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1. vansch+z9[view] [source] 2025-12-06 14:10:32
>>gsky+(OP)
Reminds me of this:

"""On the first day of class, Jerry Uelsmann, a professor at the University of Florida, divided his film photography students into two groups.

Everyone on the left side of the classroom, he explained, would be in the “quantity” group. They would be graded solely on the amount of work they produced. On the final day of class, he would tally the number of photos submitted by each student. One hundred photos would rate an A, ninety photos a B, eighty photos a C, and so on.

Meanwhile, everyone on the right side of the room would be in the “quality” group. They would be graded only on the excellence of their work. They would only need to produce one photo during the semester, but to get an A, it had to be a nearly perfect image.

At the end of the term, he was surprised to find that all the best photos were produced by the quantity group. During the semester, these students were busy taking photos, experimenting with composition and lighting, testing out various methods in the darkroom, and learning from their mistakes. In the process of creating hundreds of photos, they honed their skills. Meanwhile, the quality group sat around speculating about perfection. In the end, they had little to show for their efforts other than unverified theories and one mediocre photo."""

from https://www.thehuntingphotographer.com/blog/qualityvsquantit...

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2. gus_ma+tj[view] [source] 2025-12-06 15:34:04
>>vansch+z9
I remember the same anecdote, but about pottery https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality... >>12653203 https://blog.codinghorror.com/quantity-always-trumps-quality...
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3. kimos+Wq[view] [source] 2025-12-06 16:32:50
>>gus_ma+tj
Yeah I’m pretty sure this was about pottery.

If you make the same pot 100 times that 100th pot is your best one.

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4. neogod+Rs[view] [source] 2025-12-06 16:47:09
>>kimos+Wq
I found the name of that photographer (RIP), who lives in Florida and who taught. Also has a thing about quantity over quality. But his own site didn't specifically mention this anecdote. I've also read the pottery one.

I'd love to know if either are real and verifiable.

The lesson is most likely real and applicable either way.

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5. Kye+1E[view] [source] 2025-12-06 18:21:17
>>neogod+Rs
My experience with writing, music, and photography is that I get better results trying a bunch of different things rather than focusing on one or a few. The quality is still variable, but the hit rate is much higher. I can then switch to polishing a batch of hits rather than trying to turn a single idea into a hit.
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