{"id":572,"date":"2022-04-24T08:40:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-24T08:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/?p=572"},"modified":"2024-08-20T19:41:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T15:41:02","slug":"wanted-editor-in-chief-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/24\/wanted-editor-in-chief-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"WANTED: Editor-in-Chief: For LIFE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I was never even mediocre at either math or arithmetic. Hence, if this fails to add up, I am completely at home with it.<\/p>\n

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” So the writer who breeds more words than she needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads<\/em> <\/span>” – so said Dr. Seuss<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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Every year at the Oscars<\/em><\/span>, the award for Best Picture<\/em><\/span> gets all the fanfare( a couple of year ago, of course Will Smith<\/em><\/span> had other ideas). That may be stating the obvious. What might be not so obvious is in contrast, the award for film editing<\/strong> flies under the radar. But you may be surprised by the correlation between these two awards.<\/p>\n

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Since 1981, only three films have won \u201cBest Picture<\/em><\/span>\u201d without also being nominated for \u201cBest Film Editing<\/em><\/span>\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Why is editing so crucial in filmmaking?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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A good film editor removes distractions by eliminating trivial or irrelevant things. She uses deliberate subtraction to add life to the ideas, setting, plot, and characters<\/span>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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The best films are exceptional not because of what we see but because of what we don\u2019t see.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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We can draw parallels here. And use the same principles to edit our own lives. We might be from Mars <\/span><\/em>or Venus<\/span><\/em> but on Mother Earth<\/em><\/span> our never ending to-do list<\/em><\/span> need not be a perennial match for our Herculean, Machiavellian<\/em><\/span> competence and calibre that we seem to have been willy nilly blessed(cursed?) with. Probably there is a space to begin by ‘ separating the vital few from the trivial many <\/em>‘. The over ignored practice of essentialism<\/em>.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Mind you, this is no easy task. To distill and rein in our incorrigibly elastic task list. How will we answer our ego? Or camouflage our insecurities? We find comfort in \u201ckeeping our options open\u201d. But having too many options leaves us without direction. Having a few focused options gives our life a clear direction and makes decision-making easier.<\/div>\n
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Eventually, every cut \u200bwe\u200b make brings joy. Maybe not in the moment, but soon \u200bwe\u200b will realize the time \u200bwe have\u200b gained can now be spent on something better.<\/div>\n
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\u200bWe, as people, \u200bsystematically overlook subtractive changes, instead following \u200bour\u200b instincts to add. There is nothing inherently wrong with adding. But if it becomes a default path to improvement, that may be failing to consider a whole class of other opportunities\u200b.<\/div>\n
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The paltry rate of subtraction in our \u200blife or \u200borganizational-improvement\u200b journey is appalling<\/em><\/span>.\u200b To improve a redundant piece of writing, few produce an edit with fewer words. To improve a jam-packed travel itinerary, \u200bwe hardly remove events or places to\u200b allow \u200bus\u200b to savor the ones that remained. To improve a Lego<\/strong> structure, \u200bwe hardly take\u200b pieces away. Whether \u200bwe\u200b \u200ba\u200bre changing ideas, situations, or objects, the dominant tendency \u200bi\u200b\u200bs to do so by adding.<\/div>\n
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\u200bIn an increasingly attention starved\u200b, attention craving economy<\/em><\/span>, subtraction \u200bh\u200bas a \u200bnoticeability \u200b\u200b\u200bp\u200broblem<\/span>\u200b.<\/em> When we add things, apparently it gets noticed. But when we subtract..we seem to miss the point.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Life has a way of taking over. We start running on auto-pilot especially when we are overwhelmed, in over our heads, or simply worn out from all that life is throwing our way. And this year, life is throwing more than ever our way.<\/div>\n
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After a while of trying to keep all the balls in the air, we stop paying attention and simply start reacting. Amidst all the chaos, we know something has to change, but we don\u2019t know what or how.<\/div>\n
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When was the last time ‘ nurturing our heart and soul <\/em><\/span>‘ was part of our to-do list? It hardly make\u200bs\u200b the list of things to take care of during the day. If \u200bwe\u200b prioritize the nurturing of our heart and soul, by taking time to listen to what they want, by engaging in soul-soothing activities and by using them to guide our actions, \u200bwe\u200b \u200bcan\u200b get our life back. \u200bWe\u200b\u2019ll remember who \u200bwe\u200b are\u200b(otherwise in the stage called life\u200b,\u200b we are all practicing ‘ selective amnesia<\/em><\/span> ‘)\u200b and begin to attract people and projects that are a perfect fit for the real \u200bus\u200b.<\/div>\n
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S\u200bo what is the take away? \u200bYes, you guessed it, take away, to make way<\/em><\/span>!<\/div>\n
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BEGINS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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  I was never even mediocre at either math or arithmetic. Hence, if this fails to add up, I am completely at home with it.   ” So the writer who breeds more words than she needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads ” – so said Dr. Seuss.   Every year … Continue reading “WANTED: Editor-in-Chief: For LIFE!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[961,977,186,969,974,962,260,975,965,6,964,906,147,166,973,963,479,968,966,960,978,967,971,972,970,976],"class_list":["post-572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-addition","tag-arithmetic","tag-attention","tag-attention-economy","tag-best-picture","tag-dr-suess","tag-essentialism","tag-film-editing","tag-heart","tag-joy","tag-lego","tag-life","tag-mars","tag-math","tag-mother-earth","tag-noticeability","tag-oscars","tag-selective-amnesia","tag-soul","tag-subtracting","tag-take-away","tag-to-do-list","tag-trivial-many","tag-venus","tag-vital-few","tag-will-smith"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1677,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/1677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}