one of these doesn't belong? Either way, lets scroll to page 168.
This isn't what I'm looking for, but I feel like I might be in the neighborhood so I scroll down a few pages. The next section I see is on page 170, "Connecting Computer or Smartphone to Printer Directly via Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)." This looks familiar.
Oh I remember, it's the exact same page I looked at previously. It's a copy of page 82, but on page 170. That sort of explains the previously noted confusing sequence of pages. So I keep scrolling, and it's verbatim the instructions from page 82 with the same pictures. Push the button and let it flash 3 times, connect to the wireless network the computer is transmitting. I already know this isn't what I want to do, so I keep pushing on.
The next section on page 172 explains how to put the printer back into its default "Initial" settings. I just want to note that the way to do this is to let the POWER button flash 15 times. The section after that explains how to disable the Wireless LAN Function, which is to let the POWER button flash 12 times. Did you ever turn off your iPhone or the wifi of your iPhone by pressing the Home button 15 times? I'm being antagonistic now, so let's straighten up our attitude and press on.
I keep scrolling. I see some instructions for "Changing the Connection Method from USB to LAN". The instructions are to setup "according to the instructions on our website". I"m not going to touch that, so I keep scrolling in hopes of a golden sky at the end of the storm.
The next section is on IJ Network Tool:
This seems useful, keep scrolling. On page 191 I come across something: "Changing the Settings in the Wireless LAN Sheet". This could be our big break. It tells me I need to temporarily connect the printer via a USB cable to the computer.
Under this section it gives an overview of the configuration screen. So I feel like I'm getting close now. the IJ Network Tool is a piece of software that is installed on the computer when the printer is installed on the computer. So, in order to tell the printer which wireless network to join, I need to open the IJ Network Tool program.
My interest in pursuing this endeavor is waning. But I scroll on. On page 195 I have a breakthrough.
Instructions for how to tell the printer which network to join. All I have to do is connect the printer with a USB cable, open the IJ Network program and go through the steps. The manual gives detailed instructions for both WEP and WPA/WPA2 wireless networks, as if any typical consumer knows what that means. For instance, under WEP settings, the manual asks for 5 inputs. #1 is the Password, which is easy and obvious and the only thing that anyone would be used to entering.
#'s 2 through 5 are: Key Length (64 or 128 bit); Key Format (ASCII or Hex); Key ID; and Authentication (Auto, Open System, or Shared Key).
I don't know what that means. So I skip all those and just enter the password and click OK. And that's it. It works. That didn't take so long.
To recap on how to print wirelessly:
- Connect printer via USB- Open IJ Network Tool and go through the steps
That's not so bad except that the whole purpose of having a wireless printer is so I don't have to fiddle with wires. And beyond that, if there is no internet, there is no network to connect to.
Whoever came up with this has obviously never had to print setlists five minutes before a show on a bus in Europe. I'm not asking for a perfect plan, but something functional. Whoever invented this was looking for a perfect plan and tinkered their way down an expensive R&D rabbit hole.
Let's take a moment to remember Carl von Clausewitz's maxim:
I assiduously sussed printers. I needed one that wouldn't break but that was also portable and functional.
The Canon iP100 printer is the best portable printer out there today. It has two highly functional accessories that make it truly portable and wireless: a battery and bluetooth connectivity. For moderate printing, you can charge it once a week and the battery holds up. The bluetooth connectivity function works everytime. Here's a beacon of simplicity and grace: a portable printer with no cords, that you take out of a pelican, push one button and it works.
The printer is no longer on the market as it was discontinued a couple of years ago and replaced by the "improved" Canon iP110. You can still purchase the iP100 new on Amazon, but it's twice the price as there is limited supply. The printer evidently has a number of loyal fans who would rather pay $250 for the older model than $120 for the new and "improved" model.
Why?
The answer * I think * is that the iP110 has a fatal flaw. Canon replaced bluetooth connectivity with wifi connectivity for the wireless printing feature.
The iP100 can print wirelessly from your computer via bluetooth. The iP110 uses wifi, which means you connect the printer to the same wifi as your computer and voilà.
Sounds ok in spirit. Sounds like an improvement. But it's R&D tinkering gone wrong.
The idea of portable is that it is able to be moved easily. Yes the printer will be moved from place to place on a daily basis. However, wireless networks and passwords differ from place to place. So each time you move the printer to a new place it requires connecting to a new network.
This wouldn't be much of an issue if connecting the printer to a new network was easy, but it's not. It's difficult. Reading the instructions in the manual is like reading a surreptitiously deceitful mind-game. First off, the manual is 427 pages long. So prepare to sit and engage in this process for a few minutes. At least 15 minutes. I spent several hours over the course of a year reading and re-reading the instructions each time I needed to connect.
Let's compare that to ... say ... the iPhone (the peak of consumer inventions). Did you ever read the manual to an iPhone? You can give an iPhone to a child or a grandmother and he or she can get pretty far in terms of using the device. Hand a Canon iP110 to a child and ask him to print wirelessly and see how far he gets.
Let's recap Einstein's 5 ascending levels of intelligence:
smart, intelligent, brilliant, genius and simpleNow let's look at some literature for how to print wirelessly using the Canon iP110. Open the manual and scan the Table of Contents
I see on page 21 I can "connect wirelessly". Great let's scroll to page 21:
This is all that's on page 21, it's just a description of the capability of "access point mode". So let's go back to the Table of Contents to investigate further.
It appears there are instructions for some wireless printing options including "Google Cloud Print", "AirPrint", "Android Print", and on page 82 it cryptically lists instructions for connecting via a "Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)". I remember that verbiage "Access Point Mode" from page 21 so let's scroll there.
Luckily there are only 3 steps: Change the setting, Connect and Print!
First change the setting:
Ok, when I held the WI-FI button it blinked 3 times but that was including it going blank, THEN flashing 3 times. I think that's correct from looking at the picture included. Because what Canon doesn't tell you here is that if the button blinks 4 times or 2 times it will put the printer into a different function and you will have changed it do a different connectivity setting.
Next step, Connect the Printer:
Ok this isn't difficult to follow. Looking at Step 3 here I see that I need to look on the back of the printer to get a Password. That's easy however on my printer I use the battery attachment. This presents a problem as the battery is covering up the label with the serial number on it.
So now I need to remove the battery which requires a Philips screwdriver. Ok not the end of the world. So I will lose power to the printer and need to start over the process. Still not that big of a deal.
It's important to note here that when you do this, you should write down the password as it's a 9-digit alphanumeric code that isn't easily remembered. So to prevent having to remove the battery each time you want to connect, it's better to write the code on a piece of tape and stick it on the printer.
Ok, so I got the password, so now I will connect to the network: "XXXXXX-iP110series" and enter the password. Boom. Now I can print wirelessly. But wait, now my computer doesn't have internet because I just disconnected my computer to connect to the network the printer was transmitting. I lost internet on my computer and now can't use the internet until I disconnect the printer. But when I disconnect I'll lose wireless printing capability. So that's rather useless.
So let's look at the instructions again. I see that next on the next page of the manual (p. 84) there are instructions for "Changing Printer Setting to Use Wireless LAN via Wireless LAN Router". I scroll back up to see how that is different than what I just did. The instructions from the section I just completed were: "Connecting Computer or Smartphone to Printer Directly via Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)". Hmmm ... yes I guess I do want to connect through a LAN router. I must have inferred in the first set of instructions that "... via Wireless LAN" means my router, but evidently the "Wirless LAN" the manual was referring to is a network that the printer itself produces. Not a big deal, lets read on.
The instructions for this section start out the same, except this time we see we want the POWER button to flash 4 times instead of 3, which will put it into a different mode.
Ok that's not hard, lets move on to the next page in the manual.
Except that the next page is a completely new section. It's as if the instructions above were truncated. Actually it's not as if they were truncated, they are actually truncated. I enjoy a good non sequitur in conversation, but a non sequitur in an instruction manual seems like a cruel maneuver. Again with the surreptitious mind games ...
The next page looks like this:
Ok I quite literally don't know what to do next. So I go back to page 84: "Changing Printer Setting to Use Wirless LAN via Wirless LAN Router." Ok let's scroll back to the Table of Contents and see if I can find a continuation of instructions.
The next thing I see in the TOC that has any linguistic relation to what I am trying to do is here: On page 168 I see "Changing the Printer Operation Mode". That seems to be down the line of what I'm trying to do. I also note that directly underneath that is "Connecting Computer or Smartphone to Printer Directly via Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)", which is listed on page 82. Now, let's take a brief moment to note the flow of the Table of Contents here. The page numbers go: ... 166, 168, 82, 172, 173. Which one of these doesn't belong? Either way, lets scroll to page 168.
This isn't what I'm looking for, but I feel like I might be in the neighborhood so I scroll down a few pages. The next section I see is on page 170, "Connecting Computer or Smartphone to Printer Directly via Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)." This looks familiar.
Oh I remember, it's the exact same page I looked at previously. It's a copy of page 82, but on page 170. That sort of explains the previously noted confusing sequence of pages. So I keep scrolling, and it's verbatim the instructions from page 82 with the same pictures. Push the button and let it flash 3 times, connect to the wireless network the computer is transmitting. I already know this isn't what I want to do, so I keep pushing on.
The next section on page 172 explains how to put the printer back into its default "Initial" settings. I just want to note that the way to do this is to let the POWER button flash 15 times. The section after that explains how to disable the Wireless LAN Function, which is to let the POWER button flash 12 times. Did you ever turn off your iPhone or the wifi of your iPhone by pressing the Home button 15 times? I'm being antagonistic now, so let's straighten up our attitude and press on.
I keep scrolling. I see some instructions for "Changing the Connection Method from USB to LAN". The instructions are to setup "according to the instructions on our website". I"m not going to touch that, so I keep scrolling in hopes of a golden sky at the end of the storm.
The next section is on IJ Network Tool:
This seems useful, keep scrolling. On page 191 I come across something: "Changing the Settings in the Wireless LAN Sheet". This could be our big break. It tells me I need to temporarily connect the printer via a USB cable to the computer.
Under this section it gives an overview of the configuration screen. So I feel like I'm getting close now. the IJ Network Tool is a piece of software that is installed on the computer when the printer is installed on the computer. So, in order to tell the printer which wireless network to join, I need to open the IJ Network Tool program.
My interest in pursuing this endeavor is waning. But I scroll on. On page 195 I have a breakthrough.
Instructions for how to tell the printer which network to join. All I have to do is connect the printer with a USB cable, open the IJ Network program and go through the steps. The manual gives detailed instructions for both WEP and WPA/WPA2 wireless networks, as if any typical consumer knows what that means. For instance, under WEP settings, the manual asks for 5 inputs. #1 is the Password, which is easy and obvious and the only thing that anyone would be used to entering.
#'s 2 through 5 are: Key Length (64 or 128 bit); Key Format (ASCII or Hex); Key ID; and Authentication (Auto, Open System, or Shared Key).
I don't know what that means. So I skip all those and just enter the password and click OK. And that's it. It works. That didn't take so long.
To recap on how to print wirelessly:
- Connect printer via USB- Open IJ Network Tool and go through the steps
That's not so bad except that the whole purpose of having a wireless printer is so I don't have to fiddle with wires. And beyond that, if there is no internet, there is no network to connect to.
Whoever came up with this has obviously never had to print setlists five minutes before a show on a bus in Europe. I'm not asking for a perfect plan, but something functional. Whoever invented this was looking for a perfect plan and tinkered their way down an expensive R&D rabbit hole.
Let's take a moment to remember Carl von Clausewitz's maxim:
The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.
21 July 2017
Tuesday afternoons
Prospect Park in Brooklyn was established in 1867 and designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the duo who first designed and established Central Park ten years earlier.
It's well known they preferred Prospect Park over Central Park for its design properties, and among other things, because they were basically able to take the lessons (and mistakes) they learned from designing Central Park and apply them to Prospect Park.
Olmstead and Vaux had deep philosophical ideas about the purpose and design of pubic parks, and those ideas permeate the parks of our world today.
They believed parks should be designed with an overall unified composition that takes advantage of the natural, organic characteristics of the site. Parks should be subtly divided into subsections, where each has its own purposeful use. Thereby, a person can move through without apprehension of collision of different kinds of traffic (ie. pedestrians, bikes, horses, there were no autos in their day).
A park is a place where a person can be a part of nature. Plants should thrive, be non-invasive. The design should conserve the natural features of the site to provide for the continued ecological health of the area.
They believed that a wildflower seen in nature had a greater affect on a person than a rare flower seen in a museum.
A quote from Olmstead illustrates how seriously they took their work:
Today, there might be some light debate among Brooklynites about which park is better: Prospect Park vs Central Park. But to most people outside of NYC that would be like comparing apples to some fruit no one has ever heard of.
Central Park is the most famous public park in the world, and a marvelous intersection of people, both tourists and locals. The history is rich, and the park is depicted in films, music and books. Indeed, one of the most "New York things" I can think of is the roller skating dancers that meet every Saturday and Sunday afternoon in Central Park.
Yes ultimately the debate on Prospect Park vs Central Park is the same as the more over-arching debate of Brooklyn vs Manhattan. The same reason the common tourist wouldn't visit Brooklyn in the first place: it's a great place to live, but wouldn't want to visit.
Except for maybe Williamsburg, OR if you had a local showing you around, you would probably be amiss of touring Brooklyn. And that's perfectly ok with everyone living in Brooklyn.
***********************
I live next to Prospect Park, and it's a great place for introspection. Especially during the week. In the mornings, on weekdays, it's quite empty, and during the winter months it's a ghost town.
The reason Olmstead and Vaux preferred Prospect Park over Central Park is because its superior design allows a person to flow through, and exist in, the park and absorb "the occasional contemplation of natural scenes of an impressive character, particularly if this contemplation occurs in connection with relief from ordinary cares, change of air and change of habits, [it] is favorable to the health and vigor".
Prospect Park is roughly 2/3 the size of Central Park but feels much larger. It's easier to get lost in Prospect Park.
Central Park is a rectangle surrounded by tall buildings, Prospect Park is a polygon surrounded by buildings only a few of which are taller than the trees in the park.
Prospect Park has rougher terrain, more hills and hidden meandering trails. I'm not suggesting it's Yosemite, but it's easy to get away from traffic, and for the most part, people, in general.
***********************
NOW, go on the weekends ... in the Spring, Summer or Fall ... and it's a different story. People playing baseball, soccer, flying kites, lying on blankets. Grilling, playing music. Hundreds of joggers, bikers, walkers. Concerts at the bandshell.
The same comparison could be made to the nearby Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. It's free on Tuesdays so a pro move is to walk through the Botanic Gardens on the way to Prospect Park.
Go to the Botanic Gardens on the weekend and you can hardly get in a photo without dozens of people in the frame.
The same for restaurants, museums, grocery stores, movie theaters, the beaches.
***********************
I couldn't tell you how many lost weekends I've blinked and missed. Friday afternoon into Sunday night, and I'm climbing the stairs out of the Subway at 7am on Monday against the crowd of ice-coffee sippers rushing off to cubicle-land.
After a few years, friends stop texting on the weekends to ask what you are up to.
But alas, listlessly wanting for the "normal" work-life has another side of the coin. The secret of the freelancer, the gigger, is the free time on weekday afternoons, the empty beaches, museums, grocery stores, and parks.
Weekends in Prospect Park? let everyone else have their time. I'll go on a Tuesday when it's empty.
To see the working world through the lens of resolve while most are at full attention, to wander while most work, is something to relish.
I've noticed my reaction to my girlfriend's suggestions that we do some fun or adventurous excursion on the weekend. I suggest we go during the week, "We should go like on a Tuesday afternoon when no one is there." She works during the week, so obviously this is both a useless and selfish suggestion. But I've grown an allergy to crowds and lines, certainly of the brunch variety.
***********************
Julio Cortazar in his 1963 novel Hopscotch says:
When I graduated college, there was this idea: graduate, salary, house, wife, dog, kids, etc. There was a tendency to see gigging as floundering, floating. Perhaps, but at first I realized there was some inkling of privilege in there, and over time, I've come to appreciate and take advantage. The "floundering, floating" notion is a wry smile that I'm cheating and getting away with it.
Maybe most people wouldn't give that up to work through the weekend, or even more unimaginable to most people: be away from home for weeks or months. But that's perfectly ok with me, and probably everyone else who tours. The point is that the touring freelance lifestyle is different and I realize that and prefer it.
***********************
Some articles on Prospect Park:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/nyregion/11parks.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/17/realestate/streetscapes-prospect-park-the-other-olmsted-vaux-landscape-masterpiece.html?mcubz=0
https://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/munshisouth10/group-projects/prospect-park/olmsteds-role/
Some articles on Frederick Law Olmstead:
http://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/olmsted-theory-and-design-principles/design-principles
http://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/olmsted-theory-and-design-principles/olmsted-his-essential-theory
http://wildhood.net/blog/2016/5/17/olmsteds-unconscious-recreation
https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2919-ten-design-lessons-from-frederick-law-olmsted-the-father-of-american-landscape-architecture
It's well known they preferred Prospect Park over Central Park for its design properties, and among other things, because they were basically able to take the lessons (and mistakes) they learned from designing Central Park and apply them to Prospect Park.
Olmstead and Vaux had deep philosophical ideas about the purpose and design of pubic parks, and those ideas permeate the parks of our world today.
They believed parks should be designed with an overall unified composition that takes advantage of the natural, organic characteristics of the site. Parks should be subtly divided into subsections, where each has its own purposeful use. Thereby, a person can move through without apprehension of collision of different kinds of traffic (ie. pedestrians, bikes, horses, there were no autos in their day).
A park is a place where a person can be a part of nature. Plants should thrive, be non-invasive. The design should conserve the natural features of the site to provide for the continued ecological health of the area.
They believed that a wildflower seen in nature had a greater affect on a person than a rare flower seen in a museum.
A quote from Olmstead illustrates how seriously they took their work:
It is a scientific fact that the occasional contemplation of natural scenes of an impressive character, particularly if this contemplation occurs in connection with relief from ordinary cares, change of air and change of habits, is favorable to the health and vigor of men…The want of such occasional recreation where men and women are habitually pressed by their business or household cares often results in a class of disorders the characteristic quality of which is mental disability, sometimes taking the severe forms of softening of the brain, paralysis, palsey, monomania, or insanity, but more frequently of mental and nervous excitability, moroseness, melancholy, or irascibility, incapacitating the subject for the proper exercise of the intellectual and moral forces.***********************
Today, there might be some light debate among Brooklynites about which park is better: Prospect Park vs Central Park. But to most people outside of NYC that would be like comparing apples to some fruit no one has ever heard of.
Central Park is the most famous public park in the world, and a marvelous intersection of people, both tourists and locals. The history is rich, and the park is depicted in films, music and books. Indeed, one of the most "New York things" I can think of is the roller skating dancers that meet every Saturday and Sunday afternoon in Central Park.
Yes ultimately the debate on Prospect Park vs Central Park is the same as the more over-arching debate of Brooklyn vs Manhattan. The same reason the common tourist wouldn't visit Brooklyn in the first place: it's a great place to live, but wouldn't want to visit.
Except for maybe Williamsburg, OR if you had a local showing you around, you would probably be amiss of touring Brooklyn. And that's perfectly ok with everyone living in Brooklyn.
***********************
I live next to Prospect Park, and it's a great place for introspection. Especially during the week. In the mornings, on weekdays, it's quite empty, and during the winter months it's a ghost town.
The reason Olmstead and Vaux preferred Prospect Park over Central Park is because its superior design allows a person to flow through, and exist in, the park and absorb "the occasional contemplation of natural scenes of an impressive character, particularly if this contemplation occurs in connection with relief from ordinary cares, change of air and change of habits, [it] is favorable to the health and vigor".
Prospect Park is roughly 2/3 the size of Central Park but feels much larger. It's easier to get lost in Prospect Park.
Central Park is a rectangle surrounded by tall buildings, Prospect Park is a polygon surrounded by buildings only a few of which are taller than the trees in the park.
Prospect Park has rougher terrain, more hills and hidden meandering trails. I'm not suggesting it's Yosemite, but it's easy to get away from traffic, and for the most part, people, in general.
***********************
NOW, go on the weekends ... in the Spring, Summer or Fall ... and it's a different story. People playing baseball, soccer, flying kites, lying on blankets. Grilling, playing music. Hundreds of joggers, bikers, walkers. Concerts at the bandshell.
The same comparison could be made to the nearby Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. It's free on Tuesdays so a pro move is to walk through the Botanic Gardens on the way to Prospect Park.
Go to the Botanic Gardens on the weekend and you can hardly get in a photo without dozens of people in the frame.
The same for restaurants, museums, grocery stores, movie theaters, the beaches.
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I couldn't tell you how many lost weekends I've blinked and missed. Friday afternoon into Sunday night, and I'm climbing the stairs out of the Subway at 7am on Monday against the crowd of ice-coffee sippers rushing off to cubicle-land.
After a few years, friends stop texting on the weekends to ask what you are up to.
But alas, listlessly wanting for the "normal" work-life has another side of the coin. The secret of the freelancer, the gigger, is the free time on weekday afternoons, the empty beaches, museums, grocery stores, and parks.
Weekends in Prospect Park? let everyone else have their time. I'll go on a Tuesday when it's empty.
To see the working world through the lens of resolve while most are at full attention, to wander while most work, is something to relish.
I've noticed my reaction to my girlfriend's suggestions that we do some fun or adventurous excursion on the weekend. I suggest we go during the week, "We should go like on a Tuesday afternoon when no one is there." She works during the week, so obviously this is both a useless and selfish suggestion. But I've grown an allergy to crowds and lines, certainly of the brunch variety.
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Julio Cortazar in his 1963 novel Hopscotch says:
I do not believe the firefly gets any great satisfaction from the incontrovertible fact that he is one of the most amazing wanders of this circus, and yet one can imagine a consciousness alert enough to understand that every time he lights his belly this light-bearing bug must feel some inkling of privilege.For the freelancer, gigger, that privelege, whether you can put your finger on it or not, is an empty park on a Tuesday afternoon. Or the famous pizza place with a 2 hour wait on Saturday, but 10 minute wait on Wednesday.
When I graduated college, there was this idea: graduate, salary, house, wife, dog, kids, etc. There was a tendency to see gigging as floundering, floating. Perhaps, but at first I realized there was some inkling of privilege in there, and over time, I've come to appreciate and take advantage. The "floundering, floating" notion is a wry smile that I'm cheating and getting away with it.
Maybe most people wouldn't give that up to work through the weekend, or even more unimaginable to most people: be away from home for weeks or months. But that's perfectly ok with me, and probably everyone else who tours. The point is that the touring freelance lifestyle is different and I realize that and prefer it.
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Some articles on Prospect Park:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/nyregion/11parks.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/17/realestate/streetscapes-prospect-park-the-other-olmsted-vaux-landscape-masterpiece.html?mcubz=0
https://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/munshisouth10/group-projects/prospect-park/olmsteds-role/
Some articles on Frederick Law Olmstead:
http://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/olmsted-theory-and-design-principles/design-principles
http://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/olmsted-theory-and-design-principles/olmsted-his-essential-theory
http://wildhood.net/blog/2016/5/17/olmsteds-unconscious-recreation
https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2919-ten-design-lessons-from-frederick-law-olmsted-the-father-of-american-landscape-architecture
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