Know the game you are in

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I’ve read the book “The Infinite Game” by Simon Sinek recently, and it kept me thinking about the concept of finite and infinite game in my life. In a nutshell, there are two different games in this world: finite game and infinite game. 

Finite game has fixed rules, known player and agreed upon objectives. Football, baseball and 100m sprint for example are finite game. Fixed rules, known players and everyone play to score the most points or reach the finish line first.

Then there’s infinite game. In an infinite game the rules are changeable, there are known and unknown players who will join the game, and the objective for all players is to stay in the game as long as possible. There’s no winner or loser in infinite game, players join in if they decided to play, or drop out when they run out of resources or will to continue. Cold war is infinite game, business, marriage and our lives are infinite game.

Based upon the very definition, photography is definitely classified as infinite game. There are known and unknown photographers out there who create stunning photo, there’s no fixed rules in photography, and there’s no such thing as being No.1 in photography.

However, many photographers have a finite mindset when it comes to photography. They want to get more likes than others, they want to be No.1 in competition, they want to charge more for their services. In the end, many lost the motivation to continue when they didn’t reach their arbitrary target of being “No.1”, being better than the rest of their peers. So they gave up on photography altogether.

I think it is important to set your mindset correctly so that one can continue the journey in photography, enjoys it and not getting burned out in the process. It’s something for me to reflect upon as I ponder on how to move forward with my photography. Let’s see what will the future unfolds for me. Till then.

The dumbphone revolution

When Nokia (yes, your old pal from the past) was licensed to HMD Global, they started to release a series of dumbphone (or featured phone) to the market. Many were wondering why would a company made such a move when the market is clearly dominated by smartphones, but since then the sales of dumbphone has been increasing year on year. A surprise perhaps for most of us, as the dumbphone trend started to pick up steam and become a thing again. 

A search over the internet will bring you to all sorts of videos and blog posts, from average Joe to so-called influencers, raving over how much their life has improved ever since dumping the smartphone and switched to a dumbphone. I agree that the problem they cited are real, social media addiction, the endless scrolling over all sorts of meaningless content, the stress and competition from others who lived a much better lifestyle than yours, the list goes on. However, the root of the problem does not lie in the smartphone, rather it lies within you and me.

Smartphone is just a tool, a tool for us to communicate, to connect, to work and to play. It’s so powerful that it can literally does everything and anything. However, as the old saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. We need to be in charge to control the tool we used, otherwise we would end up being controlled by our tools, leading us to places where we shouldn’t belong. With smartphone in hand, it is our choice whether to use it for the good, or to let go and let it consume our mind and soul. I don’t think it’s right to put the blame on smartphone when we lack the will and discipline to control ourselves.

Having said that, I’m not saying swapping from smartphone to dumbphone is wrong. If it does help you to stay away from the source of stress and anxiety, by all means go ahead and do it. The key thing is for you to realize what is the real problem, otherwise switching to a dumbphone alone will not make any difference, as you will end up ditching it soon, or finding other ways to get consumed again by the dark side of the world wide web.

The never ending fanboism

Recently, there’s an article posted confirming that Nikon Z9 is using sensor made by Sony, and as all of us would have imagined, the internet gone crazy with comments like “Nikon Z9 is essentially a Sony”, “Nikon can’t do anything without Sony” and so on. Well, fanboism at its extreme, to be short. Regardless how much we have advanced in terms of mankind, there’s still a part of us that was being left behind… somehow.

From a company, business and operation point of view, there’s no such device in this world that rely solely on in-house design, development and all the way to production (okay, maybe there is, but it is very limited). Such vertical control and integration has its merit of course, as one company will have total control over their product design and quality. But in reality, this approach is far from feasible and practical in such time and age. For one, in-house component may not be the most cost effective choice. And then there are patents and technologies hold by other companies that could be far superior than what in-house could offer.

Take a look at iPhone for example, Apple designed the processor, but it is manufactured by company such as TSMC or Samsung. The camera sensors used were usually made by Sony as well. Not to mention all other components and parts within the iPhone came from all sorts of suppliers from all over the world. And ultimately, iPhone was assembled in China, in facilities of Foxconn, which also manufacture phones for other major brands. So in the end, is the iPhone an “Apple phone” or it isn’t?

Perhaps such business and operation explanation prove too hard for those fanboys to understand, or perhaps fanboys are just ignorant. Well, we are in the social media age anyway, where everyone believed they could just hide behind the screen and say whatever they like.

So is a Nikon Z9 a “Sony Z9” instead? I’ll leave it for you to judge it yourself.

Time for an upgrade?

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It’s been 5 years, that’s how long I have used my current iMac setup. Honestly, I don’t feel the need to upgrade or change despite so many new tech and gadgets released throughout the years. However, my iMac is giving me some minor issue lately with its screen, with some pinkish vignette glowing around the corners. Screen replacement is costly, connecting an iMac to an external display is not the best option as it takes up a lot of my desk space. In the end, I have started wondering if it is time to consider replacing it with something else.

I really enjoy using the iMac, its all-in-one form factor simply makes it one of the best desk setup you can get, but the screen problem I had prompted me to reconsider this. Plus, with hybrid work-from-home & office commute likely to be the norm, it makes sense for me to consider foregoing all-in-one and opt for modularity by getting an external display that plays well on both Windows and Mac system.

With that in mind, getting a mid range 4K display with a Mac Mini seems like the best options for me. I can hide the Mac Mini easily for a clean desk setup, connect the display to my office’s Windows laptop when I work-from-home, and continue to use some of the peripherals I’m currently using to keep my spending down to minimum. Why not the Mac Studio? Well, I don’t need that much of processing power, and Studio Display is out as it doesn’t play well with Windows machine.

I would love to wait until Apple releases a refreshed Mac Mini, but report seems to suggest it will only arrive next year, only time will tell. As prices are going up and stocks are lacking due to global chip shortage, not sure if it is the best time to make a purchase now. I think I will try to hold on to my iMac for as long as possible, if I need to do any colour correction work, I’ll just need to avoid placing the picture close to the corner of my screen. Otherwise, I’ll continue to live with it until I made my decision. Let’s see what the future holds. Till then.

Open Sesame

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The world has started opening up. Countries were easing border measures, allowing casual travel to resume. People around me have started planning for their trips. Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and more, the conversation gets lively again as people talk about where they are heading to next, gone are the days when everyone was busy sharing latest stats and fundings on the pandemic.

For me, I do not have any strong feeling towards the border reopening. Not sure why, maybe I just got myself used to not traveling, or I just didn’t want to put up high hopes that the new normal will stay? I wonder. Anyway, no plan to travel elsewhere this year other than heading back to my hometown in Malaysia. Maybe I will do a couple more trips to visit my friends and family, that’s about it.

“That’s because Japan has yet to open up for you, if it did I bet you would fly there immediately.” My friend joked, but no, I just don’t have the mood to travel for leisure this year, not yet, not even if Japan announces border reopening for foreign travellers. Not sure why, it’s not that I felt unsafe, maybe it’s the tedious procedure, I have no idea.

What I want this year is more me time to think and reflect, and perhaps do some soul searching. Still feel a little uneasy at times, be it life, work or anything in between. Need to pick myself up and start straightening things before I get suck into the downward spiral. Perhaps a little photography therapy is a good place to start, I hope I still remember how to operate it.

Alright, enough of ranting for this month. Let’s hope for the best for the remaining of 2022. Till then.