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Robbert-Jan Brems

Technical Artist,

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What perspectives did you use to reflect on what you already know?

I made a talk almost a year ago about how breakdance taught me to be a technical artist as an example on how looking from a different perspective at your job can teach you many things.

You can find the slides here ( http://www.nysuatro.com/RobbertJanBrems_VisualArts_HowBreakdancingTaught.pdf )

I would like to know, what perspectives have you used yourself?
And maybe an even deeper question, what have you learned from that perspective?

Thank you for your time and knowledge.

Robb

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    Casey Christofaris 10+

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    Mar 7 2013: Everyone and everything else's

  • carolyn mcauley 10+

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    Mar 7 2013: my first time reflecting on what I knew came from nature,quietly evolving,while I was jnformed this model was a mirror for violence and dominance,and racial superiority and why the sexes were not equal..I looked at nature again,and saw little of it being exactly truth. Then iI watched myself do things poorly at five and sixteen and remembered my own experiences to see how in fact there when was hypocrasy and or similarities between past and present. Then the biggest self reflection came about when I starting hanging around other cultures then white europeans..they did not see the progress of history being remotely similar to my story...now i check almost everything a few times before I call it truth or good. I know that what I learned as a child was not real patterns of the universe that all may experience,but ones appropriate for my genetic tree,which really only benefits my group sadly,not other groups

    • Robbert-Jan Brems

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      Mar 7 2013: Meeting different cultures is indeed a fresh perspective. I have been living in Belgium, Finland, England and now in a couple of weeks Canada, And I noticed that every time I meet a different culture, I see things much clearer. Some things start to make more sense and you get the kind of click feeling which results in more confidence and less fear.

      became quite frustrated when I realized the culture between England and Belgium was not that much different. That was proof for me that the experience of different culture had a big effect on myself.

  • edulover learner 10+

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    Mar 6 2013: Lol,Dear Robbert,It is an old saying in china.We were educated by it when we were in kindergarden.But I didn't understand what it meant.Since three years ago I tried to pay more attention to my inner world,I got the words' meaning day by day.And I keep it in consciousness.
    Infact "three times" in chinese meaning is:as many as we can.
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    Questions First

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    Mar 5 2013: questioning what you already know is the best way to find new perspectives. since this is not easy to do on your own, i usually exchange ideas here or on Twitter with people who are capable of sharing a different perspective on something i know already without trying to impose their opinion.

    this helped me learn that different perspectives on the same thing can co-exist, even when they seem contradictory. i also learner to justify my opinions and change them when i realize that my logic or knowledge on the matter was flawed or imcomplete

    • Robbert-Jan Brems

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      Mar 5 2013: Indeed. I have been using Twitter.. Google+ and blogger to interact with people all around the world from different industries.

      ( http://nysuatro.blogspot.be/ )

      Even though I feel like the web has its limitations in comparison to social contact, there is a lot of knowledge spread across the web. Making use of both has been very rewarding for me.

  • Tom Eccleston

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    Mar 4 2013: So strengthening your spacial intelligence through dance helped you in another task that utilized the same skill set? I just try to practice as much variation in the development of useful abilities as possible. Most skills require two or more different sets abilities working in some degree of unison. I would think that break dancing would be a kinesthetic workout more than it would a practice of spacial abilities though. Your job is to judge the capabilities of computer graphics in relation to proposed ideas created by artists no? I read a lot. Seems to have been very effective training in many different areas.

  • edulover learner 10+

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    Mar 3 2013: 'Reflect yourself three times everyday'I keep Confucius's words in my mind.

    • Robbert-Jan Brems

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      Mar 5 2013: Is there any reasons why you mention 3 times? I have been freestyling as long as I can remember and never really constrained myself on reflection.

  • george lockwood 20+

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    Mar 2 2013: This varies widely from person to person. I have tended to use various weighing strategies. I have found Debono's modified Ben Fraklin handy Also, levels of thought from General Semantics has been helpful. Finally, I am looking at the idea of discussion of a problem from different perspectives. Since most decisions are often emotional, I may be fooling myself when I think that I am making rational decisions. As an American I try to remind myself that so many decisions are influenced by selfish advocates arguing for their desires and wants. In my work I have often been told things by people as the truth which are really only reporting problems. Finding the truth still requires that they are somewhat truthful in their responses to my questions after hearing the original story.

  • greg dahlen 20+

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    Mar 1 2013: Robbert, this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I find going for a walk is a good time to reflect on the work you do. Or even just lying in bed with all the electronics off and thinking.

    Actually TED can give you a new perspective, because I frequently run across questions that I vaguely had in my own mind but when someone else asks the question outright it forces you to refect on it.

    • Robbert-Jan Brems

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      Mar 5 2013: I understand what you mean. Since I am working a lot in front of a computer, I try to walk to work without using train/bus/bike. I ended up using this walk as my personal moment where I can reflect on what I leaned that (previous)day.

      And I agree with you that TED gives new perspectives. Or they stimulate my curiosity to find out more about this new perspective so I can reflect again on what I already know. This is a proof for me that being a generalist helps seeing the big picture. And these new perspective let me open my mind and look at things differently.

      I have already solved many problems by just looking from a different perspective. And sometimes a TED presentation was the indicator for that step.
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    Fritzie Reisner 100+

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    Host
    Mar 1 2013: Learning effectively depends on reflecting on what we understand and are able to do as well as what new and interesting questions and experiments are suggested by our investigations. I consider ideas from the perspective of the disciplines with which I am familiar and my experience of how things, including my own thinking, seem to work.
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    pat gilbert 50+

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    Mar 1 2013: Application. I learned what worked and what did not.
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