When The Chips Are Down, Keep Going

Welcome to?The?Art?of?The?Impossible, a weekly newsletter where I unearth five pieces?of?content which I hope will both inspire?and?embolden you.

PODCAST

I am afraid there is no podcast from me this week - I have been suffering with a very bad cold and didn’t want to hurt your ears with my blocked sinuses. Coming up on the pod though, before the series end, are episodes with the fantastic Sharmadean Reid and Yancey Strickler so keep an eye out for them.

In the mean time, I am recommended this…

McCartney: A Life in Lyrics is a podcast series of 12 episodes with Paul McCartney and poet Paul Muldoon - each one, part masterclass, part memoir. Listen here.

Whilst preparing and researching for their book - Paul McCartney: The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present - the two Pauls sat down and recorded many hours and hours of conversation covering the lyrics of over 150 of Paul’s incredible songs.

We can now listen to some of those fascinating conversations here where they discuss 12 of Paul’s most iconic songs, how they came to be, the meaning behind them etc. I thoroughly enjoyed this series and think you will too. Listen here.

Paul McCartney: The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present - buy the book here.

QUOTE

“There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.” ―?Robert Greene,?Mastery

INTERVIEW

Lester Chen interviews Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham. Allen was Executive Producer on iconic gaming franchises including Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Hearthstone. In this interview, we learn more about what motivated Allen to start Blizzard and creating iconic game franchises, the process of scaling from 5 to 50, finding his source of inspiration, and his advice for the next generation of builders.

Watch the interview here.

BOOK

Now The Chips Are Down: The BBC Micro by Alison Gazzard

I am looking forward to reading this book, especially as my interview with Steve Furber (Principal Designer of the BBC Micro, ARM microprocessor) remains one of my favourites.

The story of a pioneering microcomputer: its beginnings as part of a national Computer Literary Project, its innovative hardware, and its creative uses.

In 1982, the British Broadcasting Corporation launched its Computer Literacy Project, intended “to introduce interested adults to the world of computers and computing.” The BBC accompanied this initiative with television programs, courses, books, and software—an early experiment in multi-platform education. The BBC, along with Acorn Computers, also introduced the BBC Microcomputer, which would be at the forefront of the campaign.

The BBC Micro was designed to meet the needs of users in homes and schools, to demystify computing, and to counter the general pessimism among the media in Britain about technology. In this book, Alison Gazzard looks at the BBC Micro, examining the early capabilities of multi-platform content generation and consumption and the multiple literacies this approach enabled—not only in programming and software creation, but also in accessing information across a range of media, and in “do-it-yourself” computing. She links many of these early developments to current new-media practices.

Gazzard looks at games developed for the BBC Micro, including Granny's Garden, an educational game for primary schools, and Elite, the seminal space-trading game. She considers the shift in focus from hardware to peripherals, describing the Teletext Adapter as an early model for software distribution and the Domesday Project (which combined texts, video, and still photographs) as a hypermedia-like experience.

Gazzard's account shows the BBC Micro not only as a vehicle for various literacies but also as a user-oriented machine that pushed the boundaries of what could be achieved in order to produce something completely new.

Buy the book here.

FILM

Young Woman and the Sea

I say this all the time but it’s true - representation matters and the more inspiring films we see made like this one, the better.

Based on the extraordinary true story of American swimmer Trudy Ederle, the first woman to successfully swim the English Channel, August 6th 1926.

Ederle grew up in Manhattan where her father ran a butcher shop on?and learned to swim in?Highlands, New Jersey. Ederle later trained at the Women's Swimming Association (WSA). Ederle joined the club when she was only twelve and immediately took to learning the American crawl. The same year, she set her first world record in the 880-yard freestyle, becoming the youngest world record holder in swimming. She set eight more world records after that. In total, Ederle held 29 US national and world records from 1921 until 1925.

In 1925, Ederle turned professional. The same year she swam the 22 miles (35?km) from?Battery Park?to?Sandy Hook?in 7 hours and 11 minutes, a record time which stood for 81 years.

In 1925, the Women's Swimming Association sponsored?Helen Wainwright?and Ederle for an attempt at swimming across the English Channel. Helen Wainwright cancelled due to an injury, so Ederle decided to go to France on her own. She trained with?Jabez Wolffe, a swimmer who had attempted to swim the English Channel 22 times. On August 18, 1925, Ederle made her first attempt at swimming the Channel whereupon she was disqualified when Wolffe ordered another swimmer (who was keeping her company in the water), Ishak Helmy, to recover her from the water. She bitterly disagreed with Wolffe's decision and it was speculated that he did not want Ederle to succeed.

She returned to New York and began training with coach?Bill Burgess?who had successfully swum the Channel in 1911. Approximately one year after her first attempt, she was successful in swimming the Channel. She started at?Cape Gris-Nez?in France at 07:08 am on August 6, 1926, and came ashore at?Kingsdown, Kent, 14 hours and 34 minutes later.

Prior to Ederle, only five men had completed the swim across the English Channel, with the best time of 16 hours, 33 minutes by?Enrique Tirabocchi.

In this forthcoming film, Daisy Ridley stars as the accomplished swimmer - through the steadfast support of her older sister and supportive trainers, she overcame adversity and the animosity of a patriarchal society to rise through the ranks of the Olympic swimming team and complete the staggering achievement – a 21-mile treacherous route from France to England.

From Disney: trailer here - out in cinemas May 31st.

Thank you for reading?the?newsletter?and?for listening to?the?podcast, and?if you enjoy them, please do share with your network - my goal is to have these stories reach as many as possible so that others can be inspired too.

Until next time...

Danielle